From Professor Richard Swinburne Sir: In your article last week
I was quoted as saying, in answer to the question 'What do you believe?', 'Well, of course it's all a game . . . what I actually believe is irrelevant.' The implication of the article is that I do not care about what are the correct answers to philo- sophical and religious questions. Almost anyone who knows very much about philoso- phy or religion or myself will regard that suggestion as absurd. I have advocated my views on these matters at considerable length — both in sophisticated books and in a recent popular book. I would never have uttered those sentences in the sense implied. If, through some mishearing or misunder- standing, the three undergraduate authors thought that I had, they might have done me the courtesy to check whether I really held such an outrageous attitude before going into print. Or The Spectator itself might have done a little checking on the reliability of its sources. I can assure your readers that I think that truth about religion matters enor- mously; and that the way to reach it is often by patient, rigorous argument.
Richard Swinbume Oriel College, Oxford
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