LETTER : Easter message from Islam

Sir: Andrew Brown's retrospect of ten years' writing about religion shows that he may know about religion, but he doesn't know about irreligion.

He says that "it is demonstrably absurd to claim that the universe is meaningless"; it is not absurd to claim that the universe itself has no meaning, even if it contains beings who claim meanings. He says that "a sense of something which is simultaneously the ultimate mystery and the ultimate meaning is a common part of human experience"; many humans have no such experience. He says, "I have met many atheists and no one who does not believe in abstract ideas"; he has met me, and I don't.

And, like most other atheists, I am perfectly well aware that it is "not safe to torture anyone" without having to believe in Christianity or any other religion.

NICOLAS WALTER

Rationalist Press Association

London N1