In response to Dr J F Young's' letter, 'Haven't got a prayer' in the Journal on Thursday, April 14th.

Firstly, I would agree with Dr Young that there can be problems with religion, when people push their views using unfounded opinion. I would also like to ask if Dr Young knows that his position; atheism, is now a faith and religion that is taught in secondary schools. I am sure he would like to apply his own premise to his faith as well, to see if his views are unfounded.

Dr Young claims that Christian, Jewish and Muslim views are murderous. I saw a film called Collateral recently. I would recommend it. The main character decides he can kill anybody he chooses, because he is an atheist. I am sure Dr Young would agree that this is the only position you can take if indeed you are an atheist, and you believe we have just happened by random chance.

To correct Dr Young, there is no problem with questioning or disagreeing with someone's beliefs in reference to the religious hatred law, (how could you be a Christian and an atheist at once for example, and as Georg Christoph Lichtenberg said, 'Question Everything.').

I would also be very interested to hear of any scientific or reasonable argument that Dr Young has to suggest that God doesn't exist. To date I have not come across one that makes sense, only many that are very persuasive of God's existence, as Anthony Flew recognised recently when he had to conclude that God does exist, after living a life of atheism.

I would strongly agree with Dr Young that religion should increasingly be questioned. If anyone would like to seriously question atheism I would strongly recommend they read a book entitled, 'I Wish I could believe in Meaning' by Peter S Williams (ISBN 1-904753-06-X).

James Nicol, Hughes Close, Harvington.