The disappearance of Madeleine McCann is a very sad story, but the press and public reactions are so stupendously over the top and misguided as to make one infuriated. No-one has the faintest idea how to behave. From cricketers being asked to wear yellow ribbons whilst playing international matches, to shops in Scotland putting up posters pleading that anyone who goes on holiday anywhere should keep an eye out for the girl, it does nothing to help the situation. All it does do is make people comfortable that they are "doing their bit to help" because if they didn't, other people would ask them why they weren't. It all boils down to peer pressure, and the fear of behaving in a different way to the mob. On almost all matters, the mob is wrong.
As for the religious angle, it just makes me despair. Message after message, story after story tells us to "pray for little Madeleine". Pray to whom exactly? And for what reason? There is no interventionist god, there is no loving deity. Madeleine was snatched by a human being, for reasons presently unknown but of entirely human origin. Is no-one prepared to step back for a moment, be a bit more thoughtful, be slightly less demented, and recognize that we live in a God-free world, where little girls get snatched by other people, where students get massacred by other people, where people going about their daily business get blown up by suicide bombers who are other people, and where the prayers of other people are utterly inrrelevant? At no point does "God" ever intervene, and at no point will "God" ever intervene. The destiny of humans is solely in the hands of humans, yet the vestiges of our forefathers' blind faith convince so many of us that it is otherwise.
As for the religious angle, it just makes me despair. Message after message, story after story tells us to "pray for little Madeleine". Pray to whom exactly? And for what reason? There is no interventionist god, there is no loving deity. Madeleine was snatched by a human being, for reasons presently unknown but of entirely human origin. Is no-one prepared to step back for a moment, be a bit more thoughtful, be slightly less demented, and recognize that we live in a God-free world, where little girls get snatched by other people, where students get massacred by other people, where people going about their daily business get blown up by suicide bombers who are other people, and where the prayers of other people are utterly inrrelevant? At no point does "God" ever intervene, and at no point will "God" ever intervene. The destiny of humans is solely in the hands of humans, yet the vestiges of our forefathers' blind faith convince so many of us that it is otherwise.
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