Terry Sanderson, President of the NSS, blasts Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor:

Where does on start with a speech as specious and self-serving as the one given by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor in Westminster Cathedral yesterday [8/5/08]?

The BBC headed its report of the event: “‘Respect atheists’, says Cardinal”. Can you imagine anything so utterly patronising than the leader of some rapidly diminishing religious sect (in the UK at least – with a 40% decline in attendance in a generation) telling a huge proportion of the population that he’s prepared to tolerate them? And why is he prepared to tolerate them? Well, because even if they say they don’t believe in God, God is still with them and, really, atheism is just a “distorted kind of Christianity”.

I don’t believe it | Comment is free.