In his June 4 attack on evolution, letter writer Harvey Lord defined the Bible as being “the message from the creator of the universe” — the one and only message, he means to suggest, given by God to humankind as the road map to heaven. All other scriptures, in this perspective, are the work of Satan, whose purpose is to lure souls to everlasting damnation.

The overriding problem with this one message of salvation is that it has engendered a hydra-headed monster of 33,820 denominations worldwide. That is the figure furnished by the second edition of Barrett’s World Christian Encyclopedia. In the decade since that book’s appearance, more denominations have surely arisen with more sure to follow.

So here we have a purportedly “God-breathed” book, absolutely inerrant and therefore free of all contradiction, which is intended to put us all on the straight path of salvation, but which has brought about profound division among believers everywhere — and for many long centuries. To me, that is an irresistible indication that the religion owes its origin, not to some crystal-clear revelation from above which we dare not reject on peril of damnation (Mark 16:16), but to the human mind seeking what it can never attain: ultimate truth.

This is how I have come to view the totality of religion, in fact: as a vast, mind-boggling ocean of contradiction that no amount of prayer, study and ecumenical endeavor can ever possibly make right.

No God, no devil, no heaven, no hell. Just us and this one life.

William LaRochelle, Lewiston