Letter: Atheist on a mission to confuse

Sir: Anyone would think, listening to Richard Dawkins (letter, 12 August) that religion was the only area of life in which people hold different, sometimes conflicting, beliefs. But what about politics? Or even, dare I say it, science? Does the fact that there are capitalists, socialists, Communists and neo-Nazis make the teaching of politics ridiculous? Or the fact that there are disagreements among scientists, or among doctors, or among psychologists, mean that all their theories must be dismissed as false?

Mr Dawkins mocks the proposals for religious education by implying that every weird sect must now be taken seriously, and that a whole catalogue of ancient cults should be revived. One might as well mock the history of science and medicine, or argue that the Monster Raving Loony Party is on a par with the major political parties simply because it exists.

There's no law that says we cannot use our judgement in deciding which beliefs are more worthy of our attention.

I am a Christian, and as I learn more about other faiths I find that there are some contradictions and some things that give greater meaning to common human spiritual experience. I have yet to meet an atheist whose character or lifestyle convinces me that a world without God and people who trust God would be a better one.

Yours faithfully,

WENDY BASKETT

Minister

Penn United Reformed Church

Penn,

West Midlands

12 August