Critique my Letter to the Editor

[Omega-185]

Yesterday this editorial appeared in the local paper. Needless to say I was less than pleased with some of the things said in the editorial so I have written this letter to the editor about the editorial.

After reading the May 29th edition of the Times Colonist I must say I was disappointed by the quality of journalism displayed in the Editorial entitled “Hitchens brilliant, but wrong on dangers of religion” by Mark Milke. When reading said editorial several factual errors jumped out at me as well as a few logical fallacies that are part of a smear campaign against atheist.

Perhaps the most obvious error was Mr. Milke’s claim that Hitler was an atheist. While the Myth that Hitler was an atheist is surprisingly common I would have expected that a paper such as the Times Colonist would double check its facts before printing any article or editorial. Hitler was not an atheist but in fact a Christian. Hitler routinely and frequently declared his faith in a Christian God as can be seen by his writing and speeches. A little research turns up quotes like this for proof of Hitler’s religion:

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." -Adolf Hitler

"Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise." -Adolf Hitler

Add to these quotes the fact that Hitler was raised a Roman Catholic and was an Alter Boy and a very clear picture of Hitler’s true religion is formed. It should be noted that I am in no way suggesting Christians are immoral because one Christian was immoral

I am also distressed by Mr. Milke’s use of dishonest logical fallacies when dealing with Stalin’s religion. While it is common knowledge that Stalin was an atheist it does not mean all atheists are like Stalin. Mr. Milke either inadvertently or on purpose used a Guilt by Association fallacy regarding Stalin. By use that fallacy Mr. Milke was implying that because Stalin was an atheist and did many immoral things other atheist are also immoral. This would be like claiming that because of the Inquisitions all Christians are immoral and go around killing people because they don’t share the same religion.

Another issue of concern is Mr. Milke’s assertion that morality requires a God. This is one of the most used attacks against atheism out there and I quite frankly am getting tired of it. Numerous ancient cultures from around the world were able to form a system of morality that in many ways is identical to our own western morality with out a Judeo-Christian religion. The Greeks had democracy, science and philosophy well be for Jesus’ time and Confucius had his own system of morality that included the golden rule before Jesus was even born. Confucius got a few things right that even Jesus missed including the idea that authority is a two way street, which means that followers should obey their leaders but leaders must act in a way to be worthy of their follower’s obedience which is the core principle in democracy.

Next time the Times Colonist decides to publish an article or editorial like this one I sincerely hope that all the Facts will be double checked before being printed. I also hope that in the future this paper will no longer publish editorials that are slanderous to atheists.

This is my first letter to the editor. Thoughts? Opinions? Criticisms?

Also I want to thank Mike Wong for his great site, it was a big help with this.

[Pezzoni]

I made a few changes to the text in the article, as well as fixing some grammatical and spelling errors, although I don't know if it is the sort of thing you are aiming for.

I'll go back and fix the errors in the origional article as well, should you not like or want my changes

The modifed letter:

After reading the May 29th edition of the Times Colonist I must say I was disappointed by the quality of journalism displayed in the Editorial entitled “Hitchens brilliant, but wrong on dangers of religion” by Mark Milke. When reading said editorial several factual errors jumped out at me as well as a few logical fallacies, making the article appear as being part of a smear campaign against atheistic beliefs.

Perhaps the most obvious error was Mr. Milke’s claim that Hitler was an atheist. While this myth is surprisingly common, I would have expected that a paper such as the Times Colonist would double check its facts before printing any article or editorial. Hitler was not an atheist, but in fact a Christian. Hitler routinely and frequently declared his faith in a Christian God as can be seen by his writing and speeches. A little research turns up quotes like this for proof of Hitler’s religion:
"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
"Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise."

