From Ken Pettett
It was witty to print Albert Lightfoot’s letter disputing the conjecture that observatories were built for religious reasons, – and then follow it with one from Steve Blyth suggesting that agriculture may also have been the result of religious congregations (12 October, p 30).
Raymond Tallis uses the term “Darwinitis” for the misuse of Darwin’s theory of evolution to explain all aspects of human behaviour; perhaps we could coin a similar word – theitis? religitis? – to describe explanations of human progress in terms of religious concepts.
Sandy, Bedfordshire, UK
