There's no Hell mentioned in the Old Testament. The punishment of the dead is not specified there. It's only with gentle Jesus, meek and mild, that the idea of eternal torture for minor transgressions is introduced.

Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way — because it’s had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But you’ve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.

Time spent arguing with the faithful is, oddly enough, almost never wasted.

The Koran shows every sign of being thrown together by human beings, as do all the other holy books.

Those of us who are most genuinely repelled by war and violence are also those who are most likely to decide that some things, after all, are worth fighting for.

There are all kinds of stupid people that annoy me but what annoys me most is a lazy argument.

I personally want to "do" death in the active and not the passive, and to be there to look it in the eye and be doing something when it comes for me.