Imposing views

Richard Lucas (Letters, 20 February) missed my point when I exposed the hypocrisy of those who contend that “secularists” are trying to impose their views on society.

Pointing to religionists imposing their views at every opportunity exposes their two-facedness admirably. Mr Lucas misrepresents me.

He also makes the routine error of conflating communism and atheism, even though it has been pointed out to him, ad nauseum, that communism is a quasi-religion.

State-funded “secular schools” are the norm in America, where they are neutral on religious matters, without any presumption of atheism on the part of the mostly Christian students.

Christians try to undermine this neutrality by sneaking “intelligent design” into the curriculum. This discredited religious notion, of zero scientific merit, is no more important in academic discussion than astrology.

Christians should not be allowed to trick pupils into thinking otherwise.

(Dr) Stephen Moreton

Marina Avenue

Warrington

Cheshire

Richard Lucas (Letters, February 20) repeats the oft-refuted fallacy that communism is evil because it atheistic.

In fact, communism is merely a secularised religion that replaces an omnipotent god with an omnipotent dictator and demands both faith and self-sacrifice from its followers, just as all religions do.

Implicit in the belief that communism is the logical conclusion of atheism is that man lacks even the capacity for reason, let alone that reason is valid. Such a view is contradictory, as are all arguments against reason.

As for the “intelligent design” idea, this is merely an admission that creationism has failed in its agenda to be viewed as science and it should be viewed for what it is: an attempt to repackage creationism and to join religion and state.

Bruce Crichton

Victoria Road

Falkirk