Defining faith

Oxymoronic

I had written a letter to you in answer to David Child’s letter (April 24) suggesting a nonreligious column in addition to your religious section — I, as an atheist, without belief, to promote my nonbelief. David wrote back, shorting me out with a ridiculous speech-making letter, which I had answered.

Now, you’ve published a letter titled “Self-Wrongeous” on May 15 by Dorothy Casey where she tells me that I am not an atheist, ending her disagreement with all that I had written even though she said what I had said, in her own words.

I see the problem as one where the definition of the word is defined by each of us relative to our own wants. Putting an “a” in front of the word, to be a part of that word, reverses the meaning, which says that an atheist believes there is no god. In other words, there is no sentient being answering our prayers and deciding who are its favorite people. She agreed with that as if she was correcting me.

The problem seems to be with the word “belief.” Of course atheists have a belief! There is no sentient being out there. Agnostics also have beliefs, but on this topic they don’t know or care about it, as Dorothy has said the same thing in her own words. My statement that atheists don’t believe was based on the supposition that we were talking about God. She says an atheist has faith in their opinion, and therefore they have a belief, which is a knee-jerk reaction to my letter. “Faith” in this context should not be used in reference to both atheists and agnostics. It is, to me, oxymoronic.

Because she sent her letter via snail mail, I assume she is without a computer and cannot look up tbepp.org and be educated on many more subjects she probably agrees with; she just doesn’t know it.

• Saul Harmon Gritz
• Hillcrest

Lindy’s Nazi Antics

I would like to comment on the topic of Charles Lindbergh and the Nazis (Under the Radar: “Faulconer Funder Nails Top Airport Spot,” and “Gleason a Miscreant,” Letters, May 8).

Lucky Lindy clearly had a clear affinity for Nazi Germany. He established a residency there. He constituted nuptials there, while still married to his American wife, and fathered several German children. Lindbergh was also popular in Nazi social life. At Hitler’s order, Hermann Goring presented him with the prestigious German Eagle medal.

With regard to Colonel Lindbergh’s World War II record, his pro-Nazi antics disqualified him for service in the U.S. Army Air Crops. President Roosevelt personally pulled his ticket. By the war’s closing years, flying for private contractors, it is true that Lindbergh sortied alongside American fighters.

The degree to which these experiences favorably impressed him, however, remains unclear. His wartime journals harshly criticize American troop behaviors in Japan; in 1970 he published arguments contending the U.S. had lost the Second World War.

Lindbergh’s bigoted views also render problematic his legacy. Interested readers should skim through his 1941 Des Moines, Iowa speech. Clear thematic overlaps connect his language to Nazi racial ideologies about Jews.

• Jeffrey Demsky
• via voicemail

Burned

Zero coverage of multiple fires in greater San Diego? Thirty homes burned in Carlsbad and no coverage?! No neighborhood stories online covering all these terrible fires?

Why have a website if you’re just ignoring major news in San Diego?

• Shane
• via email

See Neighborhood News on SDReader.com, May 14-16, San Marcos, Carlsbad, Rancho Santa Fe. — Editor