Letter: Dawkins: the last word from a scientist

Sir: Perhaps the late, and great, scientist Peter Medawar may be allowed a last word in the "Dawkins versus religion" discussion:

There is no quicker way for a scientist to bring discredit upon himself and upon his profession that roundly to declare - particularly when no declaration of any kind is called for - that science knows or soon will know the answers to all questions worth asking, and that questions which do not admit a scientific answer are in some way non-questions or "pseudoquestions" that only simpletons ask and only the gullible profess to be able to answer.

(Advice to a young scientist, 1979)

IAN FLINTOFF

London SW6

n An error in transcription of a letter published on 11 March from Canon John Inge, of Ely Cathedral, produced the statement that "there is a shortage of religious people who could be relied upon to produce intelligent, informed and constructive contributions to any debate". This should have read "there is no shortage ..."