What is it that Bill McIlroy has against the Christian religion (Letters, June 2)?

Is his problem with our founder, the Lord Jesus Christ, or his followers, the church? Is he aware there is a cosmic battle going on in the universe between good and evil and we all have to decide on whose side we are?

His examples of so-called atrocities committed by Christians are a travesty of the truth. Is he seriously saying that Christianity inspired hatred against the Jews? Surely he knows that Jesus and the apostles and nearly all the believers in the early church were Jewish.

All most Christians want is for the Jews to recognise their own Messiah and be saved, as many still are today. To imply that Christians were responsible for the Holocaust beggars believe.

Churchill told us we were fighting the Second World War to preserve Christian civilisation from a terrible evil - read Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler if in doubt.

Even the Crusades were fought for the best of motives. Remember it was the Muslims who attacked the Holy Land and took Jerusalem. Were Christians expected to stand idly by and do nothing?

In all human activity mistakes are made but on any fair-minded assessment, Christianity has been a force for good in our crazy, mixed-up world.

If Mr McIlroy thinks religious faith is an illogical absurdity, he is hardly being very respectful to the countless millions who have died in the faith, trusting in Christ's promise of eternal life in heaven to those who believe in him.

As regards quotations, I prefer the English writer GK Chesterton who said: "That those who cease to have faith don't believe in nothing, but will believe anything."

-Alan Nunn, Hove