Christians valued

In reply to Dr Stephen Moreton and Paul Brownsey (Letters, 25 September) may I mention St Ninian, St Columba and St Cuthbert who gave Scotland its Christian foundations.

Patrick Hamilton, George Wishart, John Knox and Andrew Melville democratised the mediaeval Catholic Church and liberated education for everyone.

This fostered the Enlightenment and became the inspiration of the modern Western democratic world.

Scotland’s greatest scientists were Christians, for example James Young Simpson, James Clerk Maxwell and James Black. Its best humanitarians were Christians, notably David Livingston, Mary Slessor, Andrew Carnegie and Jane Haining. Christianity also inspired socialists such as James Kier Hardie and Gordon Brown.

Why did the SNP government delay the introduction of homosexual marriage until after the referendum?

The Christian perspective is that to change the meaning of marriage requires the dishonest use of language, dramatic pretence and legal absurdity. Christians in Scotland are many and without recognisable collective power. In a democracy their views should be counted against those of a micro-minority.

(Rev Dr) Robert 
Anderson

Blackburn & Seafield Church

Blackburn

David Robertson (Friends of The Scotsman, 24 September) dreams of a Scotland based on Christian values. One problem with this is Christians cannot agree on what those values are.

Most now disavow the Crusades, Inquisition, and St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre – while tying themselves in knots over homosexuals and women bishops.

Science and reason have corrected our view of what we are. We now know humans are apes, that women are not stolen ribs, that people are nature plus nurture, that free will is probably an illusion. Reason helps us understand the other. It gives us empathy.

Scepticism, evidence and thought show us the values that underpin healthy societies. They are a better foundation than an ambiguous book that believers can treat as a pick’n’mix.

George Byron

Comely Bank Avenue

Edinburgh