Sir – Helen Robertson says (Letters, March 17) that people of faith “have come in for a lot of opposition and marginalisation recently” and refers to “aggressive atheistic bullying”, though she gives no actual examples. I can’t say I have seen any such thing in the correspondence she refers to, or elsewhere for that matter.

Opposition seems a strange thing to complain of. Personally I rather like people to oppose my ideas, it seems a healthy thing to happen in a free society. Ideas, religious or otherwise, that cannot be questioned can become a danger. Human history and our daily newspapers show us this.

It seems that simply asking people who don’t believe in God to record their disbelief in the forthcoming census, upsets her, and some of your other correspondents, but this is surely out of all proportion to the simple request that was made. Certainly there was no bullying involved.

I am frequently bewildered by references to militant atheism. It often seems to me that active expressions of disbelief are treated as militant or aggressive, while evangelising for religion is considered to be acceptable.

Have you had someone knock on your door on behalf of Richard Dawkins recently. No, I thought not.

Paul Surman, Horspath