Add to these quotes the fact that Hitler was raised a Roman Catholic and was an Altar Boy, and a perhaps more accurate representation of Hitler’s true religious beliefs may be formed. It should be noted that I am in no way subscribing to the logical fallacy of suggesting Christians are immoral , simply because a prominent historical figure was.
On the other hand, Mr Milke does appear subscribe to this logical fallacy, as can be seem when he discusses Stalin’s religion. While it is common knowledge that Stalin was an atheist, it does not mean all atheists are like Stalin. Mr. Milke either inadvertently or on purpose used an example of a Guilt by Association fallacy regarding Stalin. By use of that fallacy Mr. Milke was implying that because Stalin was an atheist and did many immoral things, other atheists are also immoral. This would akin to claiming that because of the Inquisitions, all Christians are immoral and are happy to kill those who do not share their beliefs.
Another issue of concern is Mr. Milke’s assertion that morality requires a God. This is one of the most used attacks against atheism out there, and I quite frankly, both I, and many other atheists are getting tired of it. Numerous ancient cultures from around the world were able to form a system of morality that in many ways is identical to our own western morality without a Judeo-Christian religion. The Greeks had democracy, science and philosophy well before Jesus’ time and Confucius had his own system of morality that included the golden rule before Jesus was even born. Confucius got a few things right that even Jesus missed; including the idea that authority is a two way street, which means that followers should obey their leaders but leaders must act in a way to be worthy of their follower’s obedience: a core principle in democracy.

Next time the Times Colonist decides to publish an article or editorial like this one I sincerely hope they will at least make an effort to check their facts before printing blatant untruths and misrepresentations.

[Pezzoni]

The corrected origional:

After reading the May 29th edition of the Times Colonist I must say I was disappointed by the quality of journalism displayed in the Editorial entitled “Hitchens brilliant, but wrong on dangers of religion” by Mark Milke. When reading said editorial, several factual errors jumped out at me as well as a few logical fallacies that are part of a smear campaign against atheists.

Perhaps the most obvious error was Mr. Milke’s claim that Hitler was an atheist. While the Myth that Hitler was an atheist is surprisingly common, I would have expected that a paper such as the Times Colonist would double check its facts before printing any article or editorial. Hitler was not an atheist, but in fact a Christian. Hitler routinely and frequently declared his faith in a Christian God as can be seen by his writing and speeches. A little research turns up quotes like this for proof of Hitler’s religion:
"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
"Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise."

Add to these quotes the fact that Hitler was raised a Roman Catholic and was an Alter Boy, and a very clear picture of Hitler’s true religion can be formed. It should be noted that I am in no way suggesting Christians are immoral because one Christian was immoral.

I am also distressed by Mr. Milke’s use of dishonest logical fallacies when dealing with Stalin’s religion. While it is common knowledge that Stalin was an atheist. it does not mean all atheists are like Stalin. Mr. Milke either inadvertently or on purpose used a Guilt by Association fallacy regarding Stalin. By use of that fallacy, Mr. Milke was implying that because Stalin was an atheist and did many immoral things, other atheists are also immoral. This would be like claiming that because of the Inquisitions, all Christians are immoral and kill people because they don’t share the same religion.

Another issue of concern is Mr. Milke’s assertion that morality requires a God. This is one of the most used attacks against atheism out there, and I quite frankly am getting tired of it. Numerous ancient cultures from around the world were able to form a system of morality that in many ways is identical to our own western morality without a Judeo-Christian religion. The Greeks had democracy, science and philosophy well before Jesus’ time and Confucius had his own system of morality that included the golden rule before Jesus was even born. Confucius got a few things right that even Jesus missed; including the idea that authority is a two way street, which means that followers should obey their leaders, but leaders must act in a way to be worthy of their follower’s obedience, which is a core principle in democracy.

Next time the Times Colonist decides to publish an article or editorial like this one, I sincerely hope that all the Facts will be double checked before being printed. I also hope that in the future this paper will no longer publish editorials that are slanderous to atheists.

