Re A Burn's letter SA, Feb 17 YOU ask in your letter about how we are 'all created for a purpose' and if so what purpose are suicide bombers and Hitler created for - as a church going Christian I shall endeavour a response.

I believe that God did indeed create us all to serve a purpose and that there is a 'niche' for each of us. Whether we find this niche or are open enough to accept God's persuasion to find it is a very different matter. I would say that Hitler and suicide bombers were not created to kill, but chose this way through ungodly influence. After all, God did not create us as robots, he gave us brains and that dangerous stuff - free-will! The stories in the Bible were passed from God to help us find a moral compass, to remember to be kind and forgiving and to look after each other and the world we live in. If you read the book of Genesis as a poem (as most theologians believe it is written) it explains this concept through Eve and the apple. Humans were created to tend to the garden of Eden (our world) and to make more humans and to glorify God, yet the cunning snake persuaded her to eat from the forbidden tree, knowing she shouldn't, and doom the rest of us - a metaphorical parallel to the carnage of a suicide bombing perhaps?

I agree with your statement about some religious people's tendency to blast atheists as 'not normal' - I'd imagine that is highly offensive. But your use of the word 'mythical' when talking about my God is also highly offensive. Perhaps both factions should consider the beliefs and feelings of the other a little more deeply!

KATHRYN REES Of Christ Church Swindon