The Rev. Horsley's sermon on sin (July17) leaves me puzzled. I am puzzled because a presumably benign and loving God knows that every single person is sinful and that the only way to escape this horrible fate is to believe in Jesus: "The only way to the Father is through me...Salvation is found in no one else..."

The notion that every man, woman and child is irremediably sinful because a woman called Eve took a bite from an apple or a pomegranate somewhere in what is now Iraq, depends entirely on an inflexibly literal reading of the story of Genesis. I am not alone in finding this impossible to do, a position no doubt due to being steeped in sin.

Rev. Horsley begins his sermon by discussing the idea of whether you can be good even though you do not believe in God or Jesus or everlasting life. He implies that you cannot.

I say that you can, for the world is overflowing with non-Christians who do good every day of the year.
Geoff. Rytell
Toronto