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I was recently out to eat when my waitress noticed the tattoo of a dragonfly on my left bicep. "Oh, my goodness!" she exclaimed. "Your tattoo — I keep seeing dragonflies everywhere. I can't figure out what it means, but the universe is trying to tell me something. Can I take a picture of it?"

"Sure," I said, while rolling up my sleeve. "If I may, can I tell you what I think it means?" Intrigued, she said, "Please do." I continued, "I think all it means is that dragonflies exist, and therefore sometimes you might see them."

Dumbfounded and offended, she looked at me as if I had committed some cardinal sin for not indulging her mysticism. I had just offered her the most logical and parsimonious solution to her quandary, yet it was rejected outright for not being the solution she wanted.

On my way home from lunch I began to reflect on this interaction. I thought about our species' predilection to assign meaning and purpose to that which can be adequately explained by coincidence. I thought about our collective tendency to reject what is most rational in favor of what is most satisfying. I thought about the hostility with which those who challenge these tendencies are met and the implications for society.

We are inundated by comforting but baseless claims daily, whether they be from our religious leaders, politicians, psychics or the horoscopes in this very paper. It is important to remember that there is an objective standard of what constitutes a fact. Truth is ascertainable and is supported by evidence.

While most of the time it is harmless to indulge in myths and superstitions, it is not always innocuous. Too often religious conviction dictates our legislation, pseudoscience informs our medical decisions, conspiracies advise our politics and astrology shapes our love life. The only reliable and repeatable methodology our species has ever devised for accurately making predictions, advancing our understanding, solving our problems and bettering our quality of life is the scientific method. We would be well served to remember this as we move into a future that will require cogent thinkers to solve our many problems.

Jacob Mazurek, Mound

The writer is a biology professor.

Regarding Peg O'Connor's commentary on Alcoholics Anonymous ("Could AA help more people if it were not Christian-centric?" Opinion Exchange, July 10): I've been attending AA meetings weekly for 47 years. It is not a Christian organization. I've sat next to atheists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, you name it. I knew somebody whose Higher Power was a tree. That strong and beautiful tree was there before him and would be long after. That worked for him. In AA, the point of a Higher Power is to realize that it's not you.

Terry Lee Bryce, Wayzata

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A writer feels that any non-Christian might be reticent to participate in AA, as it emphasizes God in its 12-step program that has served thousands through treatment each year dating back to 1935, with a good success record. First of all, let's make it clear that God is certainly not just a Christian belief, as Jews, Muslims and many others believe in the same monotheistic God and almighty creator, while others believe in a supreme being, nature or nothing at all.

Court-ordered treatment if it offended one's beliefs could be a problem in that the individual may not be open to seeking treatment or assuming responsibility and thus have far less chance of overcoming addiction. Thankfully, there are hundreds of groups countrywide that adapt the program to the needs of their members, as there seems to be a lot of flexibility already. The main emphasis remains that the group provides welcome and support; the individual has to embrace responsibility for their past and future behavior.

Michael Tillemans, Minneapolis

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I am slightly bemused by the commentary by Peg O'Connor. She seems to ignore the central tenet (cornerstone) of AA: that people with alcohol addiction cannot help themselves. They need a source of power outside of themselves to heal their addiction. Her solution to help more people is to cast that power back on themselves, which is no help at all. Until such time as we can come up with an alternate source of transcendent power, we are stuck with the God we have.

Ralph Van Dixhorn, Minnetonka