Editor,
 
This letter is in response to what Mr. Stephen Rwembeho wrote on Saturday, October 31, 2009. He was mildly antagonist to religious belief, so much so, that I felt compelled to say something or two to his post.

I recognize that people have done many bad things in the name of their beliefs.

My difficulty with the central thesis of that essay is how he tried to vilify religion without pointing exactly at which religious system he was against.

Which religion was really his target? Is it Islam? OrChristianity in general or Catholicism in particular? Or is it Buddhism? Taoism? Shinto’s belief or else?

This article was too generalised. Accusing Christianity or Baha’ism for that matter for the wrongs of Islam by a general usage of the word ‘Religion’ is intellectual deception.

He wrote that "Religious leaders have mastered the art of telling people what they want to hear,” may I also add, so do politicians! So what does it prove? That those leaders are necessarily lying?

The author of the article also wrote that religion is the opium of the masses; a kind of brain washing-indoctrination that the Rwandan people are subjected to.

For all I know, Ex-Marxist State like Soviet Union, China, North Korea which were all non-religious States, avidly practiced brain washing-indoctrination of the masses.

I would even go further as to assert that anti-religious ideology have proven to be the opium of the masses. Does the author of the paper have some specific examples of how ‘religion’ has brain washed the populace?

And to say that religion is parallel to science is saying nothing of value. That is unless one tries to establish science as the sole revealers of objective truth.

It is a waste of time to compare science and religion, however not because debaters have debated it for decades or ages but because their natural expression are different.

One could have as well argued that it is useless to compare capitalism vs socialism/Marxism or Republican views vs Democrat views since debaters have been debating them for decades with no success of finding a common ground.
 
Respectfully,
 
Eric Gatera
ericgatera@yahoo.fr