If our law truly gave equal rights to all humans, these vulnerable children would be protected. Instead, these children are said not to be persons and are refused their human rights, while our river is now said to be a person and granted legal protection.
As the man said, "Define irony."
K A BENFELL
Gonville
The 'god thing'
P Andrews responds to Mandy Donne-Lee "pushing the god thing" with some sweeping generalisations that have no factual basis.
He states that Christians are "all sheep following along, believing something that was written hundreds of years ago".
If Christians just accept everything they hear from the pulpit, without checking it for themselves, P Andrews has a good point. But this is definitely not the case.
Any religion must be logically consistent and have supporting evidence that comes from other areas of human experience. And there are a lot of Christians who look for this kind of evidence.
An example is the big bang theory, which concludes from observational evidence that the universe had a beginning. This supports the Bible, which states: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth."
Before this advance in science, the universe was believed by scientists to have always existed.
P Andrews appears to be saying that "believing something that was written hundreds of years ago" somehow makes the "something" invalid or false. A lot of historians believe in events that were written about hundreds of years ago.
The point is: The events recorded in the gospels happened 25 to 55 years earlier. The fact that they were written hundreds of years ago is completely irrelevant. Any historian will tell you that documents written so soon after events they record are extremely reliable.
P Andrews also states that Christians are "sheep believing in a fairytale book about a mythical man". One historian has stated that the fact that Jesus Christ was crucified is as true a fact as any. Obviously the "mythical man" must have existed for him to have been crucified.
I have prayed for people and seen them healed and have seen others do the same. Prayer definitely does change things.
Finally, Christian faith is based on fact. It is not "blind". When we observe certain events, it gives us the faith to believe that a similar event will happen in the future -- rather like believing our cars will start in the morning.
DAVID GASH
Whanganui
Renal dialysis
Melanie Todd (Chronicle, March 28) seems to be well informed about the difficulties involved in providing renal dialysis in Whanganui but omitted to explain her credentials.
When she does so, perhaps she could also tell us how a small community like Levin is apparently able to fulfil all of these criteria when they do not even have a hospital?
STEPHEN PALMER
Bastia Hill
By-passing law
Again I must urge Ian Brougham, (letters, March 25) to be careful what he wishes for.
One law for all New Zealanders must include those Maori tribes, and their descendants, who had their lands wrongfully confiscated. They should all be granted due process under the law covering all legislation since that significant day in 1840.
Only then would we have one law for all. Every successive government since that day has chosen to create legislation that circumvents and makes a mockery of the law.
So the real issue is that the real separatism was created shortly after that treaty was signed. And it has been perpetuated by every government since.
Even now, so-called treaty settlements do absolutely nothing to relieve the victims in any meaningful way. They are only exercises in social engineering.
And, like all of the other legislative short cuts, they will not work or endure.
POTONGA NEILSON
Castlecliff
