Good job Friendly Atheist

Credit where it is due.  The Friendly Atheist posted a heartfelt piece regarding the Notre Dame fire, highlighting some atheist well-knowns and their lamenting of the fire and possible loss.  I didn't read all of the comments, but read some.  Most were gracious and expressed their sadness at the potential loss of such a treasure.  True, very few said anything about its religious meaning to believers, preferring the 'treasure of art and culture' angle.  But at least it was positive for the most part.

I give the FA quite a bit of grief for its good cop/bad cop approach, and deservedly so.  Usually there will be some post akin to 'religious/Christian types are tunneling under your house - but we don't hate them!', followed by endless comments in the comments section descending into the fifth circle of Hell in terms of hate and vile bilge aimed at all things sacred and holy.  So bad it was, that I had to stop commenting there when commenters made sexually charged attacks aimed at my wife and kids (and were not stopped I should mention).

Nonetheless, again I'll give credit where it is due.  It was a chance to think what could unite us if we would let it.  Alas, we are in a fallen world and there are some who will simply dig in and make themselves enemies of God no matter what.  Pray for them as much, if not more, than we do for the smoldering ruins in and around that great Cathedral; the same one that atheists around the world mourned the loss of alongside believers.

But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.  Revelation 9:20-21.