1. How is it that the world supposedly created by a divine and perfect being
could be so full of imperfections.
Lucretius (Greek)
2. Social Contract: People formed communities for common protection,
agreeing to abide by Law and to protect the interest of the weak in order
not to be harmed themselves.
Lucretius
3. A definition of Religion (according to author this should be a legal definition
of religion):- ‘Religion is, in essence and entirety, personal belief in and private
worship of supernatural beings, things or principles’.
– not requiring dressing up, wafting incense or wine around, nor exulting in
one’s preaching and singing skills in grand echo chambers.
– not requiring proselytizing, doctrine, directions, coercion, ostentations, property
(such as Churches, Halls, Assemblies, Synagogues, Temples, Congregations,
Mosques, or commercial property), incorporation, institutionalization,
sexism, or subsidy of any kind.
– not require meditation, relinquishing a little cash, perhaps receiving relief
from loneliness. All this is artistry, craft, socializing, etc not religion.
Consider the definition:
(1) does not, nor would ever hinder religion.
(2) does not take away anybody’s freedom and right to “practice religion”.
Stan Stokes, Brisbane, Australia
4. Nothing appeals more strongly to the irrational, emotional side of us
than religion. Humans are more readily motivated by emotion than by reason.
Diana M. Walton
5. Out of all the sects in the world, the overwhelming majority of people
just happen to choose the one that their parents belong to not the sect
that has the most evidence in its favour, the best miracles, the best moral code,
the best cathedral, the best stained glass, the best music.
Religion seems to be inherited.
Yet people with full knowledge of the arbitrary nature of heredity somehow
manage to believe in “their” religion with such fanaticism that they are
prepared to murder people who follow a different one. Faith appeals to people.
6. Clergy should regularly read Atheist Magazines to keep them in touch
with realism. Humanist magazines should be the test
— can the criticisms be answered?
Anonymous
7. A “nothing” experience can be very intense.
Gordon Newfeld (Sun paper 93-07-10)-belonged to Moonies
— an x-Moonie
8. A loose quote from Bertrand Russell:
all believers of all belief systems in the world are in a sense 99% the same as non-believers, rejecting hundreds of Gods which the human imagination has conjured throughout history — all save their own.
9. “Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no
religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious
foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion
must be derived from faith . . . We need believing people.”
Adolf Hitler. April 26, 1933, from a speech made during negotiations
leading to the Nazi-Vatican Concordat of 1933.
Naturalism and Religious Experience 