SINCE the Socialist Party of Great Britain are good communists, perhaps they will also write to point out that it is not only Christianity that is wrong, but presumably all other religions as well - obviously, Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius and so on never existed either. Or is there a hidden agenda here?

On the subject of Paddy Shannon's letter, I do not profess to be such an expert on ancient Jewish scholars, and so don't know about the "Slavonic Additions" and so on, but I do know that you cannot demolish or deconstruct Christianity on the basis of one small point of scholarship.

On the final point, Paddy Shannon really trips up. If Christianity really did condemn the West to "a thousand years of ignorance known as the Dark Ages", then why didn't the intellectuals of the Renaissance and Enlightenment period simply dispense with it? On the contrary, many of the artists, scientists and philosophers were Christians themselves. However, does your reference to "pagan science" betray, once again, a hidden agenda?

So, SPGB, stop this Christian-bashing and realise that it is your Marxist ideology which has failed to stand the test of barely 150 years of time, when Christian faith has stood for 2,000. We would do better do stand together, as Phil McGrath pointed out, against such things as the commercialisation of Christian festivals and the injustice in the world. Trying to deny a faith that has nearly 2 billion adherents in the world today will help no-one, least of all yourselves.

Helen Jones, Adelphi St, Lancaster