The Anglican bishop of London says in a Christmas letter that the return of religious issues to centre stage in the public sphere is welcome, but he claims it has provoked a dangerous reaction from what he calls "secular fundamentalists".

While Rowan Williams rightly criticises Richard Dawkins for unfeasibly reducing religion to a pre-scientific explanatory system now superseded by science, says Ricahrd Skinner, he seems to have misunderstood Dawkins on evolution and survival strategies.

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has said that Richard Dawkins and other apostles of anti-religious sentiment are oversimplifying complex issues and often missing the point. His comments came in a lecture at the University of Swansea.

Though the god Richard Dawkins seeks to demolish is a caricature and often based on ill-informed analysis, says Richard Skinner, it is uncomfortably close to the idol some Christians have chosen to worship.

The church looking for ‘God slots’ in relation to culture is like religion seeking a ‘God of the gaps’ in relation to science: a huge mistake. The Gospel points us elsewhere.

BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day reflection spot could be opened up to the non-religious as well as the religious, argues one of its Christian contributors. Jonathan Bartley says it can help people to listen to one another better.

The president of the National Secular Society has written an article claiming that religious liberals are “making excuses for the same beliefs that motivate bombers and theocrats, misogynists and homophobes”. Others disagree.