It's very possible that I've missed things, or made innapropriate or bad changes though

[Trogdor]

I suggest changing the end a bit. Your use of the Greeks and Confusious as examples are really only good in proving that no Judeo-Christian religions are needed for morality to exist, not that morality can exist without any religion.

Point out that no god or religion is needed to call human suffering evil. That to an athiest it is even more evil than it would be to someone of faith, because we don't believe that people can eventually reach a perfect afterlife or be reincarnated.

[Spacebeard]

I suggest changing the end a bit. Your use of the Greeks and Confusious as examples are really only good in proving that no Judeo-Christian religions are needed for morality to exist, not that morality can exist without any religion.

I'd just alter it to clarify that the Greek and Confucian systems of morality were independent of their religion. Sure, they had religion, but they didn't have the idea that the source of all morality comes from obeying the commands of Zeus or whoever. The Greek gods themselves acted capriciously and immorally, and I've always thought their mythology fuly acknowledged that instead of insisting that gods are perfect.

I might also add that Germany's majority Christian population, and the Catholic church in Rome, supported Hitler, and that to protest that "Hitler wasn't a true Christian because he acted immorally!" is a "No True Scotsman" fallacy and would also mean calling the Spanish Inquisition and medieval witch hunters "false Christians."

[Omega-185]

Here is my second draft of my letter:

After reading the May 29th edition of the Times Colonist I must say I was disappointed by the quality of journalism displayed in the Editorial entitled “Hitchens brilliant, but wrong on dangers of religion” by Mark Milke. When reading said editorial, several factual errors jumped out at me as well as a few logical fallacies that are part of a smear campaign against atheists.

Perhaps the most obvious error was Mr. Milke’s claim that Hitler was an atheist. While the Myth that Hitler was an atheist is surprisingly common, I would have expected that a paper such as the Times Colonist would double check its facts before printing any article or editorial. Hitler was not an atheist, but in fact a Christian. Hitler routinely and frequently declared his faith in a Christian God as can be seen by his writing and speeches. A little research turns up quotes like this for proof of Hitler’s religion:

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
"Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise."

Add to these quotes the fact that Hitler was raised a Roman Catholic and was an Alter Boy, and a very clear picture of Hitler’s true religion can be formed. It should be noted that I am in no way suggesting Christians are immoral because one Christian was immoral.

I am also distressed by Mr. Milke’s use of dishonest logical fallacies when dealing with Stalin’s religion. While it is common knowledge that Stalin was an atheist. it does not mean all atheists are like Stalin. Mr. Milke either inadvertently or on purpose used an example of a Guilt by Association fallacy regarding Stalin. By use of that fallacy, Mr. Milke was implying that because Stalin was an atheist and did many immoral things, other atheists are also immoral. This would be like claiming that because of the Inquisitions, all Christians are immoral and kill people because they don’t share the same religion.

Another issue of concern is Mr. Milke’s assertion that morality requires a God and somehow atheism is inherently immoral. This is one of the most used attacks against atheism out there, and I quite frankly am getting tired of it. Numerous ancient cultures from around the world were able to form a system of morality that in many ways is identical to our own western morality without a Judeo-Christian religion. The Greeks had democracy, science and philosophy well before Jesus’ time and Confucius had his own system of morality that included the golden rule before Jesus was even born. Confucius got a few things right that even Jesus missed; including the idea that authority is a two way street, which means that followers should obey their leaders, but leaders must act in a way to be worthy of their follower’s obedience, which is a core principle in democracy. To both the Greeks and Confucius religion and morality were independent of each other. The Greek’s morality came from their philosophers not their Gods as shown by the fact that their Gods often acted capriciously and immorally. Confucius on the other hand believed in an impersonal heaven that showed no regard for human actions.

Next time the Times Colonist decides to publish an article or editorial like this one, I sincerely hope that all the Facts will be double checked before being printed. I also hope that in the future this paper will no longer publish editorials that are slanderous to atheists.

