The atheist/faithful conflict is nothing but a vicious circle and is being carried to extremes in the media. Believing or not believing is one’s personal business. However, letters appearing in The Times of Malta of 30 December have forced me to express my opinion regarding atheism.

There are those like Mr Casha who feel that God has to force himself upon us. I guess such atheists are suffering from the ‘doubting Thomas syndrome’ and must put their finger in the nail marks in order to believe (even then they’ll come up with some other argument). But I prefer to look upon God as wanting us to believe through self-conviction and not force himself upon us in a dictatorial way, which would raise the question of whether or not we have free will. Although for such people I have no absolute, tangible, empirical proof of God’s existence, yet I would like Mr Casha to think about incidents that significantly raises the benefit of the doubt in a supreme being’s favour − namely, miracles!

At Lourdes, a body of doctors (men of science) was set up to act as the devil’s advocate in the investigation of miracles. The Board of Doctors doesn’t come under ecclesiastical authority so the Church can’t be accused of manipulation and all records are unconditionally available. Seven thousand miracles have been claimed, but the Board renounced them all except for 67 − these 67 have absolutely no medical, scientific explanation and are therefore considered miracles, especially since the ‘cures’ were often spontaneous and associated with a place of religious significance.

Just one example: in 1962 Michele Vittori was diagnosed with a large cancerous tumour on his left hip; he visited Lourdes and at the anointing of the sick and after bathing in the water he suddenly felt better. In June 1963, his hip was found to be normal and the tumour had shrunk without the aid of surgery or treatment − such regeneration of the bone is medically impossible. After years of intensive investigation to rule out error or cheating, the Board of Doctors had no choice but to declare it a ‘miracle’.

Then there is the Fatima episode. Aside from the incident of the sun dancing and so forth, which sceptics attribute to mass hallucination, power of suggestion, UFOs and so on, there is also the prophecy aspect − three uneducated children said World War 1 would soon end (it did), a greater war would break out after strange lights are seen in the sky (it did, Hitler invaded Austria and a month before the aurora borealis was seen as far south as France, an extremely rare event), the fall of Communist Russia and, as some say, even the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul 2) How do sceptics like Mr Casha explain the accuracy of these predictions?

Then there are atheists like Mr Guillaumier who ridicule the ‘blind faith’ of believers in what the Church says and expresses his belief in one faith − science! I’d like to point out to him, and others like him, that he too is ‘blind’ and is no different from believers. First, science is never absolute; for example, their icon, Einstein, was proved wrong in his relativity theory by quantum physics, that there are things in existence that are faster than light, etc. Just like religion, science adjusts and changes as new facts emerge. Also, Mr Guillaumier seems to put ‘blind faith’ in the scientist Dawkins and relates the story of Dawkins being told by another scientist, Watson, that scientists are generally atheists − really, Mr Guillaumier? And where is your proof of this? Did Watson carry out a survey? Did he have a control group − maybe it wasn’t science that opened up their lives to atheism, maybe it was another factor and would have ended up atheists even if they were street-sweepers! I know many people of science in Malta − as far as I know, each and every one believes in God, though a couple are not regular church-goers! So your argument and that of Dawkins and Watson and other like you is based on your own ‘blind faith’ or ‘blind stubbornness’ and is not presented in any scientific manner.

The conclusion is let everyone respect each other’s beliefs or lack of them. Live and let live and let’s stop this tit-for-tat nonsense. 

Joe Falzon

QALA