MR PHILIP H Hayworth (Letters, September 17) seems to be a little naive, doesn’t he? To suggest that the adherence to the bible by the entire population of this country, and, by inference, the world, is hardly possible or even desirable.

It could possibly be argued that with the population under the control of the churches, and all being law-abiding, would produce a population of obedient servants to the priests and powerful in the land, but that is not the same as being God-fearing, is it?

A brief, it need only be very brief, study of the church as opposed to Christianity, will show the corruption. paedophilia, homosexuality, living in palaces and generally being a class apart with well financed living arrangements and we have not even started on the privileged establishment of the royal family and its class-obsessed hangers-on, and you have no chance of getting a free and fair society which is the (supposed) purpose of religion.

We have not even started on the other religions that are as hostile to Christianity as Christians themselves. The muslims will tell you theirs is the superior religion and although I have not heard any such statement from Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists etc, I have no doubt that they are similarly situated. After all, why would one worship a god in a particular way if one thought that another way was superior? Whilst I hesitate to question any man’s faith, atheist though I am, the story of Jesus rising from the dead and thereby paying for the sins of the world is absolute rubbish. Even the disciples failed to recognise him, didn’t they? I also give no credence to the story of Mohammed and his conversations with god. Perhaps we can get some idea of where these two got their ideas from when we remember that they both spent some 40 days in the wilderness eating very little.

F Isherwood Latham Road Blackrod