Letter: Blind belief

A FEW people have become atheists because they hate God, as Neal Ascherson said (10 March), and a few because the world isn't run as God should run it, as David Morton said (Letters, 24 March). But most simply have no need for that hypothesis, as the French scientist Laplace said two centuries ago.

The 10 per cent of the population who are atheists believe the weight of the evidence is against God, or any kind of superhuman person or supernatural power. The 15 per cent who are agnostics believe there is no proof of such things either way. Both these positions are quite logical, as are the many forms of theism. The point, however, is which one is true. The fact is that it doesn't make much difference.

Anna Freeman

Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire