Suzanne Fields' Aug. 14 column, "Atheists in search of utopia," is contemptuous toward people who don't happen to share her particular metaphysical beliefs. "Atheists," she writes, "by definition believe in nothing, and anyone would find it hard to make something of nothing."

This is a common misconception. An atheist myself, I do not "believe in nothing." I have a very strong set of positive beliefs. I believe in human beings and our ability to use our brains to grapple with life's problems. I believe in principles of morality that are a product of both our evolutionary background and our use of reason in learning the best way to live among others.

Utopia? Surely it's religion, not atheism, that peddles utopia -- the idea of some benevolent Man in the Sky, and life after death, in some beautiful place no less.

I believe in truth; I believe in reality. I do not believe in fairy tales.

Fields quotes David Hart that today's atheists "lack the moral intelligence and courage of their forefathers in faithlessness, and thus purchase their atheism cheaply."

If by this he means we no longer risk burning at the stake, thank goodness for that progress, but otherwise it's a gross insult. Atheists I know (unlike many in religion) don't accept things on faith; we make the effort to figure things out for ourselves. I'd call that the very embodiment of moral intelligence. And I think it takes more courage to face the reality of the human condition than to hide from it with false comforts.

Fields mocks that "atheists think of themselves as nonconformists," whereas unbelief has ancient roots. I am not an atheist just to be different from others. It's to be rational. And, yes, such rationality does have deep philosophical antecedents.

Like that astonishing Roman intellect, Lucretius, whom Fields quotes: "to such heights of evil are men driven by religion."

And she retorts that they are likewise "driven by disbelief," invoking the "viciousness of the secular Leninists, Trotskyites and Stalinists." They disbelieved in Fields's God, but the zealotry of their belief in their ideology, and their leader worship, made this a religion by a different name. And just as Christianity burned multitudes of dissenters, so communists shot multitudes with the same moralistic intolerance. Both those utopian worldviews are polar opposites to the rational humanism I adhere to, which honors every human being, and their freedom to find their own paths. These are the ideals of the Enlightenment, and could not be more dissimilar from communist tyranny.

As I look out at the world, I see the steady advancement of this sane, humane, rational approach to life, and I am confident that it will make a better world than one where people are bewitched by religious faith.

Frank S. Robinson lives in Albany.