Dear Editor,
If ever there has been a ‘nothing’ piece in your letter columns it has got to be the rambling diatribe of Roger Williams on Ian McDonald’s Sunday column (SN, December 23). The candid expression of his reservations concerning the existence of a supernatural being which Dr McDonald shared with thousands of decent persons around the world is a source of discomfort  to Mr Williams.

His presentation that Dr McDonald’s piece “did not have to be written” and his feeble attempt to denigrate nationalism is pathetic. Anyone who seeks to dispute the fact that church attendance is dwindling in England and who speaks of the logic and unambiguity of the Bible must be living in Cloud Cuckooland. Thoughtful churchmen and reviewers have hailed Dawkins’ The God Delusion as a splendid contribution to national thought. The dismissive comment by Mr Williams that Dawkins has “descended to the depths of academic depravity and skullduggery” makes one thing apparent – he has not read the book!

If I am mistaken in this conclusion then I can only offer on Mr Williams’s behalf the prayer: ‘O Lord, help us not to oppose that which we do not understand.’

Yours faithfully,
Mahadeo Panchu