KEITH Whitfield ("Not enough love in this world" H2 Letters 2/8) seems to suggest that an absence of belief is a causal factor in crime, rather than a mere coincidence.

Another common assertion from the religious is that those who don't adhere to their view of the world must hold a diametrically opposite view, must worship at the altar of consumerism, be selfish and greedy and lack the ability to love and forgive.

Utterly ridiculous. Mr Whitfield may believe that he gets his sense of right and wrong from a religious education, but I suggest that it was developed, as with the rest of us, from exposure to the moral code of the society in which he grew up. As the spirit of the times shifts, so do our morals and ethics.

To quote Nobel prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg: "With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things that takes religion."

Eddie Smith, Belmont North

August 6