Jeg leste for noen dager siden kardinal George Pells forsvar for den kristne tro, som han begynner slik: My claims this afternoon are simple. It is more reasonable to believe in God than to reject the hypothesis of God by appealing to chance; more reasonable also to believe than to escape into agnosticism.
Og avslutter slik: It is an intriguing question why so many in the Western world today are unable to believe, especially those culturally attached to Christianity and Judaism. For me the issue is too important for polemics and self-indulgence.
I will continue to believe in the one true God of love, because like André Malraux I maintain that «no atheist can explain the smile of a child».
Against this the tsunami also reminds us brutally of the problem of innocent suffering. But such suffering is worse if there is no afterlife to balance the scales of misfortune and injustice and worse again if there is no innocence or guilt, no good or evil, if everything has the moral significance of froth on a wave.