Letter to the Editor

I believe that last week’s “Religion: Defined” article does hold some truth. I agree that a person’s religion can be anything that is important to him or her. Cars, money, work, or anything at all that takes precedence in a person’s life could be considered that person’s religion.

I also agree that “people find meaning to life by placing trust in the self and developing through individuation”. Where I begin to have trouble is the combination of these two statements, the claim that all religious experiences lead to a greater trust in the self and a greater distinction of the self from society. The argument presented in “Religion: Defined” is that “a Catholic who places trust in Christ is truly placing trust in himself by maintaining the faith and beliefs that are taught by the scripture, and thus he is developing individuation by unifying his trust in Christ with his personal integrity.” What this implies - it took me a little while to unravel it - is that Catholics are actually placing faith in their own faith and works. They trust that, by following the rules set forth in the Bible, they will reach heaven. Thus, according to the author, Catholics are no different than Wiccans who place their faith in the Mother Goddess. Each only trusts the works he performs.

This is true in many cases. Many people place faith in their faith, in the religious experiences they practice. This, however, is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible tells us that salvation is of God alone. It is a gift.

Even our faith is a gift from him. Nothing we can do will help us to reach heaven. According to the Bible, we, as humans, are incapable of any good deed. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6) Only by God working through us can we be saved.

This is the difference between the faith described in the Bible and that of the Wiccan. Where the Wiccan places all faith on practices he or she carries out, the faith of the Bible gives all the credit to God. When carried out according to Scripture, humans play only a minor role, if any at all, compared to the role of God. Humans do not work for God, presenting to Him our gifts at the end of the day and hoping He likes them enough to not strike us down. God works through us.

For her final paragraph, the author leaves us with the idea that science is in a battle against religion. Return to her primary assertion for a moment: “religious experiences can be anything that is of utmost importance to a person.” Could science not also fall under the classification of “religious experience”? Using the same logic applied to the Catholic and the Wiccan, the scientist who trusts “the facts, the data, [and] the studies” is actually only placing trust in himself, his intellect, and his ability to determine truth from falsehood.

Science is not in some kind of epic struggle with religion. Religion is the starting point of science. If people had not believed there to be some order to the universe, they would never have attempted to quantify it. If anything, science should be viewed as the rebellious, teenage child of religion. God does not fear science. He ordained it as a means for us to discover and understand more of His creation; thereby, giving us further reason to worship Him.



Caleb LeNoir

Computer Engineering

Class of 2008