Sir, - In the 1920s Shaw, in the preface to Back to Methuselah, was attributing all the ills of society to the doctrine of neo-Darwinism (tiger morality), and its political equivalent (now called Thatcherism); while the French philosopher Rene Guenon was pointing to the disintegration and intellectual atrophy so apparent at that and the present time, and the ultimate catastrophe towards which modern civilisation is heading. Three-quarters of a century later The Irish Times sees no contradiction in publishing regularly, on the one hand, the commentaries by Fintan O'Toole, Vincent Browne and Dick Walsh about the conspicuous absence of social and political morality in the society around us, while on the other hand going out of its way to hold a special reception and promotion for the teaching of the Antichrist, in the form of Richard Dawkins and his "unweaving the rainbow", or anything he imagines to be left of the foundations for morality or higher values of any sort. One has to wonder at such perfect neutrality, non-discrimination, lack of a sense of purpose, and indeed intellectual atrophy as is manifested here. - Yours, etc.,
Michael McMullin,
Ballydehob,
Co Cork.