Religious studies

I am still smiling at Alan D Jackson’s depiction of secularists as “the modern Gradgrinds of education, humourlessly depriving children of anything other than a dry rationale of life without imaginative or spiritual nourishment” (Letters, 30 October).

He surely cannot think that only religious belief nourishes children with imagination. Religious myth certainly has a place in the library of “great poetry and plays” and its morality tales, like Aesop’s before and Shakespeare’s after them, are rightly discussed in schools.

Christianity similarly has adopted and contributed to our Yule and spring equinox festivals but doesn’t have sole ownership of their “significance”.

If Mr Jackson wishes children specifically to “experience worship” he can take them to church.

Neil Barber

Edinburgh Secular Society

Saughtonhall Drive