Sir

Geoffrey Cantor has overlooked the reason why many scientists perceive a conflict between science and religion, in his Millennium Essay "Fighting the wrong battle" (Nature 403, 831 ; 2000). Science is an enterprise whose proponents attempt to arrive at the truth by reasoning from experiment and observation. Religions rely on beliefs for which there is no support other than the dogmatic statements of sacred writings or clerics, and which are often imposed on the populace by force.

It is ludicrous to maintain that there need be no conflict between such fundamentally opposed activities. If the human race is survive the next millennium, we need to face reality, not delude ourselves with fairy stories.