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Dear Editor:

Bryant Payne's March 2nd letter to the editor ("Atheists still live under God's principles") covers the many ways in which humans are dependent on resources beyond ourselves.

We are dependent on moral principles, which have developed over time from the necessities of living together, and we're dependent on the natural environment, which provides the conditions necessary for human life.

Such facts often solicit a reverential response from those of various religious traditions, including many atheists. But they don't constitute a proof for the necessity of any one religion.

This dependency suggests that humans share a common lot. If so, then seeking to learn from one another and the ways our respective traditions have sought to make sense of this life and world makes more sense than conversion attempts and apologetics.

Dwight Welch
graduate student, philosophy