Pascal: Thought for the Day

Blaise Pascal:

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully

as when they do it from religious conviction."

(Thought 894, Section XIV, Appendix, Polemical Fragments,

 Dutton, 1958, introduction by T.S.Eliot).  

When I quoted this thought of Pascal's 

this morning, I was given the reply,

"What about Hitler and Stalin?"

Some days later, in the Toronto debate on religion 

between Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens,

Tony Blair defended religious faith, arguing that -

 "It is undoubtedly true that people commit horrific acts 
  of evil in the name of religion...

   It is also undoubtedly true that people do acts of extraordinary common good 
  inspired by religion... 

   The proposition that religion is unadulterated poison is 
  unsustainable...

   It can be destructive, it can also create a deep well of compassion,

  and frequently does."

  It seems that Hitchens won the debate.