Letter: We 'grow out' of religion only to become moral pygmies

R D GALBRAITH'S proposal to scrap theology departments in universities (Letters, 9 January) must logically extend to other disciplines of no immediate 'practical' importance, including pure mathematics and the pure sciences. What better way to produce a utilitarian society lacking class and culture?

In the same issue, Barbara Smoker complains that 'media discussions on moral questions are heavily weighted in favour of a religious viewpoint' when the strongest voice in current debate is surely that of the brave new technocrat. 'I can therefore I may' has become the dictum of the age. It is slowly squeezing religion from the moral curriculum.

When we 'grow out' of religion, we do not grow into 'rational maturity' (as Mr Galbraith and Richard Dawkins would like to think). We degenerate into 'moral pygmies', as Einstein saw clearly decades ago.

Adrian Read

Leicester