Editorial
Voices: Morals and religion
Wendell Lewis (Globe, Jan. 4) took me to task for my assertion that non-religious people can and do have high moral and ethical standards. He believes that any system of morals must come from an absolute divine authority because man is just too wishy-washy.
I assume he is referring to the Christian God and believes man would lose his moral compass without the Bible as a guide. Of course this presumes the Bible to be unchanging, to be the divinely inspired word of God, and to contain only morally righteous prescriptions for man (all of which are subject to debate). I believe that man is inherently good and does not need the threat of eternal damnation or other supernatural revelation to live a virtuous life. It does not require religion to believe in the morality underlying the last seven commandments or to perpetuate that morality.
And please allow me to thrash the straw man that Mr. Lewis provided. He seemed to assert that our founding fathers based our Constitution on the absolute divine authority of the Christian God. There is very little evidence for this and much to the contrary. This country was not founded on Christian morality and God was deliberately omitted from the Constitution. Most of the founding fathers were deists, not Christians. They believed in a God, but not the Christian God. To learn more, see “The Christian Nation Myth” (www.infidels.org/library/modern/farrell_till/myth.html) from which I quote: “The supreme God of the deists removed himself entirely from the universe after creating it. They believed that he assumed no control over it, exerted no influence on natural phenomena, and gave no supernatural revelation to man.” Thus the founding fathers established the moral basis for this nation without the help of supernatural wisdom. They were pretty smart guys.
Scott Cragin
Webb City
- Editorial
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Scorecard for voters
The Missouri Bar on Wednesday recommended that voters give a St. Louis County judge the heave-ho.
The critical rating may result in the end of Associate Circuit Judge Judy Draper’s days behind the bench. It will be up to voters in that area to decide whether they want to retain Draper. -
Carol Stark: Cross words summon solution
There is nothing I have ever written about in this column that results in as much feedback as a call out to readers for suggestions about comics and puzzles.
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Guest columnist Erin Noble: America should be clean energy leader
After nearly two years of work on a comprehensive climate change and clean energy bill, Senate Democrats recently abandoned efforts in exchange for a weakened “oil spill bill.” Citing their inabilities to overcome a Republican filibuster, the oil spill bill includes only minor clean energy provisions and completely fails to address the underlying causes of the climate crisis. Luckily, the weakened bill did not advance before the Senate’s August recess. This provides one last chance for the bill to be amended with a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) when the Senate reconvenes later this month.
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Guest columnist Robert M. Clayton III: Need help paying your phone bill?
Telephone service is a vital communication link to health care, family and friends. However, some Missourians do not have access to such a link because of financial difficulties. There are programs available to help qualified Missourians receive a discount on monthly telephone bills and provide a reduction in installation and connection fees.
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Voices: Up, up and away
It’s hard to keep a good plane down. When my husband was in the service during World War II, he was in the Air Force and his second home while he was stationed in England was a B-17 Flying Fortress.
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Voices: ‘Yes’ correct answer
Joan Umphenour (Globe, Aug. 19), who has a master’s degree, is upset because most of us Missourians apparently didn’t understand the ballot in Missouri about the health care bill because she couldn’t understand it. She apparently thinks we voted “yes” meaning “no.”
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Voices: No choice perfect
Jim Stone’s guest column (Globe, Aug. 29) on the surface seems well thought out and even persuasive. What it lacks is a basic understanding of what the access to some means of self-defense really is.
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Voices: Hidden bias
I must admit the Globe did a pretty good job hiding obvious bias (In our view, Globe, Sept. 3), but you seem to have conveniently forgotten there is a very clear difference here in that one of the candidates here is of the party that got us in this mess and voted lock step with the (former) president who led us to this crisis to begin with.
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Voices: Volunteers needed
They come to Joplin Neighborhood Adult Literacy Read to improve their literacy skills in English, and we are committed to providing services to enable them to reach their full potential. To do that, we offer help in reading, math and English as a second language with one-on-one tutors and classes. Right now we are looking for a few more good volunteers who want to take the training to work with our students.
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Voices: Signing dog’s death warrant
On Wednesday evening while driving on Joplin’s North Main Street, I hit and killed a beautiful bloodhound dog.
This dog, whether lost or dumped by his owner at the nearby Humane Society, was in the turn lane with heavy traffic on both sides of it. - More Editorial Headlines
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Scorecard for voters
