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The New Atheism

Two Priests Respond (II)

A force for good? Fr. Thomas Crean says it depends whether a religion is true or not.

It’s a mistake to suppose that a ‘religious person’ should want to justify religion-in-general. The world’s religions are mutually incompatible, and if I am committed to one of them, then provided I retain a respect for the Principle of Non-Contradiction, I must be opposed to the others; which need not stop me showing courtesy to their adherents. No, it should be sufficient for the religious believer who would reply to the New Atheists to establish that his own religion does more good than harm.

But here we encounter a serious, and, I should argue, an insuperable problem. The question of whether a given religion, for example the Catholic one, is a force for good can’t be determined until one has determined the truth or falsity of that religion.

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