Sir

I am concerned that the survey responses expressed in Gene Russo's Prospects article 'Balancing belief and bioscience' are irrelevant to gauging the influence of religion on the development of scientists (Nature 460, 654; 2009).

Many of the great scientists renowned for developing entire scientific fields or theories were religious. For example, Gregor Mendel was a priest and Isaac Newton apparently spent as much time in religious contemplation as he did on calculus and physics. And Albert Einstein said: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

As the works of most scientists today are not comparable with those of such luminaries, we should be cautious about using statistics on religious preference in judging scientific merit.