Last week, someone wrote this letter to a newspaper:
Dear editor, A few days ago I found a kitten on the sidewalk at the end of Cotton Street. It was dehydrated and very weak. It had laid down on the sidewalk to die. It has a 50 percent chance of survival. I am doing everything I can to save it. To the person who committed this horrendous inhumane act, I have a question for you. Are you an atheist?
It was cut off there. I wasn’t sure if the writer was serious or not… The full letter wasn’t available until today.
Conclusion: Bigot.
Here’s that full letter:
Dear editor,
A few days ago I found a kitten on the sidewalk at the end of Cotton Street. It was dehydrated and very weak. It had laid down on the sidewalk to die. It has a 50 percent chance of survival. I am doing everything I can to save it. To the person who committed this horrendous inhumane act, I have a question for you. Are you an atheist? Because people who believe in God do not commit inhumane acts against animals. Instead they show love, compassion and commitment from their hearts toward their pets. You will pay for the evil sins you have committed against this innocent animal. I would give this some serious thought. Judgement day is coming.
Marion English
Wrong about atheists being evil.
Wrong about all believers in God being humane to animals.
Oh. And wrong on the spelling of “judgment.”
A trifecta of ignorance topped with a heap of idiocy.
Siamang suggests a revised letter that would never have run in the paper (or, if it did, it would’ve gotten a bigger reaction):
“To the person who committed this horrendous inhumane act, I have a question for you. Are you a Jew? Because people who believe in Christ do not commit inhumane acts against animals.”
He also includes a well-written letter to Marion English. Here’s a part of it:
I have a question for you, Mr. English: Where did you pick up your attitude toward atheists? Was it your church? Does your church teach you to hate, distrust and impugn the morality of atheists? If not, where did you learn this? Who taught you the lie that only a godless atheist would kill kittens out of spite or a lack of empathy? Is this how you treat people with different beliefs from you? Is this the standard of Christian behavior, to accuse innocents of crimes merely because they have different beliefs? To smear an entire cross-section of the population because of a crime you merely imagine must have been committed by one of our number? Is this showing Compassion to All?
Nicely said.
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
