LETTER : Uncritical church aids Dawkins

Sir: While Richard Dawkins continues to point out the more obvious contradictions inherent in religious belief, his detractors seek to refute him by speaking in riddles.

Gordon Whitehead (letter, 1 January) seems to imply that as long as somebody suffers following these sins we're all supposed to have committed, then the needs of divine justice are satisfied. If such a principle were to catch on at the Home Office, I like to believe there would be some sort of public outcry.

His analogy of Christ's paying our debts like someone paying a criminal's fine is incomplete. It is more like the government specifically hiring someone to take on everybody's fines, then sacking them for it, but promising them a very good pension. We would then claim crime had been eliminated. Surely not even Michael Howard ... oh well, maybe.

VYV HOPE-SCOTT

Twickenham, Middlesex