"There can be surely little doubt that when people stop connecting with their religious faith - their sense that they are in the hands of a God who loves them - they may easily then start to lose faith in themselves, and hence lose faith also in those around them, and so become angry, embittered and fearful, " he said.

BBC: Cardinal Sean Brady

They're based on the emerging consensus we heard from all the groups with whom we spoke, including some of you who are victims of this god-awful occurrence -- ways to keep guns out of the wrong hands, as well as ways to take comprehensive action to prevent violence in the first place.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Introduces a Plan to Reduce Gun Violence

Diderot and Bertrand Russell, two famous earlier non-believers, would also have been puzzled by what has happened to God at the hands of the western intelligentsia.

ECONOMIST: Religion and science