Ms. Goodwin, you’re sincere, but you’re still wrong as hell.

Before you damn me to everlasting torment on the whim of your deity, perhaps you could present at least a thin shred of evidence that he/she/it or they exist?

You claim that Jesus “lived an indisputably perfect example of how we should live,” but there is very little extra-biblical evidence that Jesus ever lived.

The only “evidence” you have that he lived and that he lived perfectly comes from a book which condones slavery, genocide and homophobia.

It comes from a book which claims that diseases such as epilepsy are caused by demon possession, that people rise from the dead, that men lived to be 900 years old, that rabbits chew cuds, that bats are birds, that the earth is supported by pillars, that the people in ancient Babylon built a tower almost high enough to reach heaven, forcing God to create different languages to thwart them and hundreds of other such fallacies.

Forgive me if I seem skeptical.

In addition, even according to your holy text, Jesus did not live a perfect life.

He lied to his disciples (John 7:8-10), he said that all who called another a fool were guilty of murder and then called others fools (Luke 11:37-44), he cursed a tree for not bearing fruit out of season (Matt 25:41-42), he broke the laws of the Sabbath (Luke 6:1-4) and he did not respect his mother (John 2:4). Remember the Ten Commandments?

He couldn’t even save himself on the cross. Does the phrase “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” sound like something coming from the mouth of a willing sacrifice? I don’t think so.

Assuming that Jesus did die as a perfect sacrifice, how can that make a difference to a just God?

Would you support a judge in this country who allowed a sinless baby to be fried in an electric chair to atone for the crimes committed by a serial murderer?

I sure as hell wouldn’t, and yet that is exactly what you claim that your God does through the blood of Jesus.

The story works well in C.S. Lewis children’s books, but this is real life.

I’m sorry to burst your bubble April, but the wicked witch, the magic Turkish Delight, the talking animals, the magic wardrobe and the self-sacrificing lion are imaginary.

So are the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy, Santa Claus and hell.

But hey, thanks for caring enough to tell me that I deserve to be punished by being burned for all eternity, even though you have never met me!

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Tim Morgan

Graduate student

Veterinary pathology