Peace be to you.

No one is born an atheist, as no one is born as skeptic,

that is to say, one who doubts the possibility of ever discovering truth.

These attitudes are made, and they are made less by the way one thinks than by the way one lives.

If we do not live as we think, we soon begin to think as we live.

We suit our philosophy to our actions. That is bad. Let me tell you the story of

an atheist in London, England. I used to do considerable work in St. Patrick's Parish

in Soho Square in that city.

One Sunday morning I came into the front of the church to read Mass and I found a young

lady standing in front of the communion rail arraining the congregation.

She was saying to the congregation, there is no God. There is too much evil in the world.

Reason cannot transcend sense. It is impossible to conclude to his existence. Every night she said,

I go out to hide park. I talk against

God. I circulate England, Scotland and Wales with pamphlets denouncing a belief in the existence

of God. And on and on she went. By that time I was up to the communion rail.

I said to her,

a young lady, I'm very happy to hear

that you say you believe in the existence of God.

She said, you silly fool, I don't.

I said, I understood you to say just the contrary.

Suppose I said that I went out every night to hide park and talked against 20-footed

ghosts and 10 centaurs. Suppose I circulated England's Scotland, Wales, denouncing a belief in these ghosts and in their centaurs.

...