The world in which we live is the world that religion made. Despite all its faults, it is a world shaped by the scriptures, by the summons to sacrifice and by that timeless appeal on behalf of absent generations. It is a world in whose art and culture we see what it means to be more than human. It is a world where we still forgive those who trespass against us, and where, even in the midst of darkness, so many are still guided by the light of love. Take all that away and you are not left with an earthly utopia, but something like the loveless hell that was Eastern Europe under communism.

The world in which we live is the world that religion made. Despite all its faults, it is a world shaped by the scriptures, by the summons to sacrifice and by that timeless appeal on behalf of absent generations. It is a world in whose art and culture we see what it means to be more than human. It is a world where we still forgive those who trespass against us, and where, even in the midst of darkness, so many are still guided by the light of love. Take all that away and you are not left with an earthly utopia, but something like the loveless hell that was Eastern Europe under communism.