A wide and vague impression exists that so-called Eastern religion is more contemplative, innocuous, and humane than the proselytizing monotheisms of the West. Don't believe a word of this: try asking the children of Indochina who were dumped by their parents for inherited deformities that were attributed to sins in a previous 'life.

If I was to interrupt this article every few sentences, asking you whether or not I was making a good impression on you, I hope and believe that you would think I was a servile jerk. Yet this is what our politicians are doing in every speech.

To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior creation - is that good for the world?

The mildest criticism of religion is also the most radical and the most devastating one. Religion is man-made.

I do not believe any of the statistical claims that are made about public opinion. I don't see why anybody does.

Ronald Reagan used to alarm other constituencies by speaking freely about the End Times foreshadowed in the Bible.

If you look at any Muslim society and you make a scale of how developed they are, and how successful the economy is, it's a straight line. It depends on how much they emancipate their women.