Editor:

In his recent column (Jan. 26, "Why not freedom from religion?"), Daniel Martin posed a number of good questions which deserve replies. I want to attempt to answer the question that I consider to be most crucial: "What will happen if I don't believe in (the) God (of the Bible)?"

The implications of non-belief in the infinite-personal God of the Bible must be faced sooner or later. Intellectual honesty demands that one recognize that the atheist's position of non-belief necessarily carries with it the death of any basis for ultimate meaning.

To a consistent atheist, truth is an absurd notion because it presupposes that something or someone absolute actually exists upon which to base notions of ultimate value, identity and meaning in human life.

Any atheist (or agnostic for that matter) is "free" to subjectively define his or her purpose in this brief existence on earth and assign meaning to the world. The self-appointed position to do so necessarily places even the most deeply felt convictions on the dignity and value of human beings (and the material world) entirely in the realm of personal sentiment and/or conditioned ideas inherited from culture.

This leaves a person in a very lonely position, for every other person's or religion's or philosophy's ideas have equal subjective validity. There is no outside objective standard by which to judge the merits of any idea. This is the logical end of an atheistic orientation on life.

Those who choose to not believe in God must eventually ask and answer this fundamental question: Which is more terrifying and/or appealing, embracing an existence with no actual ultimate meaning or significance, or the infinite-personal God of the universe (of whom the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible testify) who alone gives meaning and value?

Walter J. Caywood
religious studies junior