Yale, Too?
When Andrew Potter points a finger at others (“No Golden Mean,” Aug. 16), three fingers are pointing back at him. I refer to his comments that “religious belief of just about any sort is intellectually lazy…“ and that “it’s all infantile magical thinking… and any rational person should be embarrassed to believe any of it.”
Since prestigious and academically rigorous institutions such as Harvard and Yale award masters and doctorate degrees of Divinity, and since a person with such a degree can make a career being a professor of theology or religion at an institution of higher learning, we must conclude that a religious belief is neither an intellectually lazy position nor infantile thinking nor something that any rational person should be embarrassed about. Rather, might Mr. Potter’s position be intellectually lazy, infantile or embarrassing?
“No Golden Mean” presents a shallow and confused synopsis of religious belief. While it is nice that Potter is for both religion and atheism in moderation, and while he seems well-meaning, his view is not balanced. But an ignorant view cannot be balanced. By his own definition, he has unwittingly taken his atheism too far, since, as he says, “if you get too much of it, you get out of your mind and write stupid things.”
Diana Chase
Easthampton
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Breastfeeding
Beacon Hill
Thank you for your article on pending legislation to protect the rights of mothers to breastfeed in public. Your readers should be aware that MomsRising of the Pioneer Valley, the political arm of MotherWoman, Inc. has launched a campaign to pass Massachusetts Senate Bill 78, “An Act Relative to the Public Health Benefits of Breastfeeding,” which would protect the rights of mothers to breastfeed in public. We are collecting letters of support for Senate Bill 78. We are also collecting stories from mothers who have been made to feel uncomfortable or harassed for breastfeeding in a store, restaurant, workplace or other public place in Massachusetts. These letters and stories will be forwarded this fall to members of the subcommittee considering the bill. All mothers should have the right to feed their children how and where they need to without fear, shame or disruption. For more information on this campaign and to get involved, go to www.motherwoman.org, email momsrising@motherwoman.org or call (413) 253-8990.
Katie Rubinstein
MomsRising of the Pioneer Valley
