I am in full agreement with Roger Paul that a conscious person “cannot not think,” and that symbols such as the Christian cross hold ideological significance to all who see them. (Letters, Nov. 22, “Symbolism on public property?”)

Such ideas of significance as may be derived from a given symbol by one person to the next may be accurate or erroneous, but, in either case, “The eye — it cannot choose but see,” as Wordsworth said.

Having affirmed this, however, I must also add that for a symbol to cause the association of it with certain ideas to occur within the mind of an observer is not the equivalent of compelling the observer to accept those ideas, nor does the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment sanction religiophobia. Religiophobia is, in fact, as un-American as religious persecution.

For instance, the fact that Themis, the goddess of justice, is symbolically portrayed over the entrances of innumerable public courthouses (our own included) does not compel me to worship the Olympians of ancient Greek mythology.

President Obama placed his hand, symbolically, upon the Bible at his public inauguration and quoted from it in his speech on that same occasion, yet I do not consider this a violation of the Establishment Clause. And as I observed in another letter, the same Congress who brought forth the First Amendment opened their legislative day with prayer and voted for the funding of Christian religious missions.

I do not suggest that all Americans ought to pray or practice Christianity simply because our founders did, but their actions surely ought to influence our interpretation of the First Amendment.

Kevin Taylor, Corvallis