C Wadey misquoted me in his reply (Letters, December 26). I asked: "Where do ideas about right and wrong come from?"

To put it another way, why do human beings have a moral dimension?

I was not referring to what we may or may not take in or be taught as children, which can vary tremendously, but to the origin of our capacity for moral judgement.

The Christian explanation is mankind was originally made in the Creator's image and, despite falling from our original state, we retain in some way or another a vestige of that original reflection.

This explains why Mr Wadey and the millions of other atheists he refers to have a sense of right and wrong, regardless of what they were taught or told when they were children.

As for thinking for ourselves, is it not true we all take in ideas that already exist and either embrace, reject or, perhaps, modify them in some way?

I suppose the number of atheists referred to in Mr Wadey's letter is evidence of the former, a group of people all sharing a common belief.

If they have children, perhaps they will grow up to reject their parents' beliefs about our origins and the human condition and will look for a rationale which they will consider to be a better explanation than the atheist one their parents would like them to inherit.

-Pete Bauer, by email