Quote: Richard Dawkins

"I doubt that religion can survive deep understanding. The shallows are its natural habitat. Cranks and fundamentalists are too often victimised as scapegoats for religion in general. It is only quite recently that Christianity reinvented itself in non-fundamentalist guise, and Islam has yet to do so (see Ibn Warraq's excellent book, Why I am not a Muslim). Moonies and scientologists get a bad press, but they just haven't been around as long as the accepted religions. Theology is a respectable discipline when it studies such subjects as moral philosophy, the psychology of religious belief and, above all, biblical history and literature. Like Bertie Wooster, my knowledge of the Bible is above average. I seem to know Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon almost by heart. I think that the Bible as literature should be a compulsory part of the national curriculum - you can't understand English literature and culture without it. But insofar as theology studies the nature of the divine, it will earn the right to be taken seriously when it provides the slightest, smallest smidgen of a reason for believing in the existence of the divine. Meanwhile, we should devote as much time to studying serious theology as we devote to studying serious fairies and serious unicorns. "

Richard Dawkins

My thoughts on religion............

Have you ever noticed how perfectly rational, intelligent people can act like perfectly irrational bumpkins, when they start talking about religion? How they are perfectly capable of launching a blazing criticism on politics but are equally reluctant to discuss and critique religion? Why are we so damn respectful of religion? Why do we hold up ancient values and norms as being relevant to our society; even going so far as to suggest their past as one of enlightenment? Why are we afraid to question our own beliefs, and cast them aside?

The fact is that no other invention of man has had the devastating effect of dividing him on the basis of his beliefs; the fact that a Muslim hates a Jew because of his beliefs is absurd given the fact that they both believe in the same stuff; that people immediately associate Muslims with terror, Jews with Zionism, conspiracy theories, wealth, etc etc;.......

If there is any reason that religion is at best a waste of time, or at worst a threat to humanity, it is this; if a guy can be simply convinced that he will go to heaven and get 70 virgins, if he dies as martyr vis-a-vis blowing himself up and killing as many people he can; you don't blame the guy who told him that; you blame the system(religion) that disabled the poor sod from questioning what he was being told......and this goes for any major religion (and I mean every major religion; I ain't pointing fingers at any particular one)

Religion denies a child the universe, for it strips his ability to question, to think freely without hindrance, to explore what lies behind the looking-glass.....