MIKE Baldasera finishes his letter about religion (HAS, Aug 20) with the statement "Faith is the ability to believe what your heart and mind tells you is true without the need for scientific proof".

Could not any al Qaida suicide bomber or member of the Taliban make the same statement to justify his horrifying crimes? How could we argue against him if he insists that his heart and mind tells him that what he has been taught to believe is so?

Should not all beliefs need to be backed up by evidence? This is how the law operates, so why not in other fields of life?

Eric Gendle, Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough.

IN reply to Eric Gendle and CT Riley (HAS, both Aug 22), I am not talking about oral tradition miracles.

Fireside tales handed down through the ages are no more relevant than Noggin the Nog.

I refer to miracles that people can see today. In France, the incorrupt bodies of St Vincent de Paul (d. 1660) and St Bernadette (d. 1878). In Italy, St Catherine of Bologna (d. 1468). In all these, the "finger of God" can be seen plainly pointing to the truth.

John Conlon, Sunnybrow, Willington, Co Durham.