From Nathan Jordan.
I Am writing regarding Gino Risoli’s (rather disjointed) letter of 10 December.
He begins by echoing statements of local Christians, asking us to reflect on the meaning of Christmas.

I am at a loss to understand what bearing a festival to the Mesopotamian Sun God has, but presume it to be yet another mystery of faith.

To paraphrase Mr Risoli’s diatribe, it is certainly true that life is miraculous (not a word we atheists use lightly), considering the vastness of the cosmos and the thin life-bearing layer on Earth.

This said, if there is a cosmic architect, it is extremely hostile towards life. Consider the single planet on which we know life to have evolved, and spare a thought for the dinosaurs who flourished for 165 million years then dramatically died out (man has yet to reach one million years).

I would also be interested in an explanation for the Creator’s love affair with bacteria, whose existence dominates some two-thirds of the world’s history.
Mr Risoli then displays concern for the quality of information being passed to Islanders. I can only assume that the information revolution, whereby the sum total of human knowledge is freely available via the internet, is unsuitable for his purposes.

For me, a theist calling for a free exchange of information is akin to the Wizard of Oz gleefully pointing out the man behind the curtain.

There is, however, a minority in Jersey who oppose this end. They expect belief without question, even if in conflict with established fact. Lies, not truth. Belief for the reasons of tradition and supposed revelation.

A great Christmas gift for Jersey would indeed be the exchange of information for the right reasons – that it is consistently beneficial or objectively and demonstrably true. Only then can we truly live out the full potential of the life bestowed upon us.