Rite and Reason

Fr Brian McKevitt writes in today's Irish Times. The Rite and Reason column makes for interesting reading and adds to the debate on liberal individualism. And it is good to see such debate. An appropriate place for Dominicans.
Fr Brian writes, "It doesn't take a genius to recognise that people with a living Catholic faith will create a much different society to those who have no hope beyond death, who think that human beings are simply big-brained animals whose greatest achievement is self-assertion."
Is Fr Brian saying that all people with no hope after death are 'big-brained animals whose greatest achievement is self-assertion'? If so it is unfortunate and actually not true. I know people who do not believe in life after death and they are anything but 'big-brained animals whose greatest achievement is self-assertion'. And I also know people who believe in life after death who are 'big-brained animals whose greatest achievement is self-assertion'.
And who says social disintegration is happening in Ireland? Is Ireland any more socially disintegrated than it has been in the past?