And in regards to Trogdor's suggestion here is an alternate paragraph on atheist morality:

Another issue of concern is Mr. Milke’s assertion that morality requires a God and somehow atheism is inherently immoral. This is one of the most used attacks against atheism out there, and I quite frankly am getting tired of it. No God or Religion is needed to see that human suffering is evil. As the authors Declaration of Independence of our neighbours to the South put it these truths are “self evident” and therefore need neither God nor religion to tell us what is obviously right and what is wrong. Anyone can see that human suffering is wrong but to an atheist human suffering is even more evil than it is to a person of faith for the simple reason that to an atheist this life is all we get, there is no place like heaven for people who have been abused to go when they die. To a person of faith when some one has their rights abused they lose out on this life but they have the after life to look forward to. To an atheist this is the only life we get so any abuse of rights is that much worse.

[Prozac the Robert]

You might be better leaving your paragraph on Stalin out and stressing the morality stuff. After all, the only reason Stalin was brought up by that guy was to make his argument about the necesity for religious morality.

So maybe: make the point about morality first (possibly with a stronger worded begining than "Another issue of concern is"), and afterwards simply point out that it is easy to tell that Hitchens is more good than Stalin, and that the vast majority of athiests can see that clearly without any help from god.

[wolveraptor]

Another issue of concern is Mr. Milke’s assertion that morality requires a God and somehow atheism is inherently immoral. This is one of the most used attacks against atheism out there, and I quite frankly am getting tired of it. No God or Religion is needed to see that human suffering is evil. As the authors Declaration of Independence of our neighbours to the South put it these truths are “self evident” and therefore need neither God nor religion to tell us what is obviously right and what is wrong. Anyone can see that human suffering is wrong but to an atheist human suffering is even more evil than it is to a person of faith for the simple reason that to an atheist this life is all we get, there is no place like heaven for people who have been abused to go when they die. To a person of faith when some one has their rights abused they lose out on this life but they have the after life to look forward to. To an atheist this is the only life we get so any abuse of rights is that much worse.

I might change some of the more awkward sentence structures and add some illative like so:

Another issue of concern is Mr. Milke’s assertion that morality requires a God and somehow atheism is inherently immoral. This is one of the most used attacks against atheism out there, and I quite frankly am getting tired of it. No God or Religion is needed to see that human suffering is evil. As the authors of the US Declaration of Independence sagaciously declaimed, these truths are “self evident” and need neither God nor religion to tell us what is obviously right and what is wrong. In fact, to an atheist, earthly abuses are magnified for the sole reason that this is our only life. To waste a life in suffering is abominable to the faithless. A theist, by contrast, believes in the concept of multiple lives (whether they be through reincarnation or heaven), and so cannot logically take the same intensified view of suffering as the atheist. Without any afterlife to look forward to, life becomes more precious, more valuable, and more inviolable. Portraying it any other way is simply false.

[Omega-185]

Ok I have taken some of the suggestions and incorperated it into my third draft:

After reading the May 29th edition of the Times Colonist I must say I was disappointed by the quality of journalism displayed in the Editorial entitled “Hitchens brilliant, but wrong on dangers of religion” by Mark Milke. When reading said editorial, several factual errors jumped out at me as well as a few logical fallacies that are part of a smear campaign against atheists.

I am deeply concerned by Mr. Milke’s assertion that morality requires a God and somehow atheism is inherently immoral. This is one of the most used attacks against atheism out there, and I quite frankly am getting tired of it. No God or Religion is needed to see that human suffering is evil. As the authors of the US Declaration of Independence sagaciously declaimed, these truths are “self evident” and need neither God nor religion to tell us what is obviously right and what is wrong. In fact, to an atheist, earthly abuses are magnified for the sole reason that this is our only life. To waste a life in suffering is abominable to the faithless. A theist, by contrast, believes in the concept of multiple lives (whether they be through reincarnation or heaven), and so cannot logically take the same intensified view of suffering as the atheist. Without any afterlife to look forward to, life becomes more precious, more valuable, and more inviolable. Portraying it any other way is simply false.

