Sir, – With so much debate on television and radio about science and religious belief, some readers will be interested to learn of the following curious fact.

Immediately after Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon in 1969 and his “One small step for man, one giant leap for Mankind” speech, his colleague Buzz Aldrin celebrated holy communion in the landing craft. Buzz, after whom the toy “Buzz Lightyear” is named, asked Mission Control for silence.

Then to mark the historic moment he took holy communion which had been prepared for him in advance by his home church. Quite literally the first bread consumed on the moon and the first wine drunk there were the elements of holy communion.

This symbolic act was deliberate.

The astronaut was sending the world the message that Christian belief and science are in harmony together. Here he was at the cutting edge of science and yet at the same time as believer in God and a churchgoer. Science merely tells us how God makes things work, the Bible on the other hand tells us why we are here.

Many people in Britain imagine that science and religious belief are incompatible, but in reality, across the world, millions of scientists believe in God. Even NASA has its own chaplain with so many of those involved in space research being regular churchgoers. (Indeed no less than 20pc of the congregation of one local church works in some way for NASA).

These people see scientific discoveries as proof the universe has been designed by a Supreme Intelligence. Science shows that the nucleus of every cell in the human body contains as much data as that found in a thirty volume set of The Encyclopedia Britannica.

Such complexity cannot have happened by chance and is clear evidence of the existence of a Creator God.

Sadly, whenever reference is made to science and religious belief in the British media it is done so assuming that there is conflict between the two. In reality, many scientists believe in God precisely because of their scientific studies and see true science as the friend of religious belief.

With this fact rarely mentioned it is no wonder the UK is one of the few places in the world where churchgoing is declining whilst churches in many other countries are filled to capacity.

The Rev J WILLANS Leigh, Surrey.