In defence of humanist values

In his diatribe against democractic values, John Murray (Letters, Jul 30) asserts that the increasing number of Irish citizens who have embraced reason and logic over dogmatism, must be re-educated in the “values” of the past and rescued from secularism and paganism.

He draws an analogy between those of us who champion democracy and freedom of the individual with that of the leper. He uses the intellectually dubious example of obscurantist dualism to advance his argument.

The values of the past, now rejected by many, were those which judged, those which oppressed, and those which condemned thousands to miserable and empty lives.