Published: June 23, 2009 09:40 pm      

Letters to the editor - Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Wind, solar energy isn’t cost-effective

I would like to respond to the letter on wind and solar energy on the Opinion page June 16.

The writer believes that if Congress continued on the clean energy parade, then we would see an increase in the number of jobs. What the writer does not realize is that the cost of funding these programs would not be cost-effective in the slightest.

The writer believes that the automotive industry is a dead-end road, growth-wise. However, scientists have recently started experimenting with making cars that get 50-100 miles to the gallon. Is this not progress?

I recently saw an electric car driving down the road. If car companies can continue to improve on these types of cars, new jobs would come and the cost to the government would not be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

If Congress decided to renew its interest in wind and solar industry, then the deficit the government already faces would increase exponentially. I am tired of people who are not educated on the subject and the negative aspects of what they are suggesting, talking as if they know something.

I am not suggesting that we abandon wind and solar energy altogether, but that we wait until a time when we can afford it. The government currently has a deficit that is upwards of $11 trillion. Do we really want to add to that?

What the writer fails to understand is that the auto industry will return to its former prosperity. It might take a little while, but good things come to those who wait.

Alex Watkins

Kokomo



Atheists aren’t societal dangers

Are atheists the greatest evil in all of the world? I know that atheists are generally a disliked group, but I don’t think most would say that they are the biggest evil out there. More so than murders, rapists and armed robbers? In fact, the average atheist is a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen and often are people who you might think of as good Christians.

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, outgoing Anglican archbishop of Westminster Cathedral in the UK, stated that the lack of faith was the “greatest of evils.” Now as an atheist, I do not think that my “sin” is on the level of a murderer or rapist. If a God exists, which I do not believe is so, I do not believe that such a being that gave me a mind and reasoning skills would be angry at my reaching a conclusion based on those abilities, even if I am wrong. My non-belief harms no one.

Non-belief does not lead to great social problems. The saying, “there are no atheists in foxholes” should actually be, “there’s no or few atheists in prisons.”

This is not to say that people are not helped by Christianity and that Christianity has not accomplished many things for specific individuals, but the idea that non-belief and atheists pose a harm to society in the opinion of the good cleric along with others, is simply a myth. What is in fact dangerous to society is those who show no empathy to others or are driven by a rigid ideology, be it secular or religious.

So, if one finds out their neighbor or co-worker is an atheist, there is no reason to believe that the devil is leading him/her astray (that goes against the notion of free will by the way) or even that they are in rebellion against a deity (one can’t rebel against what one doesn’t believe in), but that they, just like you and everyone else, are just people trying to raise a family and be a productive citizen as much as everyone else but with a differing opinion on religion.

Robert Snipes

Kokomo