Not an Atheistic Society..
By Captain Michael Ramsay
Letter published in the Tisdale Recorder, November 2007.
Re: Not Attending Ceremonies
Dear Editor,
It is too bad that one of the readers of this paper has decided not to attend
the Remembrance Day ceremonies because their religious beliefs will not be given
pre-eminence. The reader who had the compulsion to write, while still lacking
the conviction to sign their name, did raise an interesting point. The writer
claimed that less than 15%, or even less than 10%, of 'those that served' did
not believe in the 'Judeo-Christian' God. It seems to follow then, that those
who are religious Atheists make up an even smaller number of that population
(accounting for other religious beliefs) - perhaps even less than 3 or 4%.
My questions then is this: why wouldn't you mention God? Why should the 96% of
the population that are Theists be subjected to the Atheistic religious point of
view in a public ceremony? If the bulk of the population in a democratic society
recognises the sovereignty of God, then certainly this is the point of view that
should be acknowledged in the public arena.
In recent public events the small vocal religious minority Atheists have been
dominating ceremonies. In the ceremonies marking the SwissAir tragedy, the
Christian clergy were banned from mentioning Christ in the ceremony. In the
official Canadian 9/11 ceremonies, only the non-theistic viewpoint was
recognized. Why, in a predominantly Theistic society, should the public be
subjected only to Atheistic prejudices in our public ceremonies? This does not
make sense.
While I am sorry that the writer will not attend the ceremony, I think it would
be much worse to honour only the religion of a vast minority (possibly 4% or
less are Atheists) at the expense of all others and in the process to possibly
even insult the memory of all those who actually did lay down their lives for
God, King, and country.
God bless,
Michael Ramsay