In response to Joseph Zuchowski's Aug. 6 letter, "Shooting fueled by conservative hate," and Mark Gelbart's letter of the same date -- "Religion -- who needs it, anyway?" -- I can say they have fallen completely head-first for the stereotypical hype asserted in college classrooms (and their subsequent publications) that religious conservatives are ignorant, hateful brutes.

I will mention Peter Schweizer's new book Makers and Takers . I have not read it, but have listened to his presentations and interviews of the book. He asserts that statistical, scholarly, peer-reviewed survey after survey after survey (dozens and dozens in fact) indicates a predominance for compassion and intellect among religious conservatives over that of liberal secularists. Let me repeat: a dominance, not a consensus. He is not expressing merely opinions, but statistical findings.

As to Mr. Zuchowski, I am a frequent listener of Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage and Sean Hannity. Never have they proposed murder as a means of restoring the traditional American values of family unity and morality; sanctity of marriage; self-reliance; determination and accountability; the role of the church; the sovereignty of our country via its borders; and the constitutional role of government as originally intended. They have warned that there is a growing frustration among political and religious conservatives over the way that the ideological left makes no room for open debate or fair representation of ideas. They have warned that this frustration could lead to an undesirable backlash. But none has ever advocated murder.

Mr. Gelbart's rantings against monotheistic world-views still fail to provide logical, philosophically sound and scientifically sound explanations for the origins of organic life; the complexity of life here on Earth while under the Law of Increasing Entropy; the existence of universal moral codes; and the uniformity of nature.

Both letter writers shouldn't be so narrow-minded. Peace.