RUTH Wishart's bewildering intervention in the faith schools debate (November 13) recycles the same compound of half-truths and baseless accusations that have become central to Scottish liberal opinion's evidence-free critique of denominational education.

In most other areas of inquiry, the customary academic rejoinder to assertions of this kind is simply put up or shut up: furnish the evidence to support these extravagant claims or withdraw them.

That this response repeatedly prompts only silence betrays the nature of the argument that is being pursued. Scare stories about Creationism in schools, insinuations of a link between faith schools and terror and the tasteless canard that separate schooling underlies the political problems of Northern Ireland - these are the trademarks of an irreducible prejudice against which no amount of counterfactual data will count.

Were this style of reasoning to be applied to issues of race, liberal opinion would be justifiably outraged. That it is alone permitted in relation to this particular national obsession does no credit to our intellectual life, puzzles international educational opinion and hints that the demons of COMMUNICATION and perception can both be defined in terms of the the messenger and the message. For William Bonnar to assert that "there is a clear link between the continuation of sectarianism in Scotland and the existence of separate Catholic schools" without citation of any robust research, places my perception of his message firmly in the camp of those who would be suspicious of the dubious dialectics in play here.

I have no doubt that if one ethnically cleansed enclaves of diversity from Scottish society without due regard for the contribution made by those groups, then the "problem" would lessen. But why stop there? Racism is a problem - so can we now start to draw up a list of which groups should be marginalised and removed in the pursuit of cultural hegemony? Sexism would suggest a difficult but essential choice as to which gender should dominate to assure homogenous dominance sending us forward as one. I'm sure the demographic difficulty of the ageing population could be solved with gentle tweaks to the laws on euthanasia, solving the pensions and health service resourcing situation at one fell stroke.

Please spare us, William, at a time when some members of society seek to engender values of humanity, compassion and concern with values relating to the dignity of self and others beyond an industrial economic feedstock model of education. Be careful what you wish for, for some day you may get it and at some point in everyone's life they will find that they also will be a member of a problem group. One Scotland, fewer cultures? I don't think so.

Dr Robert A Davis, Head of Department of Religious Education, University of Glasgow.

our past remain at large where we might least expect to find them.

Paul Cochrane, 10 Grants Way, Paisley.

MICHAEL McGrath seems to regard himself as a defender of "the ideals of religious freedom" (November 15). I can only assume that he means the religious freedom of parents to choose which religion their children should follow, rather than the freedom of the children themselves, which is hardly best served by sending them to schools where one faith is accorded superiority. Does such promotion of one faith at the expense of others really show "respect for diversity"?

Dr David Shaw, Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, University of St Andrews.

I AM a Protestant evangelical Christian who agrees that religion is best taught in the home and in churches. School are not the place for this and neither are they the right place for sex education. Both are taught badly in schools. Hence we have the worst teenage pregnancy and sexual disease rate in Europe. We also have a skewed idea of what religion is also, especially Christianity.

In reply to Michael McGrath, I know of evangelical Catholics. As for fundamentalism, no church is more so than the Catholic Church. This is not a bad thing in itself, as at least this church knows where it stands in stark contrast to some Protestant churches.

John Montgomery, 24 March Crescent, Anstruther.

WHEN I was at school in Aberdeen, I was belted for refusing to sing hymns at assembly. My mum and dad were Christians but I wasn't. I complained to my dad about getting belted and he said it served me right and hit me again. What right did I have to say I wasn't a Christian? It was almost enough to make me a Muslim, or a Buddhist or a Hindu. Fortunately for me, and for others whose brains are still functioning, there was atheism.

Colin Cameron, 18 School Brae, Letham, Fife.