Atheism doesn’t need a Lourdes cure — it’s a legitimate belief system

DAVID RYAN’S reply (September 30) to my letter on Lourdes (September 24) upset me a little because of his suggestion that I regard atheism as an affliction that needs to be cured.

I reread my original letter to see where he could have got this impression and came to the conclusion that the headline — not chosen by me, of course — was the source of the problem.

No, I do not regard atheism as an affliction.

I see it as a legitimate belief system and I hope Mr Ryan sees my belief in a supernatural explanation for the Lourdes healings also as legitimate.

The funny thing about atheism and Lourdes is that some atheists have come to believe in the supernatural through the Lourdes healings — Nobel laureate Alexis Carrel, mentioned in my original letter, is one that comes to mind. Even funnier is the fact that atheists — the spectacular case of Gabriel Gargam is a good example — have received remarkable physical

healing at Lourdes.

Gargam only went to Lourdes to please his family having been an unbeliever for many years. Surely, God has no favourites.

Mr Ryan seems to think that atheists “couldn’t care less” about these things. There are many who do. Richard Dawkins doesn’t engage with Lourdes in The God Delusion, but he does deal with Fatima.

Emile Zola wrote a novel in an attempt to discredit Lourdes. Perhaps — if he will forgive me — Mr Ryan’s letter shows he is not quite as indifferent as he claims.

At one point, referring to me, he says “because he can’t explain certain happenings at Lourdes”. The fact of the matter is that nobody can explain them in scientific terms. I would be interested to hear how Mr Ryan would explain them.

I would suggest the reason why atheists — some of them anyway — do care is because these extraordinary happenings introduce a niggling doubt into their worldview, just as events like the Holocaust introduce a niggling doubt into the worldview of theists.

Normally, we do not like to have our worldview disturbed. Often we prefer to ignore the whole thing, and that is very understandable.

Oliver Broderick

Montserrat House

Ashe Street

Youghal

Co Cork