Letter to Tony Snow, Columnist, Creators Syndicate c/o Star Banner, December 18, 1999

Tony Snow,

RE: Preserving human dignity in a glorious future, Star Banner, 12/18/99

I was hopeful I would be able to leave a message for you thru the web page of your syndicate. Though there is much info about you on the web page, you could not be accessed for messages as can many other members of the syndicate.

In your article, you offer the following opinion, "Religious faiths endure because they satisfy our thirst for holiness and our need to acknowledge our obvious weaknesses...each person carries an ember of divinity..." These are your needs as a Roman Catholic and the needs of others who share your faith. You have been carefully taught. You may well have closed your mind to what could be the most amazing truths, or reasonable approximation of truth about religion to come down the pike..

At this stage of our knowledge gathering, the most we can say about the great religious questions is "I don't know." Pope John Paul II agrees though his flock does not seem to be listening. In his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, he states, "God's plans are often inscrutable. Only in the hereafter will it be truly possible to 'see' and, therefore, to understand." All those who say they know what God wants really are saying they know more than the pope does about what God wants.

More people have killed or been killed in the name of religion than for any other single cause. This is true even today with the religious conflicts in various parts of the world.

The drive for evangelizing by the Muslims and Roman Catholics as they work to become the religion of the world pose a great threat to peace throughout the world, including the USA.

I don't share your conclusions about why religious faiths endure. The Roman Catholic leaders purposely do not have a fixed bible. They decided a long time ago that fallible men write the bibles and amendments will be needed from time to time. To them, truths today are discarded tomorrow.

Sincerely,

James M. O'Hara