I SOMETIMES wonder where CT Riley (HAS, Feb 1) gets his information.

Thus, he says: “The Bible barely mentions the devil.”

What? There are, in fact, numerous references to him - usually under the name Satan - throughout both the old and new testaments.

For example, the entire book of Job – written, for Mr Riley’s information, long before the Babylonian captivity of the Jews – is the description of a long contest between God and the devil for the soul of a man of heroic faith. Again, there are Isaiah’s references to the devils that haunted the ruins of certain sinful cities.

In the New Testament there is the long account of our Lord’s confrontation with Satan in the wilderness - and many more.

Mr Riley, and others, may kid themselves that the devil doesn’t exist but they are in for a rude awakening at the time of their own deaths, or shortly thereafter.

He exists all right and is the direst of all threats to each and every one of us.

In fact, the likes of Mr Riley have very much in common with the vocal pacifists who preached disarmament throughout the 1930s on the grounds that Hitler and the Nazis were no real threat to anyone; or the even bigger idiots who said the same about Stalin.

The only appropriate and realistic attitude to the devil is one of eternal vigilance.

Tony Kelly, Crook.

CT RILEY’S portrayal of the “devil” (HAS, Feb 1) has several serious flaws. Jews (Israelites) knew the devil long before the Babylonian exile (586 BC).

They knew Genesis (the story of Adam and Eve) in which the devil “starred”, possibly from 1250BC and certainly by oral tradition. Scholars disagree over the composition date.

He cites the Jews as regarding the devil as a mere symbol of evil.

Not so with Evangelists (all Jews) or St Peter, St Paul or Jesus Himself, who present the devil as a visible presence as physical as a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8).

He says the devil is hardly mentioned in the Bible. He should read the book of Job.

But his most incredible, wearisome and frankly disingenuous claim is that the majority of atrocities are done by those claiming God’s will.

Can he specify definitely the who, when and where of his “countless millions”? And were Hitler, Stalin, Pal Pot and North Korea claiming “God’s will” for their deeds?

Finally, we come to the acid test. He blames everything on doctrine. There are 2,000 years of doctrine in the Catholic Catechism.

I challenge Mr Riley to locate a single doctrine which advocates the oppression, persecution and execution of human beings rather than the love, care and service to others.

Michael Baldasera, Darlington.