Sir – Bob Forster intemperately makes it clear in his letter this week that he disagrees with my wish for state-supported schools to be free of divisive religious indoctrination and that he does not agree that it is good that the theme of this year’s (very successful) town and gown Think Week (www.thinkweek.co.uk) is “Towards a Secular State”.

He asks why do so many families choose faith schools? One answer is that often, as in the case of my children and grandchildren, it is the only local state school — a Church of England school for historical reasons only.

Let us hope that non-religious people will make their modern views clear by ticking the No Religion box in the census next month. He suggests that parents may care little about the Christian faith — indeed! — but want the clear Christian values that lie at the heart of such schools. Of course he is right. His error is in making the entirely unwarranted assumption that morality stems from religion, whereas actually secular morality precedes and then continues to determine socially acceptable religious morality.

Believing in a god and an afterlife is not necessary for moral education. In state supported schools, there should be no worship of divisive and mythical gods.

As for parents not withdrawing their children from worship, many would not want their children to stand out in that way.

State-supported religious education should be about all the various religions and their origins — rather than divisive denominational faith indoctrination.

Finally, it is rather rich for a defender of religion to tell the non-religious to consider the evidence rather than dogma: that is what we do!

Dane Clouston, Stadhampton