Sir

Your Editorial, “Where theology matters” (Nature 432, 657; 2004 10.1038/432657a) is surprisingly biased towards the ‘religions of the book’ that originated in west Asia, and to Christianity in particular.

It is surprising because your News Feature “Studies of faith” ( Nature 432, 666–669; 2004 ) in the same issue mentions both the Buddhist and Hindu approaches to stem-cell research, and another article, “Buddhism on the brain” ( Nature 432, 670; 2004 ), describes the Dalai Lama's interest in and approach to science.

An increasing amount of science is done in east and south Asia, and many scientists in the West (particularly the United States) are emigrants from those countries. To the extent that they are religious at all, followers of these religions (Buddhism, Hinduism and others) tend to be less dogmatic and more philosophical — less insistent on following the ‘holy writ’ of ancient texts and more in favour of searching for one's own path in the modern world, consistent with certain basic ideas of ethics. Thus, their answers to the issues you raise in the Editorial would be quite different.