Mr. Milke also engages in a Guilt by Association fallacy when says Hitler and Stalin were atheists. Leaving aside the problems with the Hitler claim until latter in this letter there are still problems in his claim. By doing this Mr. Milke says an entire demographic of the population should be judged on what one of their numbers did. Does this mean that we can now judge all Christians as immoral because the KKK were Christians?

An obvious error of Mr. Milke’s is claim that Hitler was an atheist. While the Myth that Hitler was an atheist is surprisingly common, I would have expected that a paper such as the Times Colonist would double check its facts before printing any article or editorial. Hitler was not an atheist, but in fact a Christian. Hitler routinely and frequently declared his faith in a Christian God as can be seen by his writing and speeches. A little research turns up quotes like this for proof of Hitler’s religion:

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
"Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise."

Add to these quotes the fact that Hitler was raised a Roman Catholic and was an Alter Boy, and a very clear picture of Hitler’s true religion can be formed. It should be noted that I am in no way suggesting Christians are immoral because one Christian was immoral.

Next time the Times Colonist decides to publish an article or editorial like this one, I sincerely hope that all the Facts will be double checked before being printed. I also hope that in the future this paper will no longer publish editorials that are slanderous to atheists.

[Omega-185]

Getto edit: I did some research into the author of the Editorial and not supprisingly he is a christian conservitive.

[Vendetta]

Ok I have taken some of the suggestions and incorperated it into my third draft:

After reading the May 29th edition of the Times Colonist I must say I was disappointed by the quality of journalism displayed in the Editorial No need to capitalise entitled “Hitchens brilliant, but wrong on dangers of religion” by Mark Milke. When reading said editorial You may wish to change this to "Whilst reading". Also consider another word instead of "editorial". You used that last sentence. Article, maybe., several factual errors jumped out at me as well as a few logical fallacies that are part of a smear campaign against atheists Careful here. This sounds like you are attacking the author of the peice. You could consider "often found in smear campaigns against atheists".

I am deeply concerned by Mr. Milke’s assertion that morality requires a God and somehow atheism is inherently immoral. This is one of the most used Doesn't scan well. Try "commonly used" or just "common" attacks against atheism out there Out where? You may wish to end the sentence after "atheism", and I quite frankly am getting tired of it. No God or Religion is needed to see that human suffering is evil. As the authors of the US Declaration of Independence sagaciously declaimed, these truths are “self evident” and need neither God nor religion to tell us what is obviously right and what is wrong. In fact, to an atheist, I'd consider inserting something like "the severity of" earthly abuses are magnified for the sole reason that this is our only life. To waste a life in suffering is abominable to the faithless. A theist, by contrast, believes in the concept of multiple lives (whether they be through reincarnation or heaven), and so cannot logically take the same intensified view of suffering as the atheist. Without any afterlife to look forward to, life becomes more precious, more valuable, and more inviolable. Portraying it any other way is simply false.

Mr. Milke also engages in a Guilt by Association fallacy when says Hitler and Stalin were atheists. Leaving aside the problems with the Hitler claim until latter in this letter there are still problems in his claim. The next paragraph? This just seems like padding, consider cutting it By doing this Mr. Milke says an entire demographic of the population should be judged on what one of their numbers did. Does this mean that we can now judge all Christians as immoral because the KKK were Christians? I'd reword this to something like "If we were to pass judgement on entire groups by the actions of only a few of their members, surely all Christians would be held as immoral because the Ku Klux Klan shares their faith

An obvious error Now this paragraph is quite late on, you may wish to start it with something like "A further error in the article" and drop using the author's name again of Mr. Milke’s is to claim that Hitler was an atheist. While the Myth Don't capitalise this that Hitler was an atheist is surprisingly common, I would have expected that a paper such as the Times Colonist would double check its It's. However, consider "the facts" not "it's facts". The newspaper does not own the facts, it merely prints them facts before printing any article or editorial, and it disappoints me to see such a glaring error go to press. Hitler was not an atheist, but in fact a Christian. Hitler routinely and frequently Redundancy, pick either "routinely" or "frequently" and stick with it, you don't need both declared his faith in a Christian God as can be seen by his writing and speeches. A little research turns up quotes like this these for as proof of Hitler’s religion:

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
"Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise."

