David Quinn's article describes Stephen Fry's atheism as an ill-considered outburst. His reasoning in this regard is difficult to follow.

Firstly, he contends that if Stephen Fry is an atheist then he must accept in full the views of other atheists such as Dawkins, Hawking and Crick or explain why his views differ. Not so; atheism is not a religion and unlike Catholicism does not come with its own dogma. The only thing atheists have in common is that they do not believe that God exists.

Mr Quinn does neatly lay out three possible reasons for unjust suffering; either God is not good, God is not all-powerful or God does not exist at all.

He does not have an answer though, apart from noting that there are people who believe in God despite having endured terrible suffering.

Mr Quinn asserts that unless you believe in God then you cannot believe in free will, right and wrong or basic morality. This is an extraordinary contention which he does not begin to support.

It is certainly not implied by science.

He also contends that there can be no such thing as love unless there is God - again advanced as a truism without any attempt at a logical framework.

Atheism does imply that there is no supernatural policeman watching your life and listening to your thoughts.

Neither punishment nor reward awaits after death. For me, that says that an atheist acting in a moral manner actually has a purer motive in doing so than someone who expects a pay-off for it.

"Matter cannot produce a moral law," he says.

He should not underestimate matter; given that over 13.5 billion years it could form generations of stars, light and heavier elements, organic chemistry, simple and then complex life, and eventually sentient beings capable of morality, love and philosophy.

Conor Faughnan

Knocklyon, Dublin 16

Slapping in the classroom

Your columnist, Barbara Scully, together with Tanya Ward of the Children's Rights Alliance and Senator Jillian van Turnhout, are unanimous in their condemnation of Pope Francis's comments (Irish Independent, February 6) regarding slapping children.

Surely they cannot for one moment believe the Pope is advocating violence towards children. Slapping is wrong and dangerous when the person administering the slap is out of control. But as a boy growing up in the 1960s, I was slapped at school many, many times, like thousands of other children at that time.

Some of the teachers have been good friends to me in my adult life and I never for one moment considered my punishments excessive. Do these people who condemn the Pope's views suggest I now go to the gardai to bring criminal charges upon those who slapped me 50 years ago, people who are now my friends? That was an era where teachers were respected, rather than nowadays, when they must walk on egg shells in anticipation of this or that accusation by pupils or their parents.

David Bradley

Drogheda

Respecting our differences

In relation to the recent 'manly' McDonalds adverts on TV, I wish to state that it is okay for a man to drive a Nissan Micra or a brightly coloured car. Indeed, it's okay for a man to borrow his mum's, girlfriend's or boyfriend's car.

It is inherently sexist to suggest that a certain car model is deemed girly. It may seem like just a bit of 'craic' or innocent slagging but not to me. I am one of those who does not always conform to the traditional image of how a man should act. It can be hard for me and others who do not have a 'thick skin' to be the odd one out.

Growing up as a gay teenager in rural Ireland has taught me that slagging all too often leads to bullying and isolation.

Instead, we should be encouraging and respecting differences. Will McDonalds complain if I pay to eat in one of their restaurants and have a salad instead of a double cheeseburger? I certainly doubt it.

Seamus Kearney

Lismire, Cork

Apology to Muslim pupil

The mother of an 11-year-old Muslim pupil in Limerick, who took offence as a copy of 'Charlie Hebdo', was passed around the classroom featuring the Prophet Mohammed (Irish Independent, February 6), explained her outrage﻿ by wondering how respect for diversity in a multicultural Ireland can be promoted "if our educators are not mindful of the different cultures and religion in our classrooms". This seems to me to be a perfectly reasoned position; however, for this to work it has to be an inclusive policy.

Children will only benefit from an inclusive debate where prejudice against all religions, minorities and ethnicities is exposed.

Dr Kevin McCarthy

Kinsale, Cork

Debt relief for Greece

I was taken aback at the condescending tone of Taoiseach Enda Kenny's comments towards Greece.

When asked about the ECB decision to stop funding Greek banks, he said: "Clearly, this is, if you like, a direction to the Greek government, that as we have said, this is not a case of having debt write-downs."

How quickly time flies; it only seems like yesterday when Kenny was hailing a breakthrough at a European Council meeting, when he proclaimed Ireland was considered a "special case" with a view to the retroactive use of the eurozone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, to lessen the burden of Ireland's bank debt.

As we now know, that turned out to be little more than just a pipe dream.

Throughout the crisis, many eminent economists informed us that the maximum sustainable debt to GDP ratio was around 120pc, approximately the level that Ireland peaked at a year ago.

Greek debt to GDP currently stands at 175pc. This debt is clearly unsustainable.

If European decision makers can put aside their tut-tutting and hubris for a moment, they will see that there are only three options open to Greece: debt write-down, debt restructuring or a Greek exit from the eurozone.

John Bellew

Dunleer, Co Louth

Better late than never

Saturday, January 24, 2015, Eindhoven Airport, Holland. Two passengers for flight FR1965 ask an obliging businessman to drive us 50km over snow-covered roads, at great risk to all, to make our return flight to Dublin, scheduled to depart Eindhoven at 11.00 hours.

Getting through security, we arrive at passport control by 10.20 am and are only then informed the flight is delayed due to weather conditions.

Text from Ryanair at 10.44 am: "Apologies for the delay to your flight FR1965 today, your new estimated time of departure is 15.20 pm Please monitor the airport departure screens."

Between 10.45 am and our actual departure times, three different times appeared on the airport screen: 15.00pm, 15.15pm and 15.20pm.

No consideration was given for any expenses that may have been incurred by the flight delay - such as expensive parking in Dublin, missed onward connections, or other meeting arrangements. When the aircraft did arrive from Dublin it was the usual 300/400-metre walk to board it for its return flight - out in the open and not very comfortable for OAPs.

P Clarke

Sligo

Irish Independent