Madam, - Prof William Reville ( Science Today, October 12th) equates the pseudo-scientific communist creed with atheism and suggests that "proselytising atheists" such as Richard Dawkins should take heed of the failure of communism and of the atrocities and massacres carried out by the various despots who may broadly be said to have been followers of Marx.
I usually enjoy Prof Reville's contributions, but I feel it is utterly inappropriate, particularly in a scientific column, to make any link, however tenuous, between the deaths of "85-100 million" people and the assumed atheistic beliefs of the despotic individuals who perpetrated them.
Religiosity in any of its guises does not have a monopoly on morality and the absence of a belief in God does not make a person amoral. Pol Pot, Stalin et al. committed their crimes because they were unhinged despots with unfettered and unquestioned power, not because they were atheists who had no fear of other-worldly consequences.
Prof Reville has his own views on the interaction of science and religion and regularly uses his column to expound them. While he is entitled to proselytise for Christianity or any other faith, his denigration of atheism or humanism by a juxtaposition to communism only serves to undermine the credibility of his arguments. - Yours, etc,
MARTIN BROWNE, Stepaside, Dublin 18.