Sonia Young suggests that problems of antisocial behaviour and criminality associated with poor and abusive child-rearing have arisen because 'God has been left out of the equation' (June 26).
Recent Census data indicate that 22 per cent of us are not religious, and I have seen no evidence that criminal or antisocial behaviour by either adults or children is more strongly represented in this 22 per cent than in the rest of the population.
Take, more broadly, the most serious category of criminal offence by young people. Among Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the UK, countries in which religious belief has declined substantially over decades, the rate of murder committed by youths runs at only six per cent to 14 per cent of that of the USA, which continues to present the profile of a highly religious nation.
I'm sure Sonia Young is sincere in her view, but the answer is certainly not that simple.
Dave Frampton, Ormiston
