My I reply to James Martin's letter (How could God allow this? Herald, 6 December) by quoting Jesus. 'See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven'.
CONCEPT OF GOD IS ILLOGICAL
PERHAPS the Rev Dr Robert Anderson (Letters, December 7) might get his Father to introduce Arthur Labinjo-Hughes to Myra Hindley and Ian Brady when he gets to Heaven.
Surely as repentant murderers "who believeth in Him" they will be there. Perhaps when his father and stepmother get to Heaven when they repent their sins after enjoying a long life they can explain to him why they made him suffer the way they did.
I think it is important to remember that religion is a faith, the meaning of which is described in the dictionary as "firm belief in something for which there is no proof".
People do good things because they are good people and they do bad things because they are bad people. Religion is used to explain good things by believers in God because they can offer no evidence of the existence of God.
I would dearly love to meet "God" to ask him why He "who created all living things" felt the need to create Covid, but as I think the whole concept illogical, and even though I have never murdered someone, I will not be afforded the luxury of everlasting life along with Hindley and Brady.
Iain McIntyre, Sauchie.
Reply to Iain McIntyre
Iain McIntyre offers no hope for Arthur or for anyone else (Letters, 10 December). His is a bleak and unchangeable creed. Jesus made qualitative distinctions between life in heaven and life on earth and between eternal life in heaven and eternal life elsewhere. Steven Pinker’s book ‘Rationality’ offers ample evidence that human behaviour is disproportionately irrational. A brief glance at the world today supports that contention. Judaeo-Christian thought informs us that the universe is personal and rational. Scientists tell us that this combustible earth makes our life possible. Covid is with us. So are vaccines. Christian forgiveness is an offence. Even Iain McIntyre can be forgiven.
