THE POWER of the religious impulse is really quite extraordinary. The sainted folks over at Opinion Journal inform us of the conniption being thrown by the American Atheists, the group founded by the late Madalyn Murray O’Hair (may God have mercy upon her soul). It seems that when the World Trade Center collapsed, the force of the fall, or some supernatural force, fused two steel beams into a 20-foot-high cross, which has been kept on the edge of the site. The atheists want the cross removed, of course, but in their passion to do that, as the wise OJ webmaster notes, they are actually revealing their faith in the power of the cross. If it didn’t have power, why get so upset?
The truth is that even atheists feel emanations of the sacred in the material world. They’re just moved in different ways.
