Shoppers cannot have failed to notice the humanist gazebo in Cornmarket over the past few Saturdays.

Last Saturday, in a spirit of genuine inquiry, I ventured to ask a young woman who was handing out leaflets why the humanists were so opposed to religion.

I was quite unprepared for her aggressive response which left me little room to get a word in edgeways. I was told that, as a Christian, my beliefs were only acceptable if I kept them private (even though the humanists see fit to proclaim theirs in the middle of Cornmarket) and that my traditional Christian beliefs were ‘bigoted’.

I found the humanist approach exceptionally ill-mannered. Along with religion, humanists appear to have abandoned any capability to engage in polite discussion.

I hope that, in the interests of a polite society, the majority will avoid the ‘No religion’ box in the forthcoming Census. Sally Grover, Tackley