I mean it as a compliment when I say that you could almost define a philosopher as someone who won't take common sense for an answer.

If something is true, no amount of wishful thinking will change it.

Bush and bin Laden are really on the same side: the side of faith and violence against the side of reason and discussion. Both have implacable faith that they are right and the other is evil.

bad things, like good things don't happen any more often than they ought to by chance. the universe has no mind, no feelings, and no personality, so it doesn't do things in order to either hurt or please you. bad things happen because things happen.

I'm a sucker for nice religious leaders. I fall for it every time.

Compassionate doctors sometimes lie to patients about the severity of their condition, and it is not always wrong to do so.

Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, distinctly heard the voice of Jesus telling him to kill women, and he was locked up for life. George W. Bush says that God told him to invade Iraq (a pity God didn't vouchsafe him a revelation that there were no weapons of mass destruction).