Some people change their mind

I refer to the letter of John Guillaumier “The atheistic celebrities” (September 17).

For the past few years, I have been teaching a course on contemporary atheism. So I was quite familiar with the writings of Jean Paul Sartre, a French existentialist, and those of Anthony Flew, a British humanist. Both were staunch militant atheists. Because of this, I was really surprised when I later read a turnaround regarding their perspective on believing in the existence of God.

In March 1980, about a month before his death, Sartre allegedly confessed to his friend Pierre Victor: prepared, prefigured. In short, a being that only a Creator could put here; and this idea of ​​a creative hand refers to God. A few years earlier, he had already told his lover, the famous feminist Simone de Beauvoir, that he sometimes considered himself “as a being who could only come from a Creator”.

Another staunch and outspoken atheist was the British philosopher Flew. He dismayed his atheist friends when, in 2004, he announced that God probably existed. He later wrote the book called There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. In this book, he gives four reasons why he now believed in the existence of a “Self existing, immutable, immaterial, omnipotent and omniscient”.

I wonder if, one day, there will be a similar turnaround in Guillaumier’s life.

I will pray for him.

Bishop George Frendo OP – Archbishop of Tirana

Campaign against cancer

Former president Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca (September 24) recalls that the prevalence of cancer is increasing and calls for support for cancer research organizations. All very commendable.

However, significant research into what is probably a major promoter of cancer, followed by the largest cancer epidemiological research project ever conducted, was conducted in the 1970s and 1980s and those who did not know what was discovered in the past could waste a lot of research funds rediscovering the wheel.

Indian and American researchers, working on laboratory mice and rats, first produced evidence that the main promoter of cancer in these animals was not toxins or viruses, but the amount of animal protein they were fed. The more animal protein was added to their diet, the higher the risk of cancer (no space here for details). The animal protein used was cow’s milk.

The same American researchers then teamed up with a Chinese university and found that in vegetarian regions of China all types of cancer were very rare, almost unknown, while in regions that had adopted Western diets, such as Shanghai, the prevalence of cancer and heart disease was similar to that of the major western counties.

All of this information was later published by lead researcher Colin Campbell in a public book called The China Study which may still be available online.

Most recently, in January 2020 to be precise, two studies on breast cancer, obesity and diet, one from the US and one from the UK, presented at an international meeting on breast cancer in Birmingham, both found that reducing weight and increasing the consumption of vegetables and fruits reduced the risk of breast cancer recurring after treatment.

Unfortunately, in most rich countries, overconsumption of all meats and dairy products is associated with wealth and “good living”. The overconsumption of foods made with white flour, rice, potatoes and sugars further contributes to increasing the proportions of overweight and obese adults and children, many of whom are in denial and likely to be offended if their “sickness condition” is reported.

Finally, the UK NHS is carrying out a large, nation-wide research project to test whether a US molecular genetic blood test can accurately detect the earliest establishment of specific cancers in various organs, long before these tumors can be detected. by our current scanning or endoscopy methods. .

Albert Cilia-Vincenti – Attard

Irresponsible men

Isabel Stabile is right to castigate the irresponsible men who permeate women and start new human lives in them. But, by what logic can this irresponsibility be used to end these innocent and vulnerable human lives?

Carmel Sciberras – Naxxar

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