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Despite what Michael Reiss writes ("On the origin of an essential debate: Can science ignore faith?", November), differences about what constitutes "data" do imply "a great gulf" between religious and scientific method. The former sees nothing wrong with a reliance on "ancestral scriptures" or other magisterial pronouncements, a practice that Reiss clearly accepts - a bit ironic, given the motto of the society of which he remains an important member: nullius in verba.

John Edwards, St Francis Xavier University, Canada.