What makes us moral
IN HIS Nov. 26 column "Being good for God's sake," Jeff Jacoby asks what accounts for the morally decent behavior of religious believers. I would answer that empathy, a feeling into the soul of another, accounts in large part for the praiseworthy acts of any human being, religious or not. This human empathy, or "animal sympathy" as a philosopher called it, could be verbalized as "Don't do unto others what is hateful to you."
Bernard Adelman
Winthrop
MANY PEOPLE get upset when they learn that a bird sits on her eggs because her bottom gets irritated, and that nothing feels so good to the bird as some cool eggs to soothe the itch. I was reminded of this when Jeff Jacoby related how atheist Bill Maher disparages people who do good deeds with an expectation of divine reward ("Being good for God's sake").
Why should we care what the person or bird is thinking? A system works best when the right things get done. Maher is just as wrong to disparage religion as "a neurological disorder" as a veterinarian would be to consider the irritation on the bird's bottom as a disease that needs to be treated.
Dr. Michael Segal
Chestnut Hill
The writer is a neurologist.
IT IS interesting to note that the way Jeff Jacoby portrays morality in his Nov. 26 column coincides closely with the way it is conveyed in the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scout Law does include "reverent," but the Boy Scout Oath includes a promise "to help other people at all times" and without the expectation of reward. This forms an excellent compromise where both the religious and the nonreligious are shown the right way to act: righteously because it is right.
Andrew Cohen
Waltham
The writer is a Boy Scout with the rank of star. 