LETTERS: Secular swipes at God have no answer to simple faith

ANDREW Brown's sceptical profile about God, "Beyond understanding" (3 March), was a classic case of an easy target being indulged for the benefit of the secular-minded intelligentsia. Of course a "history of religions" approach married to late-20th- century agnosticism can all too easily expose the absurdities of theology viewed as a kind of pseudo-science. But the heavy cost of this kind of exercise is an inability to value, take seriously or remotely understand the ordinary religious experience and commitment of countless unsung and unassuming believers. Ordinary practising Christians, who are neither weirdos nor hypocrites (at any rate, no more than the rest of us), experience their day-by-day faith in God as a profoundly supportive and undergirding resource, an interpretive framework for life and a powerful motivation for doing good. Despite what today's "cultured despisers" may prefer to think, churches up and down the land are populated with such dedicated believers who have got their life and faith together. These Christians take the model for their understanding of God from Jesus, believed by Christians to be the person who shows us in human terms what God is like. This faith deserves a more intelligent hearing from people who think they are sophisticated enough to have outgrown it.

Revd Dr John A Williams

Huddersfield, West Yorkshire