LETTER writer K Barnes has "form" when it comes to Christian literalism ('Truth of Easter', March 29).

On January 11, he reeled off the Old Testament stories of 'the fall', 'the flood', Exodus, the Ten Commandments, predictions of pestilence etc as if he were quoting from a work of reference.

This time he flitted between the New Testament gospels of Matthew and Luke to "prove" a theory concerning the time of Christ's death, once again working on the alarming assumption that if something appears in the bible it must be correct .

Mr Barnes, the Bible is not a fax from God. The Old Testament is a transcription by mortals from the mid-seventh century BC stories which even then were hundreds and thousands of years old.

The New Testament is a human recollection of stories from a remove of at least three generations from the time of Christ, many of which conflict with each other from gospel to gospel.

Neither set of books can be relied upon as a work of historical record by any standard of objective scholarship . That anyone could, in this day and age, treat them as such is truly disturbing.

Rory Mulvihill,

Palmes Close,

Naburn, York.

Updated: 09:44 Tuesday, April 05, 2005