In his letter on “life everlasting” (November 18), Fr Mario Attard preaches about God’s “eternal damnation” – a transparent device for instilling fear among his fellow believers!

Return peaceably to the universal home from which you came...- John Guillaumier, St Julians

In The Age of Voltaire, historian Will Durant writes about Jean Meslier, a parish priest who left a treatise on religion as a testament to his parishioners. “Fr Meslier thought that we should be grateful that we are all allowed an eternal sleep after the turmoil of ‘this world, which causes more trouble than pleasure to the majority of you. Return peaceably to the universal home from which you came and pass by without murmuring, like all beings that surround you.’

“To those who defended the conception of heaven as a consolation, Fr Meslier replied that on their own allegations only a minority reached that goal, while the majority went to hell... How could any civilised person believe in a God who would condemn his creatures to everlasting hell?”

Durant quotes Fr Meslier: “Is there in nature a man so cruel as to wish in cold blood to torment, I do not say his fellow beings, but any sentient being whatever? Conclude, then, O theologians, that according to your own principles your God is infinitely more wicked than the most wicked of men.”