Before Peter Baxter (Letters, June 6) gets too excited about deism in the world today, I suggest he first reads The Age Of Reason by the deist Thomas Paine, which propounds the theory of deism and systematically demolishes the myths of Christianity and other "revealed" religions.

He should then read The Rights Of Man by the same author.

Paine was one of the creators of the American Constitution and it is ironic that within a few years of this remarkable achievement and to this day he is vilified, defamed and misrepresented as an atheist by the fundamentalist Christian bigots who very sinisterly wield so much power and are systematically seeking to destroy the individual freedoms enshrined in that document in that land today.

I don't think he would be overly impressed with the "success" of the country he played such an important part in creating.

-Vince Wild, Lower Bevendean, Brighton