I read the title of Jin Sung An's letter ("Religious discussions beneficial for students," Nov. 18) hoping for a nice defense of pluralistic interfaith discourse. What I found was ignorant religious dogma.

Sung An declares, "Jesus Christ's death and resurrection are considered historical," and goes on to state that the purpose of this alleged death was for the salvation of man. The writer should open a book once in a while and realize that 1.5 billion Muslims would disagree with him. A racist Christian mindset seeks to equate history with the history of the privileged white Christian male, and this has caused the evils of racism, sexism and classism. Penn State students should open their minds to learning about the other history.

It is also insulting for anyone to declare it "objective" that Jesus died for our sins; where is the notion of personal responsibility if each man is not held accountable for what he does? While Muslims have their personal faith, it is patronizing and offensive to shove this down others' throats and trying to pass it off as the only acceptable truth, as so many evangelicals tend to do these days. I don't believe Jesus was crucified, but some do. I believe there is a God and others believe there isn't. I believe life has a purpose and others don't. None of these can be objectively proved to everyone's satisfaction. That is why our beliefs are a matter of faith, and no one can be forced to have faith.