Faith & Spirit Quote by Caroline B. Cooney

Cooney’s line is a cold snapshot of how quickly “identity” turns into a moral alibi. She doesn’t bother arguing whether any religion is true; she targets something more culturally durable: the near-automatic confidence that “ours” is better, and the alarming readiness to convert that confidence into force. The phrase “nearly always” is doing heavy work. It’s not a nihilistic claim that everyone is violent; it’s a diagnosis of a recurring pattern, the kind you see across centuries and in everyday miniature - from schoolyard hierarchies to nation-states.

The subtext is that belief is rarely just private conviction. “Religion and way of life” are bundled together because they’re inseparable in practice: faith is social order, family honor, gender rules, food, language, belonging. When someone challenges your creed, they’re often also challenging your place in the world. That’s why “better” matters. It turns difference into ranking, and ranking invites enforcement.

The sharpest twist is the casual pairing of “weapons and cruelty” with “believe.” Cooney is exposing how moral certainty can anesthetize empathy. Cruelty becomes thinkable once it’s framed as defense of the good, the pure, the civilized. Her intent isn’t to scold religion alone but to spotlight the human habit of laundering aggression through righteousness - a habit that helps explain holy wars, ethnic cleansing, and also the quieter violences of forced assimilation and “civilizing” missions. The line works because it refuses comforting exceptions: it implicates the reader’s own “way of life,” not just some distant extremist.