A virgin can conceive. A dead body can walk again. Your leprosy can be cured. The blind can see. Nonsense. It’s not moral to lie to children. It’s not moral to lie to ignorant, uneducated people and tell them that if they only would believe nonsense, they can be saved. It’s immoral.

Religion of every kind involves the promise that the misery and futility of existence can be overcome or even transfigured. One might suppose that the possession of such a magnificent formula, combined with the tremendous assurance of a benevolent God, would make a person happy. But such appears not to be the case.: unease and insecurity and rage seem to keep up with blissful certainty, and even to outpace it.

I don't think the war in Afghanistan was ruthlessly enough waged.

Demands that you believe the impossible do not lead to peaceful outcomes.

I retain what's interesting to me, but I don't have a lot of strategic depth.

No school of philosophy has ever solved this question of whether being determines consciousness or the other way around. It may be a false antithesis.

Everything about Christianity is contained in the pathetic image of 'the flock.