In 1958, at a time of heightened fear of nuclear war and mutual destruction between the West and the Soviet Union, Fisher said that he was "convinced that it is never right to settle any policy simply out of fear of the consequences. For all I know it is within the providence of God that the human race should destroy itself in this manner." He was also quoted as saying, "The very worst the Bomb can do is to sweep a vast number of people from this world into the next into which they must all go anyway". He was heavily criticised in the press for this view, but a number of clergy, including Christopher Chavasse, Bishop of Rochester, defended him, saying, "In an evil world, war can be the lesser of the two evils."