DURING the Christmas holiday Kavanagh should not have felt sorry for atheists because of his faith and Christian teaching.

Whenever I meet an atheist I ask them who created the world and it cancels out all other questions.

I am 85 and through my life have always pondered this question and have read a lot about athiests and have found them to be in the higher echelons of education. Some had titles to their name which puzzled me even more, thinking them more intelligent than myself.

One of the questions I ask myself is where do they get their strength, because believing in God is like standing on a rock - safe and secure. What has an atheist got comparable to that? Nothing that I know of.

Kavanaugh says that no wonder Professor R Dawkins and Professor P Atkins looked so depressed on Rod Liddle's programme about atheists on Channel 4. They have no hope nor faith - the mainstays of living in whatever century.

W G NORTHOVER, Totton.