Apr 252012
 

The Koran, much like the Bible, is full of injustice, intolerance, cruelty, violence, contradictions, and hate. It’s true, though, that violence is much more likely to come from Muslims than from Christians. Christianity has had its violent past but it is now largely neutered but Islam is increasingly expressing more closely its core fundamental believes manifested as violence. In that respect I can see, without condoning, why Germany seems against the free-issuing of Korans:

But such differential prohibitions are not for the common good. Most people who have rejected religion are those that have studied religion and found it to be nothing more than man-made nonsense. Instead of such censorship, I would rather concentrate on secularising governments and making fun of religion by highlighting the nonsense/injustice/hatred/etc. in these religions, and showing the incompatibility of religion to the truths revealed by the beauty of science.

I, for one, will take it as extremely insulting if any person of faith makes the assumption that their faith gives them the moral edge on me. I want to hear a lot more apologising from the faith based communities for the evil that they’ve done before they even start clearing their throats and telling me I wouldn’t know right from wrong without their permission. I’m sorry, I won’t be, can’t be spoken to in that tone of voice and nor should any of you.
— Christopher Hitchens

I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.
— Thomas Jefferson

There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right; they’re the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.
— Carl Sagan

Faith is the surrender of the mind; it’s the surrender of reason, it’s the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It’s our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated.
— Christopher Hitchens

I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God. So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake… Religion is all bunk.
— Thomas Edison

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

Apr 132012
 

Today is 13th April. On this day in 1949 the late great Christopher Hitchens was born. I thought I’d share one of his many quotes:

Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

Mar 102012
 

Inspirational quote from Carl Sagan set against a cartoon strip:

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

Sep 212010
 

A quote from Christopher Hitchens during his debate with David Berlinksi:

“[All religions] make the same mistake. They all take the only real faculty we have that distinguishes us from other primates, and from other animals—the faculty of reason, and the willingness to take any risk that reason demands of us—and they replace that with the idea that faith is a virtue.  If I could change just one thing, it would be to dissociate the idea of faith from virtue—now and for good—and to expose it for what it is: a servile weakness, a refuge in cowardice, and a willingness to follow, with credulity, people who are in the highest degree unscrupulous.” – Christopher Hitchens

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010