To the editor:
Phil Zuckerman is only half right when he says that religious societies have many social ills. However, it is not societies with religion that have them; it is those with bad religion that do. ("Think religion makes society less violent? Think again," Op-Ed, Nov. 1)
Progress and development in Europe—the shoulders on which secularism stands—is the product of good religion. It is the Christian ethos of Europe (and the United States) that made freedom, liberty, equality, scientific inquiry and other areas of progress possible.
Secularism is not the absence of religion. As a philosophical system, it does not generate the impetus for altruism and peace as good religion does. More often than not, it produces a seductive, self-destructing narcissism that unfortunately dominates the secular world.
Having a society with no violence or other ills is not the point. The broader question is what society does when they are absent. Secularism has no answer. Good religion does.
The Rev. Vivian Ben Lima, Woodland Hills
