Letterbox (December 2025)
Patriotic flag shows evolution of Earth life
I decided to create a patriotic flag not unlike so many of the other flags favored by the anarchist or the authoritarian or the Christian nationalist right.
The stars in the canton of this flag have embedded text stating “An Appeal to Reason” (not heaven), whereas a generic evolutionary “Tree of Life” stands in place of the six white strips of the field. The root of the tree at the lower hoist end has a place marking for the “Last Universal Common Ancestor” (LUCA) of all cellular life, which existed roughly 4 billion years ago (4 BYA), while the upper fly end has a place marking the time when “Mankind Invents the God Story” (MIGS) near the tip of the upper branch, on the opposite end of the tree, much closer to current time.
This flag highlights the well-supported idea that life was evolving on this planet billions of years before humans could even think about the possibility of God, and that this runs counter to the magical thinking of evangelicals (and many other Christians) that all things were created by a god just a few thousand years ago. Thus, reason should be used to govern our nation, not faith that God makes all things, even irrational things, possible.
Gary Stuart
Indiana
The human spirit is our ‘personal soul work’
Are you disappointed by the church but still wonder about a higher power? I think the human spirit is as high as it gets. It has brought us from campfires to modernity, from fear and ignorance to understanding the world we live in. It flows out of every action we take and joins the web of life in which we live. If the action is done with love and kindness, it builds civilization. If done with greed or anger, it will divide and people will suffer. This is our spiritual legacy, and it lives and evolves here on Earth forever. I call it our “personal soul work,” which may be as small as a passing smile or as large as leading a nation, but it will continue through time, even after we are long gone. We are surrounded by the soul work of the billions that came before us and that is the highest power on Earth.
Bob Carstens
Colorado
Rational response greeted with vitriol
While visiting New Jersey recently, I read in the local paper where a clergyman had diplomatically scolded a writer who had raised some questions about the validity of the Holy Trinity. After reading the clerics comments, I wrote a response to the paper and diplomatically scolded him for his narrow-mindedness and provincialism.
Well, the No. 2 really hit the air circulator! A few days later, letters to the editor were flying out of mailboxes like pedophiles out of a rectory, condemning my impertinence and lack of faith.
Just before leaving for home, I received a phone call from a woman about my letter. Without hesitation, she bombarded me with a cornucopia of expletives that would have made a tomcat blush for criticizing the Father, and for not accepting the “obvious truth” of the Holy Trinity.
When I pointed out that the Trinity was not in the bible, she shot back, “That’s not true! You must be reading a Protestant bible.” When I reminded her of what Bertrand Russell once said about the Trinity: “If we were born in India, we would be worshiping a god with three heads instead of three gods with one head.” She responded: “What’s that thin-lipped heathen windbag know? He’s just another ascot-wearing, hedonistic, insufferable ingrate birdbrain from across the pond.”
Finally, I told her that I think there is no danger in people expressing their honest thoughts and opinions in a civil manner, and that I find people who think are at least as good as those who do not.
With that, I heard a click on the other end of the phone. Then, blissful silence!
Borden Applegate
Florida
What’s the historical basis for Christianity?
As a growing segment of the U.S. population endorses a religious faith best characterized as Christian nationalism, and as the Trump administration moves to blur the separation of church and state, it might be well to ask how accurate our understanding of historical underpinnings of the Christian faith are.
The authors of the Christian gospels wrote about 50 to 100 years after the reported public life and death of Jesus. The gospel stories were not written by eyewitnesses, but by unknown elite authors probably living far from where the events reportedly occurred. They wrote in Greek, not Aramaic, the language likely used by the early followers in the Jesus movement. The Apostle Paul admitted he never met the historical Jesus, but he knew the Christ of faith in his thoughts.
It is important to consider much of Christian faith is based on reports of “miracles and wonders,” which was not unusual for the period of history. That kind of descriptive language was used in ancient Greek and Roman times to emphasize the political or religious significance of a special public figure, and Jesus was not unique in having his history so recorded.
Virgin births and God-men saviors were common religious descriptors. We know through science and the philosopher David Hume that a miracle is the least likely explanation of an event claimed as supernatural by a faith community.
Sam Romano
Wisconsin
Alito’s comments were ignorant or intentional
In Annie Laurie Gaylor’s article (September issue) about a new Hillsboro, she mentions a quote from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito: “A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses ‘a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill.”
It seems that Alito is either ignorantly or intentionally saying that only the rights of Christian parents matter! What happens to the rights of parents who don’t believe in religion or believe in another religion besides Christianity?
Whether Alito is indeed being ignorant or intentional, it is tragic to think a Supreme Court justice would be either.
Jay Jaffee
Minnesota
There’s a lot of godly nonsense in the U.S.
Through the ages, humankind has invented something like an estimated 12,000-18,000 gods, including a couple from my own Nordic country: Thor and Odin, plus Freia for equal sexual fairness.
So, why has the God-fearing crowd left all the previous ones, focusing all their superstition on the last god? Have they realized that all the previous ones were made up, but still believe the last one is the real thing? It is so childish to believe that there is a god way up there, one who sees and knows everything, keeping track of everyone and all that is going on, with the ability to interfere and change anything and everything.
There’s no question America is a God-infested country, with “In God We Trust,” “God with Us,” “So help me God” all around us. As a child growing up in a Nazi-occupied country, I remember what was at my eye level: The German soldiers’ belt buckle, with “Got Mit Uns” (“God with Us”). Yeah, I’m sure he was!
Close to my hometown in Norway, there is a railway station with the sign: “Hell Gods Expedition,” where the word “Hell” is just the name of the place, which simply means a downward slide in the terrain, while “Gods” simply means “stuff to be sent.” Indeed, languages can be funny at times, even exposing silliness.
Jorg Aadahl
California
New York City schools mix religion, government
The New York City public schools were closed on Monday, Oct. 20, for the Hindu religious holiday of Diwali, which is also celebrated by Jains, Sikhs and certain Buddhist sects. The schools were previously closed for the Jewish holidays of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. In the spring, the schools will be closed for the two “Eid” Muslim holidays.
So much for the separation of state and church in New York City! When I attended the NYC public school system back in the 1950s and 1960s, the public schools were only closed for one religious holiday, Christmas, a national holiday that always occurred during the winter break. How times have changed.
Dennis Middlebrooks
New York
‘Under God’ in pledge undermines ‘indivisible’
Earlier this year, I attended a public meeting of our local county commission. Like many public meetings, it opened with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Pledge of Allegiance, which in its original form was nationalistic but not religious, has become fraught with religious influence.
In 1954, under the anti-communist panic of the Cold War, Congress added the words “under God” to the pledge. This is where it went off the rails.
The basic problem, once a deity is inserted, is that the notion of the nation being indivisible is destroyed. By adding “God” to the pledge, they were dividing the nation into as many factions as there are gods — or no god at all.
I love the country where I was born, where I was raised and where I live, but not to the exclusion of all other countries, whose citizens and inhabitants have every right to love their countries just as much as I love mine. I am not comfortable reciting a pledge that, when read or taken literally, only serves to divide my country.
As an American, who believes in the core values expressed in the Pledge of Allegiance, I simply omit the words “under God” when reciting the pledge.
Religion, in any form, has no place in the public arena.
David L. Wolf
Michigan
