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Joseph Mintz says "religion has powerful and important things to say about how we should be in the world" ("Faith is no barrier to intelligent discourse", November 2).

I suggest that religion has nothing to say. It is not an agent. People have things to say, which may or may not be valuable.

People come from various cultural and religious or non-religious backgrounds, but the origin of ideas is irrelevant to their value.

Faith is only a "barrier to intelligent discourse" if it is thought to confer some special status on the ideas expressed, or renders them impervious to criticism.

John Radford, Emeritus professor of psychology, University of East London.