You say:
That wasn't intended as a global truth, and you know it. That one jerk was talking about himself. Some faiths are good for some people some of the time.
Now, what was actually said was:
On balance, though, we are better off with religion than without it. As bad as we may sometimes be with it, without it we should be scarcely human.
Note the use of "we" in that statement and the "on balance" phrase. That seems like a "global truth" to me.