CONSIDER TOLSTOY FOR ILLUMINATION

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Consider Tolstoy for illumination

With reference to F O Hipwell's letter (Mailbox, July 3), I recommend that he reads part two of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, in which he debates the nature of power and whether there is a deity.

He states that if the will of every man were free, all history would be a series of disconnected accidents.

People with expanded awareness, such as writers, have given their interpretations of the mysteries of life, but all experiences are those of one individual – i.e. "two men looked through prison bars, one saw mud and one saw stars".

Shakespeare covers life in all its facets in his plays and sonnets. "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (Hamlet)

Wordsworth comes to the conclusion "And I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts, a sense of sublime, of something for more deeply interfused." (Above Tintern Abbey)

In searching for the God particle, may research bring answers.

Maureen Harrison, Broughton Astle

BELIEVERS AND ATHEISTS ARE HAVING DIALOGUE

Here's Allan Hayes's First Person column from today's Leicester Mercury:

 

Believers and atheists are having dialogue

In his column last week, Bishop Tim wrote: "I long for the time when people of faith and committed atheists do not feel the need to insult each other or to accuse each other of holding a particular position because of some inadequacy." That time is now, and it has been here for many years: atheist and religious people have been having amicable and constructive discussions in Leicester and nationally for a long time. I am surprised that he seems unaware of this.

I would welcome a public discussion with him. Nothing shows better the need for such discussion than his later remark:

"It was Shakespeare who wrote in Macbeth of life as 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'. That, I suppose, sums up the atheist position."

"Told by an idiot": Is this not a little insulting?

A wonderful opportunity is to hand: the bishop would be very welcome to attend, and even run a workshop at, the coming national Sea of Faith Conference to be held at Leicester University (July 22 to 24, www.sofn.org.uk). He would meet some very agreeable and non-insulting atheists (I happen myself to be a trustee and local convener for the network); some of them would be Christians.

But what does being an atheist tell us about a person? Does it imply that he or she is not a good person? Of course not – I am sure that the Bishop will agree with this.

As for meaning – Bishop Tim is concerned about this – well, I think that we make meaning for ourselves and for one another. At 78 years of age with children and grandchildren and a wonderful world, my life is full of meaning and I still have much to do and be remembered for.

And, making more use of Shakespeare, this time from Hamlet: I am free of "the dread of something after death, the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveller returns".

The Sea of Faith Network, now a national organisation with international connections, is in fact a local product – another example, along with the Secular Society, of Leicester radicalism. It was conceived in a pub in Barrow-on-Soar in 1987 by a group of (mainly) Anglican clergy. Most of its annual conferences have been at Leicester University. Controversial from the start, with its assertion that "religion is a human creation" it has stood for a more open attitude towards the exploration of theological issues.

I prefer to describe myself as a humanist, committed to the welfare of humanity and the view that we are solely responsible for our own well-being and future: I am a trustee of the national body, the British Humanist Association.