God Shall Send Them Strong Delusion

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, who likes to compare those who disagree with him to some friends of Pope Pius XII, has called for "a better dialogue between believers and non-believers based on mutual esteem"; whereupon, as befits so subtle a casuist, he proceeded to insult his opponents' intelligence: "The interesting question about atheism is what is the theism being denied? Have you ever met anyone who believes what Richard Dawkins does not believe in? The God that is being rejected by such people is a God I don't believe in either." As a matter of fact, there are quite a few gods Richard Dawkins does not believe in, viz. all of them; hence the description atheist as opposed to non-Catholic deist. What the cardinal means, presumably, is that he does not recognise his invisible friend in the unflattering depictions of the god of Jephthah, Joshua, Torquemada and Tony Blair which are so viciously promulgated by esteemed neo-Nazis such as myself, even though that deity's obsessive jealousy, his nasty misogyny, his condoning of slavery, his penchant for human sacrifice, his genocidal urges and sadistic practical jokes are all set forth rather plainly in both Old and New Testaments. "We need to examine what we might have done to give people a misleading idea of God," the cardinal observed, and suggested as a remedy "a deeper grasp of the mystery of God on the part of our believers". We Nazis are being misled because believers have an insufficient grasp of their deity's ungraspability; yet despite this, there is a "pervasive message" that committing oneself to Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor's idea of an ethereal heavenly father who rewards people for doing as they're told is to "take a step back from being independent and mature". Worse yet, there are "social currents that want to isolate religion from other forms of knowledge and experience", rather than viewing it as something wholly separate from scientific inquiry and secular ethics. Hence, "many people have a sense of being in a sort of exile from faith-guided experience". People who want, nay need to be Christians are being forced away from the faith because of their urge to conform with the likes of Richard Dawkins, and because of attempts to "eliminate the Christian voice" from the public forum. After all, when did you last see Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor's words of wisdom reported in the national press?