Shepherds don't look after sheep because they love them - although I do think some shepherds like their sheep too much. They look after their sheep so they can, first, fleece them and second, turn them into meat. That's much more like the priesthood as I know it.

What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.

It's often a bad sign when people defend themselves against charges which haven't been made.

Most of the utopian community ideas actually are religious. They're based more on the idea of the monastery than the commune.

I became a journalist partly so that I wouldn't ever have to rely on the press for my information.

Religion is not the belief there is a god. Religion is the belief god tells you what to do.

I could be spending time looking through a telescope or into a microscope and finding out the most extraordinary, wonderful things, but people say faith can move mountains. Faith in what, by the way? You haven't said.