Add to these quotes the fact that Hitler was raised a Roman Catholic and was an Alter Altar, and you don't need to capitalise altar boy Boy, and a very clear picture of Hitler’s true religion can be formed. It should be noted that I am in no way suggesting Christians are immoral because one Christian was immoral.

Next time the Times Colonist decides to publish an article or editorial like this one, I sincerely hope that all the Facts Don't capitalise this will be double checked before being printed. I also hope that in the future this paper will no longer publish editorials that are slanderous to atheists. Accusatory. This may be acceptable on SDnet, but the newspaper will probably just not print the letter for it.

I've marked some of the more glaring grammatical and stylistic problems in red, just like teacher. My suggestions are in orange. This is probably going to look hideous on some of your themes.

Also, you're using the original author's name a lot, and it looks awkward. Consider replacing some of these with some pronouns. "He" can be a very useful little word.

[Spacebeard]

I think Vendetta has it backwards when he corrects you for using "its": you're using the possessive pronoun, not the contraction "it is". However, I agree that you should say "the facts" instead.

Also, the linkage between your third and fourth paragraphs feels weak to me. I might reorgnize them so their structure looks something like this (of course, I'm making assumptions about the original article without having read it):

I. The most grievous error in the column came when Mr. Milke suggests that we should judge the morality of all athiests by the actions of Stalin and Hitler.
II. First of all, Hitler was by no means an atheist. It disappoints me to me to see a newspaper with the reputation of the Times Colonist allowing such a glaring error to go to press, because if the editors had double-checked the historical record, they would have found many quotes like these as proof of Hitler's faith:
a. "Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." (source)
b. "Anyone who dares lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise." (source)
III. They would also have discovered that Hitler was raised as a devout Roman Catholic, and had been an altar boy in his youth. Are we to judge all Christians by the actions of Hitler, as Mr. Milke would have us judge all atheists by the actions of Stalin? To do so would be to practice "guilt by association", which is both illogical and immoral.

I also agree that you should remove the accusation of slander. They might not print it, like Vendetta said, and also it could be twisted into implying that you're pushing for censorship.

[Omega-185]

I want to thank everyone who has help with this letter. I constantly struggle with grammar, spelling and writing sentences that are not horribly clunky and unwieldy.

Here is my fourth and hopefully Final draft with an alternate ending paragraph:

After reading the May 29th edition of the Times Colonist I must say I was disappointed by the quality of journalism displayed in the editorial entitled “Hitchens brilliant, but wrong on dangers of religion” by Mark Milke. Whilst reading said article, several factual errors jumped out at me as well as a few logical fallacies that are often found in smear campaigns against atheists.

I am deeply concerned by Mr. Milke’s assertion that morality requires a God and somehow atheism is inherently immoral. This is one of the most common attacks against atheism and I quite frankly am getting tired of it. No God or Religion is needed to see that human suffering is evil. As the authors of the US Declaration of Independence sagaciously declaimed, these truths are “self evident” and need neither God nor religion to tell us what is obviously right and what is wrong. In fact, to an atheist, the severity of earthly abuses are magnified for the sole reason that this is our only life. To waste a life in suffering is abominable to the faithless. A theist, by contrast, believes in the concept of multiple lives (whether they be through reincarnation or heaven), and so cannot logically take the same intensified view of suffering as the atheist. Without any afterlife to look forward to, life becomes more precious, more valuable, and more inviolable. Portraying it any other way is simply false.

