SIR - You have recently carried glowing accounts of the Christian and Muslim religions as though there is no downside to their activities.

The naivety of this is a disservice to balanced and free debate.

We are endlessly asked to view religion as a good thing when its most enthusiastic followers are often to be found among the perpetrators of genocide, terrorism and warfare.

We seem also to have forgotten that vast numbers of victims of religion have no choice about believing the myths that are imposed on them, because the alternative to being a devout follower is persecution and, sometimes, a painful death.

By all means report the positives, but let's hear about the brutality and totalitarianism behind religion as well.

And why do atheists never get a chance to have an equal say when all this romanticised tripe about religion is being dished up to us?

Jim Evans, Worcester