Regarding Grant Piper's April 8 letter, "Expressions to avoid discomfort": The question is not whether an expression is the result of "erroneous cosmology." Some of us really do not believe in such unscientific notions as God, heaven and hell, however such notions may be expressed cosmologically or poetically.

The fact that a majority of people — even among those who proudly proclaim themselves to be "not religious" — may hold such beliefs in one form or another does not make those beliefs unassailable. The expression of atheistic objections to religious ideas is not an attempt at censorship, but rather an invitation to debate ideas that are often simply accepted without question.

However, automatically accusing people who express atheistic views of trying to "silence" religious views does seem to me like an attempt at censorship.

Isn't it usually religious people of one persuasion or another who want to burn books and ban movies in their attempts to limit the ideas we have access to?

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.

paul savage