I CANNOT say that I am greatly surprised by the content of Paddy Shannon's supposed reply to my letter. He completely ignored the facts that he was presented with and which blew his pseudo-intellectual argument out of the water, concentrating instead upon attacking the tone of what I said, the fact that I write under a pen-name and promoting his rather quaint interpretation of rationalism.

Fact. Mr Shannon claimed that there was no historical evidence for the existence of Christ. I gave him four (could have been 40) pieces of incontrovertible evidence and he had no answer.

Fact. I am perfectly entitled to write to the editor of The Citizen, or any other newspaper and, providing that I supply my name and address to the said editor, I am entitled to use a pen-name. Once, many years ago, when I attacked an extremist group publicly, the result was graffiti on my wall, broken windows and a vandalised car. Of course, I do not suggest that your correspondents would do such things but their rather weird and wonderful supporters might. Mine wouldn't, so you can carry on using your own names, Paddy and Steve!

Fact. Yes, I did urge a form of censorship. The same form of censorship as Mr Shannon and Mr Metcalfe no doubt support concerning racial matters. In fact, they support it in religious matters, too, when it suits them. They would quiver and quake in fear at the very thought of attacking Judaism or Buddhism. That, you see, would not be politically correct and political correctness is the religion of Messrs Shannon, Metcalfe and their like.

Yes, Mr Editor, I do think, with the greatest of respect that you made a mistake giving space on this subject. I can wipe the floor, as I have demonstrated, with any lunatic daft enough to doubt the actual existence of Jesus Christ. (I do not, please note, make any comment on His divinity or otherwise). There are thousands of vulnerable, sick and elderly people who cannot argue academically and who derive wonderful comfort from their faith. It is not, in my humble opinion, the business of a newspaper to make life more difficult for them. Might I plead with you to leave that to the political loonies in future?

Aelfric