The outcries against and the criticisms of the perceived immorality or amorality of this country's current culture are ubiquitous. Many cite and would invoke religion and religious guidelines as essential, if not the primary, components of the answer to today's troubling questions.

Most of this nation's newspapers devote a section of each edition to Western organised religion and routinely publish letters advocating religious doctrine. Candidates for secular elected offices incorporate their religious affiliations into their campaigns. Almost all governmental meetings commence with a sacred invocation, the typical verbal bloodletting immediately proceeding it notwithstanding.

Yet, both proportionately and absolutely, one segment of the social spectrum perpetrates a nearly negligible amount of criminal offences, especially and particularly acts of violence. That segment is atheists, those who disavow and deny the existence of any divine, supreme or other supernatural being or entity, and consequently reject the tenets of organisations and institutions founded upon any such being.

The supporting evidence speaks for itself, clearly stating the criminal class generally and violent criminals specifically do not comprise atheists. Not until proponents of religion can say the same, substantiated by fact, about those who believe in a deity, may they legitimately or credibly claim the moral high ground.

These observations were published both in the Tuesday 1 June 1999 edition of Folio Weekly (Jacksonville, Florida) and in the Wednesday 2 June 1999 edition of the Fernandina Beach News-Leader (Fernandina Beach, Florida).