THE EDITOR, Sir:

Fundamentalist Chris-tianity typically claims that immorality in society springs from a lack of religious values. The truth is, morality does not rest on religion. There are many atheists leading lives that measure up to high standards of morality that would put many 'believers' to shame.

The Dark Ages

If we were to draw our moral values from the Bible as is so often suggested, we would be obliged to endorse some terribly immoral deeds such as genocide (Deuteronomy 28:16), slavery (1 Corinthians 7: 21-22), and the suppression of women (Colossians 3:18) to cite just a few examples. Those who know history will recall that the mediaeval Dark Ages was a time when for hundreds of years, the Bible and the Church held sway over governmental affairs of the western world. The result was human oppression, bloodshed and untold misery. Ironically, it was secular reasoning emanating from the Enlightenment of the Renaissance that snatched humanity from the morass of the depravation that characterised that ecclesiastical era called the Dark Ages.

What Jamaica needs at this time to lift itself up from the moral abyss into which it has been led is not more religion or the appointment of religious persons to important governmental office. Rather, it needs to provide quality education for its citizens, particularly the young, to enable them to unshackle themselves from primitive superstition and mental slavery - to think, to question and to investigate instead. It is the proper use of our minds that will put us above lower animals.

I am, etc.,

DEVON GREENWOOD

Bog Walk P.O.

St. Catherine