The atheist, by merely being in touch with reality, appears shamefully out of touch with the fantasy life of his neighbors.

In my own case, the most inflammatory statements I have ever made are ones that I have written and remain willing to defend.

Unreason is now ascendant in the United States—in our schools, in our courts, and in each branch of the federal government.

The problem that religious moderation poses for all of us is that it does not permit anything very critical to be said about religious literalism.

Missionaries in the developing world waste a lot of time and money (not to mention the goodwill of non-Christians) proselytizing to the needy. . . . While missionaries do many noble things at great risk to themselves, their dogmatism still spreads ignorance and death. By contrast, volunteers for secular organizations . . . do not waste . . . time telling people about the virgin birth of Jesus. Nor do they tell people in sub-Saharan Africa - where nearly four million people die from AIDS every year - that condom use is sinful.

Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches.

It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.