As I read the news about the poor missing four-year old Madeleine McCann, and how her parents are dealing with this horrific ordeal http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/.stm
I cannot help but be impressed with the way the family and parents of this little girl are finding refuge and sustenance and hope in their faith. Many times over the last few weeks we've seen images of the mother and father attending church in the resort in Portugal where little Madeleine disappeared.
And I struggle with my own faith and recent islamic fervour, almost daily in the news with a new baffling atrocity perpetrated on 'the infidel', has made me doubt the validity of the commitment to a higher cause, a vague divine notion. People are weak and easily led astray.
And yet, let's for a moment imagine that Madeleine's poor parents did not have access to their strongly held beliefs and in stead opted to find spiritual nourishment in secularism and atheism. The type that Richard Dawkins, the professional anti-religionist, espouses. Would they find the same level of hope, trust and relief? Somehow I doubt it.
The poor, hungry and sick in the Third World are not being looked after by organised members of the Secular Society. Faith can move mountains. Faith can also fly high-jacked airplanes into office buildings.
My prayers are with the family of this missing girl, Madeleine McCann. I am certain that an arch-atheist like Dawkins would want the best possible outcome for this missing person's case.
But could he offer anything beyond his best wishes?
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