Regarding Scott Mintz's April 19 letter, "Catholic Church's belief crisis" (which was in response to Kevin Rafferty's April 11 article, "The pope's leadership crisis"): To begin with, in no way does the Catholic Church "demand" or "command" anyone to believe anything. Why do non-Christians like Mintz often take others' expressions of Christian belief so personally — as an attempt to force belief on them?

Mintz says there is "no evidence" for Jesus Christ's resurrection, but would any amount of evidence satisfy him? He says believing in Catholicism "requires putting aside everything we know about history ... and reality," meaning that scores of billions of people in world history must have been delirious. Does a logic fan such as Mintz really want to go there?

He refers to the story of the Flood to label God "sadistic" — unaware apparently of Catholicism's view that the Bible uses allegory as well as literal accounts to make religious points. Mintz asserts that God's role involves "overseeing untold human suffering" as if the misuse of free will has nothing to do with it.

Worse, Mintz seems distressed that people like Rafferty and me actually believe in God as expressed through Catholicism. What is it to him? It's one thing to reject Catholicism, but quite another to make an anti-Catholic pitch on the pages of a national newspaper. Does Mintz have a psychological need to reduce the number of believers in order to validate and rationalize his own nonbelief?

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.

jennifer kim