i felt a kinship with him. it was my first clue that atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of my faith. like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them, and then they leap. i'll be honest about it. it is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. doubt is useful for a while. we must all pass through the garden of gethsemane. if christ played with doubt, so must we. if christ spent a anguished night in prayer, if he burst out from the cross, "my god, my god, why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are permitted to doubt. but we must move on. to choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

martel