In his letter in the Nov. 16 Daily, Paul Armstrong expressed errant views that are held by many believers, especially those who know little of the history of science or its predecessor, natural philosophy. Contrary to Mr. Armstrong’s assertions, atheism is not a religion, and atheists had little to do with ridding science of supernaturalism in all its many forms.

A religion is any view of reality that is fundamentally rooted in supernaturalistic belief (the belief that supernatural agents are not only real but essential to a proper understanding of the world we all share). Remove all supernaturalism and you no longer have a religion. It may be called a worldview or a philosophy of life, but not a religion.

It is true that science has long been purged of all things supernatural, but not by any conspiracy of atheists. The purging began with the birth of natural philosophy and accelerated when science emerged for that. However, it occurred when both were dominated not by atheists, but by honest men of many religious persuasions. In Western culture, almost all natural philosophers and scientists have been Christians, with a smattering of deists and believing Jews here and there.

The elimination from science of all things supernatural took longer than it should have, but only because so many scientists were believers and could not bring themselves to abandon the God-based explanations and interpretations that had been so deeply entrenched since antiquity. It took many monumental successes of purely materialistic theories before scientists began to see that God-based explanations and interpretations are always inferior, scientifically speaking, to atheistic materialistic ones.

John W. Patterson

Ames