Sir:
The God [April 8] of myth, fear and superstition is dead. The God in whose name many have been tortured and killed is dead. The God who serves as the father figure watching over man is dead. The multiple Gods, representing the multiple religions with their multiple distorted views, are dead. Let secular evolutionary humanism with its love and faith in man, his wisdom and courage, be born and live.
MAURICE S. CERUL, M.D. Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic Pittsburgh
Sir: No.
NORINE MCGUIRE
Chicago
Sir: Yes.
RICHARD L. STORATZ University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Ind.
Sir: Not only is God dead—he never was.
JOSEPH LEWIS President Freethinkers of America New York City
Sir: God is dead to those who wish him so; he lives for those who hope in him. WILMER REICHMANN JR. Ministerial Student Concordia Seminary St. Louis
Sir: God isn't dead—Death is dead. Christ conquered it on the first Easter morning almost 2,000 years ago.
(THE REV.) CHARLES L. KOESTER Holy Trinity Lutheran Church West Allis, Wis.
Sir: Whether God is dead or alive is of relatively little importance; TIME is certainly very much alive when it covers such controversial topics.
URIEL DOMB Columbia University New York City
Sir: Your ugly cover is a blasphemous outrage and, appearing as it does during Passover and Easter week, an affront to every believing Jew and Christian.
EMIL D. CRISCITIELLO Mt. Vernon, N.Y.
Sir: Let us hope that the cogent arguments brought forth in the "God is dead" movement will encourage many people to lay aside their superstitious crutches and learn to walk like men.
JON L. MIKESELL, '66 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Mass.
Sir: TIME presents a lucid summary of a confusing situation. There is no doubt that the question is in the minds of many laymen and clergy, but too often the layman is afraid to ask it and the priest draws back from facing the challenge it presents.
(THE REV.) PETER R. HOLROYD Curate St. John's Parish Waterbury, Conn.
Sir: What you have written on the Death of God controversy is a disappointing pastiche of quips and quotes, obscuring the more profound issues in the faith crisis. Instead of name-dropping on the God droppers, would that you had shown your readers some of the religiously conservative elements in the new iconoclasm: recovery of the Second Commandment (against idolatrous images), recovery of ancient Jewish and Christian doctrine of the transcendence and hiddenness of God (against easy equation of God with culture or finite being), recovery of the insights of saints and mystics on the necessary Dark Nights of the Soul (against untested faith, religion without tears or doubt).
L. ALEXANDER HARPER Director for Christian Social Action United Church of Christ New York City
Sir: It is amusing to read of the theologians' desperate fun in this mathematical era, trying to prove the reality of the intangible.
ROWLAND ALLEN Indianapolis