Dear Rabbit Wolpe,

I commend the notion that our brains are “…our only organs of understanding”. As children, we have little voice in what is implanted into our brains as it is very much governed by those who instruct us, I’m sure you will agree. Should this process not then start by teaching children the cognitive reality of what we do know as opposed to what our creeds can merely imply? Anger can often be invoked when the criteria of truth is distributed as a case that is irrefutable. All the major religions believe that god has predestined the laws of nature, if so he has then also determined our actions and behavior – the brain is psychologically bound - and determinism, it can be argued, negates free will. Children should be explicitly taught that all acts of evil or immorality must be determined by god. Easy to accept, for it makes god responsible for the actions of Hitler and Stalin, rapists and murderers, pedophiles and all else we term evil or amoral, and thus god is permitting evil. On the other hand, we must also teach that if there is no god to determine our actions and behavior we therefore admit to the notion of free will and in doing so, the responsibility for our actions and those of others is regulated by the due process of the laws governing our society. We admonish, we re-educate, or we punish on the understanding that the offence was committed as an act of free will. Believers in god who wish to condemn and punish acts of evil will be denying god’s will, for determinism, we can argue, is incompatible with free will. Or do we excuse Hitler and Stalin for being simply a part of god’s predestined universe? That thought makes me rather angry…