I was very appreciative of Norma Lindemann’s response (Sept. 5) to my “answers” to Pastor David Hegg’s question and I admire her open honesty. Aside from her degree of certainty that people like Jesus and Moses existed, which is in actuality immaterial to me (no offense intended), and her feeling that it is essential for we as humans to have faith in someone or something greater than ourselves, Ms. Lindemann concluded by describing something called secular humanism — morality without the belief in God. If I may be so bold as to make a personal claim, that is how I see myself. I’m not always nice but I am usually kind and considerate, and yet the thought of something like God never enters into my reasoning. My need for things like God faded away when I learned how to connect directly with myself as well as with others and my fear of both disappeared.
Spirituality without the supernatural. Communion without the confusion.
Do you think people can do it, Ms. Lindemann? Is such a thing possible? Like Dr. Elaine Pagels at my Getty Museum book signing, “I would like to think so.” That, to me, is the superior way. Not today, but hopefully someday.
Arthur Saginian
Santa Clarita
