Jacqueline Calleja complained about the “eviction” of God from western secular society (‘God’s TV go-between’, January 2).

His eviction can be traced back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when the Age of Faith was superseded by the Age of Reason. In England, Deism cast doubts on Christian doctrine and in France atheism was widespread among the educated, including the Catholic clergy.

When Lomenie de Brienne, the freethinker archbishop of Toulouse, was recommended for the archbishopric of Paris, Louis XVI protested: “We must at least have an archbishop of Paris who believes in God!”

In England, said the deist Anthony Collins: “No one doubted the existence of God until the Boyle lectures undertook to prove it”.

In the 19th century, Hegel mourned the death of God; Nietzsche publicized His death; and Thomas Hardy wrote God’s epitaph in his poem God’s funeral.

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