Sir – Given his version of religious belief, it is kind of Daniel Emlyn-Jones (Letters, June 11) to suggest a prayer for me and my fellow atheists, but, as he says, it would be rather stupid to pray to something one does not believe in! Ken Weavers is, of course, right when he says that atheism is a belief, as are all the varieties of religious faiths.

Atheism is indeed a belief that there is no god creator of the universe concerned with our individual or collective lives on this cosmic dot of a planet. If there were such a god creator, as he suggests there must be, we would all wonder who or what created her, him or it.

And M. Hugh Jones is, of course, right when he says that people’s spirits live long after the death of their physical bodies.

They live, as do gods, only in the minds of those still alive in the material world. If we were able to come back after death, we would do a lot more interesting things, more often, than plod up and down passages in old houses!

I look forward to the day when religious faith is a thing of the past, so that people can live together in peace and harmony, whether formerly Buddhist or Hindu, Catholic or Protestant, Shia or Sunni, Mormon or Scientologist. Somehow we must all focus, in this our one and only life, on human morality and the discoveries of empirically testable science, rather than mutually incompatible myths.

When atheists meet fellow atheists, from whatever religious belief they may have escaped, there is always an instant bond of communication and understanding, which I hope more and more will have the good fortune to experience. Oxford Humanists would welcome all such people.

Dane Clouston, Stadhampton