I think the materialist conception of history is valid.

A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.

In the brute physical world, and the one encompassed by medicine, there are all too many things that could kill you, don't kill you, and then leave you considerably weaker.

We live only a few conscious decades, and we fret ourselves enough for several lifetimes.

The violence in the Bible is appalling.

This huge and terrible industry [the slave trade] was blessed by all churches and for a long time aroused absolutely no religious protest. . . . In the eighteenth century, a few dissenting Mennonites and Quakers in America began to call for abolition, as did some freethinkers like Thomas Paine.

In my life, the only certainty is to be uncertain. I'm an unbeliever who believes in skepticism. I'm only sure about being unsure.