CONCERNING the recent letter by Mike Lim, “Unanswered issues for faith groups” (April 22), he is quite correct in his observations concerning the inaction of God.

Mike was replying to a letter by John Hampson, “I can testify to God’s presence” (April 18), who said that God was with him in his suffering.

This, of course, was all in the mind. If God was so caring, why did he allow John to suffer rather than prevent it altogether?

The truth is that people decide for themselves which events to attribute to God and which to ignore.

They choose to attribute to God only the good things that happen, of course, and bend their belief to fit the facts where necessary.

This is highly illogical. Either all events are God’s doing, or none. You cannot choose for yourself which.

Every civilisation that has ever existed has invented a god or gods of its own in order to explain the things that could not then be explained, mostly totally different and quite incompatible.

Now science has explained all — from the origin and evolution of the universe to the origin and evolution of life on earth — the hand of any supernatural being is nowhere to be seen.

Why do people continue to believe in the supernatural? Because they are indoctrinated from birth with one religion or another and because they are unwilling to accept the fact that death is the end of life.

It is also a fact, as Mike observes, that religion has been, and is today, a major cause of war and suffering in the world. Religious governments are the worst kind of governments, being undemocratic in the extreme, ruling by force and punishing those they believe have transgressed by cruel and barbaric means. Let us hope that never happens here.

David James, Bolton