In his letter The Silent Grave (November 21) John Guillaumier refers to a statement made by professor of psychology Steven Pinker who derides those people who still think of the brain as a personal computer for the soul, managing information at the behest of a ghostly user. According to Pinker, modern science has shown that there is no user and that the “soul” is, in fact, the information processing activity of the brain.

It should be obvious to anyone with a cursory acquaintance with philosophical thought that Prof. Pinker’s statement is not, and could never be, a scientific opinion.

But Mr Guillaumier like Prof. Pinker clearly misses the obvious and persists in his futile attempt to pit science and religion. Mr Guillaumier’s atheism reflects an intellectual pose, a snobbish caprice and a thoughtless superficiality.

In one of his letters, dated September 28, 1949, theoretical physicist Albert Einstein stated: “You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being” (Skeptic magazine 1997, Volume 5:2). Mr Guillaumier’s belief in the god of science undermines an American Academy of Sciences report: “Science is not the only way of acquiring knowledge about ourselves and the world around us. Humans gain understanding in many other ways, such as through literature, the arts, philosophical reflection and religious experience.” (Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences. Second Edition, 1999).

A quotation attributed to Winston Churchill describes a fanatic as one who cannot change his mind and would not change the subject.