I have received many touching letters and emails from people who live in the most religious parts of the country, in places like rural Texas, saying it is so good to see someone be able to say I am an atheist without shame.

The biggest religious wars and persecutions in history occur when religions, each claiming their own absolute truths, come into conflict.

The Roman Empire was fairly tolerant of religious choice as long as you made a point not of thumbing your nose in public at the Roman gods.

hope is not a plan of action.

If you chose a particular religion, you were siding with the government religion of whatever region you were in. That's never been true in America, but also, the United States also has so many more immigrant groups which also tends to imply more religious diversity right away.

I think people who love each other and live together and have children together need to agree on the things that are most important in life.

One of the interesting things is is that Judaism was very attractive to the Roman aristocracy.