I write in reference to the article “No God, lots of fuss” (Daphne Caruana Galizia, 5 February).

Those who suggest that we can be good without God deceive themselves. Jesus tells us that “no one is good but God alone” (Mark 10:17). Therefore any good that we possess must be a reflection of God.

St Augustine also tells us that evil is the absence of good. This means that if atheists are good it must be because they are, in fact, believers.

No doubt the conscience can, in some, be degraded at its most core level to that of a mechanism producing excuses for one’s conduct. In this case, the atheist incrementally begins to construct a wall of resistance to belief in God.

This neglect of one’s own being ultimately dulls one to the voice of truth and makes one incapable of any longer hearing the voice of conscience. Convictions, then, might seem rational but are only the product of self-righteousness, conformism, and intellectual laziness.

The fact that all men sin does not disprove God or religion. On the contrary it demonstrates God’s existence and perfection of which all men fall short. The man that says “there is no God” is a fool.

Paul Kokoski.

Hamilton, Ontario

Canada