MR Farley's letter (LET, January 12) asks for his religion to be taught to children.

He says that not teaching religion in schools would deny people the right to make an informed decision and would be selfish.

Really? Does Mr Farley hold this view about any claim or just the ones he happens to take seriously?

For thousands of years humans have invented lots of fantastic things that they have believed to exist and I do not hear Mr Farley demanding that children are taught about these in schools!

For example, should children not be taught about Thor, Zeus and unicorns, not as mythology, but as very real issues about which they need to make an informed decision?

What about scientology? Should that be explored in detail so that children can decide?

If Mr Farley really believed this then he would have to think that every claim of which we could even conceive would be put before children so that they could decide whether or not to believe it.

Where should we draw the line? What if I announced that I had a dream last night in which a new religion, or the truth or some fantastic insight of cosmic significance, were revealed to me?

Would Mr Farley want my own fantastic and rather dubious insights taught in schools? Would that be okay or should I get a few hundred followers before children need to be taught about my dream?

Mr Farley wants his religion taught to children because he thinks it is true, unlike millions of beliefs that he won't be advocating teaching.

That is fair enough reason for advocating the teaching of something, but it is a misrepresentation to suggest there is some higher moral issue at stake.

Mr Farley also claims that atheism does not teach ethics. This is because atheism is not a belief system but simply the back of belief in religion.

Many atheists have high standards of ethics which are not dependent on them being atheists.

Surely, the only issue of any importance is: are the claims of Christianity true or not?

If Mr Farley wants his religion to be promoted in schools then, rather than arguing about fairness and ethics, he would better serve his cause by showing, in a persuasive way, that a god exists and that this god is consistent with the main claims of Christianity.

PAUL ALMOND, Roman Road, Blackburn.