Mr. Milke also engages in a Guilt by Association fallacy when says Hitler and Stalin were atheists. If we were to pass judgement on entire groups based only on the actions of a few of their members, then surely are Christians would be held as immoral because the Ku Klux Clan shares their faith

An other significant error in Mr. Milke’s article is the claim that Hitler was an atheist. While the myth that Hitler was an atheist is surprisingly common, I would have expected that a paper such as the Times Colonist would double check the facts before printing any article or editorial and it is disappointing to see such an error go to the press. Hitler was not an atheist, but in fact a Christian. Hitler routinely declared his faith in a Christian God as can be seen by his writing and speeches. A little research turns up quotes like these as proof of Hitler’s religion:

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
"Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise."

Add to these quotes the fact that Hitler was raised a Roman Catholic and was an alter boy, and a very clear picture of Hitler’s true religion can be formed. It should be noted that I am in no way suggesting Christians are immoral because one Christian was immoral.

In a country such as Canada that has a history of tolerance towards other beliefs I am distressed to see atheism as looked down upon and to see articles like this one published claiming that an atheist can not be moral because they do not believe in a God. In the future I sincerely hope that the Times Colonist will double check all the facts before sending any article to the press and I also hope that the Editorial staff will carefully consider whether or not to publish any article that portrays a minority in a negative light with out a good reason.

Spacebeard: I did have a link to a scan of the original article in my OP.

[Vendetta]

No God or Religion is needed to see that human suffering is evil.

No capitalisation on religion. It isn't a proper noun.

Ku Klux Clan shares their faith

KKK, remember?

I also hope that the Editorial staff

Editorial, again, not a proper noun. No capitalisation.

[Spacebeard]

Spacebeard: I did have a link to a scan of the original article in my OP.

Oops. Okay, I've read it now. The notion that the terms "good" and "evil" are "borrowed from religion" is simply ludicrous, and I think for that reason it might have been better to leave in the bit about the Greeks (since their gods certainly didn't set any "moral standard"; they frequently acted immorally).

Some typos:

I am distressed to see atheism as looked down upon and to see articles like this one published claiming that an atheist can not be moral because they do not believe in a God.

Replace the bolded "as" with "so", and in the second bolded phrase, either replace "they" with "he" or "she", or change "an atheist" to "atheists".

Add to these quotes the fact that Hitler was raised a Roman Catholic and was an alter boy

"Altar", not "alter".

In fact, to an atheist, the severity of earthly abuses are magnified for the sole reason that this is our only life.

Change "are" to "is": the subject is "severity", not "abuses".

An other significant error in Mr. Milke’s article is the claim that Hitler was an atheist.

"Another", not "an other".

In the future I sincerely hope that the Times Colonist will double check all the facts before sending any article to the press and I also hope that the Editorial staff will carefully consider whether or not to publish any article that portrays a minority in a negative light with out a good reason.

"Without", not "with out".

[Talanth]

It's probably useless to you but you mentioned in the original draft about morality outside of the Judeo-Christian vision of god. I'm a Hindu myself, although not by birth, so obviously I have a rather different view of any possible god. The main Hindu god, Brahmen, is almost identical to the Deist view of god: the universe in it's entirity, as a living, thinking being. From this I have always taken morality to mean that which harms Brahmen the least, so it's wrong to kill someone as by doing this you are harming a part of the universe, and by reflection, harming a part of yourself.

This probably the traditional way of looking at things, but as I said I was not born into this religion so I do not have the history behind me.

[Patrick Degan]

One thing: newspaper editors like letters which are short and to the point. The letters' section is, unfortunately, not the place for complex debate, which is an advantage for morons who can tap out "Hitler the Evil Atheist = ALL athiests are Evil" formulations. Small town papers are especially receptive to idiotic drivel like that, as it reflects the prejudices of the editors and/or the community they're printing for.