"If religion cannot restrain evil, it cannot claim effective power for good"
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A clean piece of philosophical knife-work: Cohen takes aim at religion’s most comfortable asymmetry - its habit of demanding credit for goodness while treating evil as someone else’s problem. The sentence is built as a conditional, almost legalistic, because he’s not arguing theology so much as accountability. If a belief system claims moral authority, it has to show up where morality is hardest: in curbing cruelty, exploitation, violence, the everyday abuses that don’t dissolve under prayer or pious language.
The subtext is a rebuke to reputational laundering. Religions often point to charitable works, personal consolation, or lofty ideals as evidence of their social value. Cohen insists that “good” can’t be measured only by aspirational rhetoric or isolated benevolence; it must be tested against the presence of harm. In other words: a force that can’t reliably inhibit wrongdoing is not a reliable engine of virtue, because the real-world effects don’t match the advertised power.
Context matters. Cohen, a leading American pragmatist and critic of dogma, wrote in an era when modernity was putting traditional authority on trial: scientific rationalism, industrial capitalism, and the political catastrophes of the early 20th century all exposed how easily moral language could coexist with brutality. His line anticipates a recurring modern scandal: institutions that preach compassion while shielding perpetrators, sanctifying violence, or blessing inequality.
It works because it refuses the sentimental escape hatch. Religion is judged not by intentions but by outcomes, not by how elevated it sounds but by what it prevents.
The subtext is a rebuke to reputational laundering. Religions often point to charitable works, personal consolation, or lofty ideals as evidence of their social value. Cohen insists that “good” can’t be measured only by aspirational rhetoric or isolated benevolence; it must be tested against the presence of harm. In other words: a force that can’t reliably inhibit wrongdoing is not a reliable engine of virtue, because the real-world effects don’t match the advertised power.
Context matters. Cohen, a leading American pragmatist and critic of dogma, wrote in an era when modernity was putting traditional authority on trial: scientific rationalism, industrial capitalism, and the political catastrophes of the early 20th century all exposed how easily moral language could coexist with brutality. His line anticipates a recurring modern scandal: institutions that preach compassion while shielding perpetrators, sanctifying violence, or blessing inequality.
It works because it refuses the sentimental escape hatch. Religion is judged not by intentions but by outcomes, not by how elevated it sounds but by what it prevents.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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