Sir — Tony Morris of the Oxford Humanist Group (Letters, August 22) perpetuates the common misconception that our Creator is somehow the cause of all the disasters in the world.

All the major religions teach us that there is destroyer in opposition to the Creator, and it is this force of evil that is the cause of all negative action, destruction and chaos.

The truth is there for us to see that when religion is replaced by secular materialism, violence and pure evil escalate out of all control.

There is undeniable proof that the only alternative for the positive force of religion is the negative force of evil. It is no coincidence that young people think it 'cool' to have a fascination with the occult, death and all things connected with it.

That other old cynic, Richard Dawkins, falls into the trap of taking religious text on face value instead of reading the 'small print'. If he had done his research in a manner befitting his academic background, he would have noted that the central argument of the creation story is far more complicated than the normal 'six days' we are brought up to accept. Both the Old Testament and the Qur'an have the clues.

The Book of Psalms, 90: 40, states: "For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past..."

The Qur'an supports this in Sura 22, verse 46: "...and verily a day with thy Lord is a thousand years as ye reckon them..." So it appears that our theories of time and space are slightly out of tune, but then it was Einstein who said "the distinction between past, present and future, is only an illusion, however persistent".

Daniel Laurence, Oxford