GodAnon

Matt Lauer: There have been calls from some religious groups. They wanted a disclaimer at the beginning of this movie saying it is fiction because, again, one of the themes in the book really knocks Christianity right on its ear. ... How would you all have felt if there was a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie?  Ian McKellen: Well, I've often thought the bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction. I mean, walking on water, it takes an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie. Not that it's true, not that it's factual, but that it's a jolly good story. And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing after they've seen it. —McKellen, interview with Matt Lauer on "The Today Show" about "The Da Vinci Code" (May 17, 2006)  Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“The dull pray; the geniuses are light mockers.” Emerson, "Representative Men" (1850) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

"The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant."  Ralph Waldo Emerson  Civilization , 1862;  D. 1882. Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result,  but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property. Exodus 21:20-21 Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the feelings of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of unspiritual conditions. It is the opium of the people.”  “The first requisite of the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.” Karl Marx, "A Criticism of the Hegelian Philosophy of Right" (1844) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“As you learn more and more about the universe, you find you can understand more and more without any reference to supernatural intervention, so you lose interest in that possibility. Most scientists I know don't care enough about religion even to call themselves atheists. And that, I think, is one of the great things about science — that it has made it possible for people not to be religious”  Steven Weinberg (quoted in Natalie Angier, “Confessions of a Lonely Atheist," The New York Times, Jan. 14, 2001) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." Steven Weinberg, address at the Conference on Cosmic Design, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington (April 1999) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“So Christendom’s clergy refuse to take a stand for Jehovah’s Kingdom by Jesus Christ. For failing to support it, they will be destroyed in the “great tribulation” just ahead. But unlike them, Jehovah’s Witnesses have abandoned Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion, and are preaching the Kingdom message in 203 lands. This unparalleled work is an outstanding feature of “the sign” proving that in 1914 Jesus was installed as heavenly King, to rule amid his enemies."  The Watchtower 9/1/85 p. 25 par. 15 Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

And, as I argued briefly in  Letter to a Christian Nation , I think that 'atheist' is a term that we do not need, in the same way that we don’t need a word for someone who rejects astrology. We simply do not call people 'non-astrologers.' All we need are words like 'reason' and 'evidence' and 'common sense' and 'bullshit' to put astrologers in their place, and so it could be with religion." “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.” "Letter to a Christian Nation" (Knopf, Sept. 19, 2006) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering