I would be curious to hear from psychologists what they think is really going on in the minds of these Christians when they write such hateful things. Not just hateful but threatening, and filled with vengeful but impotent fantasies of the girl being raped in this life or going to hell in the next. My untutored guess would be that they are frightened and insecure about their own beliefs and therefore feel deeply threatened by a challenge such as this. And could it be that the threat is all the greater because it comes from a nice young woman – of the type whom they would normally admire – who doesn't fit with their stereotype of the evil atheist? I genuinely don't know, and wonder whether we have any expert psychologists who could reflect on the problem.

Richard