I really do love atheists. I have a deep admiration for people who believe enough in humanity’s inherent goodness that they don’t think a god is necessary for it.

And they’re often right in their critiques: too many religious fundamentalists misuse God.

But, again, I think the trouble is less with religion and more with ideas of transcendence, which, I believe, are fairly inescapable. If you believe something is bigger than yourself (peace, justice, freedom–just about everyone believe in SOMETHING), you’ll usually give your life (or someone else’s life) for it.

The other critique is one of power: people use whatever they can find to justify their claims to power or resources. That’s true, but religion is not unique to this–the same is true for democracy, peace, safety, justice, whatever. So, whether you’re doing something for the transcendent or for the power with transcendent as a cover, you’re capable of evil. This is not unique to religion!!!

Polls suggest that 13% of British Muslims regard the 7/7 London bombers as blessed martyrs. Neighbors and friends expressed bewilderment that such nice, gentle, kind, youth-clubbing, cricket-loving young men could do such terrible things. But once you understand what they truly and sincerely believed – that it was Allah’s will that they blow up buses and subways – it becomes all too easy to understand.

It is easy for religious faith, even if it is irrational in itself, to lead a sane and decent person, by rational, logical steps, to do terrible things. There is a logical path from religious faith to evil deeds. There is no logical path from atheism to evil deeds. Of course, many evil deeds are done by individuals who happen to be atheists. But it can never be rational to say that, because of my nonbelief in religion, it would be good to be cruel, to murder, to oppress women, or to perpetrate any of the evils on the Hitchens list.

The following quotation from the Nobel prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg has become well known, but it is so devastatingly true that it is worth quoting again and again: “With or without [religion] you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.”