Sir - Edward Sanderson's fusillade against Richard Dawkins (Letters, December 1) misses every target. The central chapter of The God Delusion is entitled 'Why there almost certainly is no God'. That is not the 'subconscious' doubt that Mr Sanderson insinuates. However, when Richard Dawkins spoke at the Oxford Union on November 14, he rightly slapped down the suggestion that he is 'agnostic'. He pointed out that most people are atheist about Wotan, fairies, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster, even though they can't disprove their existence.
Agreed, we don't need a book debunking fairies. Fairy-worshippers aren't currently as dangerous as Christians. The Church of Oberon is not about to get tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money to take over Peers School. Fairy-worshippers do not nauseatingly pop up on 'Thought for the Day' quoting Peter Pan as the answer to every ethical dilemma.
Nor have they sent lavishly-produced DVDs to every secondary school, to 'teach the controversy' about their faith that babies are found under intelligent gooseberry bushes. Richard Dawkins is completely open about the aims of The God Delusion. He wants to undermine New Labour's cant that nonsense must be respected if it claims to be religious, expose the abuse of labelling children according to their parents' choice of superstition, and show that it is entirely possible to be a spiritually fulfilled atheist.
Nicholas Lawrence, Oxford
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