GRAHAM Butler (September 1) agrees with Michael Wenham (August 23) that there is strong evidence for the belief in life after death.

I also agree but would be more interested in whether there is strong evidence for life after death, rather than for whether people believe in it, humanity having been known to get hold of the wrong end of the stick occasionally.

He further asserts that the two ‘great faiths’, commanding the allegiance of millions, originated through paranormal events.

Be he right or wrong, perhaps he should consider the reasons, past and present, why the two ‘great faiths’ boast so many adherents, and what they have had in common over the centuries, as opposed to other religions.

Not that their founders can necessarily be held responsible for the subsequent coarsening and corruption of their teachings.

Where they clearly differ is with respect to the purported divinity of Jesus of Nazareth, so it is not easy to grasp why a deity would reveal this individual, if actually a historical person, to be his only-begotten son at one point and little more than a common or garden prophet a few centuries later.

In other words, the two ‘great faiths’ cannot possibly both be right but they could easily both be wrong, together with some or all of the others.

In any case, the really irksome thing about those claiming there to be some form of afterlife is that, if they are mistaken, they will presumably never realise the fact.

Peter Manser, Howard Street, Oxford