“For everything in the world—for civilization, for life, for success—the truest guide is knowledge and science,” Atatürk declared in one famous speech.
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Entries Tagged as 'Atheism'
Ataturk and the Enlightenment – “Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds”, Stephen Kinzer
August 27th, 2012 · No Comments · Atheism, Religion, Science
Tags:atheism·enlightenment·Rationalism·religion·science·Turkey
An Updated Ten Commandments “Arguably: Selected Essays” – Christopher Hitchens
July 10th, 2012 · No Comments · Atheism, Christianity, Morality, Religion
It’s difficult to take oneself with sufficient seriousness to begin any sentence with the words “Thou shalt not.” But who cannot summon the confidence to say: Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or color. Do not ever use people as private property. Despise those who use violence or the threat of […]
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Tags:atheism·Christianity·morality·religion
Critiquing the Ten Commandments – “Arguably: Selected Essays” – Christopher Hitchens
July 10th, 2012 · No Comments · Atheism, Christianity, Morality, Religion
I am trying my best not to view things through a smug later prism. Only the Almighty can scan matters sub specie aeternitatis: from the viewpoint of eternity. One must also avoid cultural and historical relativism: There’s no point in retroactively ordering the Children of Israel to develop a germ theory of disease (so as […]
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Tags:atheism·Christianity·morality·religion
Why Don’t the Ten Commandments Prohibit Child Abuse? “Arguably: Selected Essays” – Christopher Hitchens
July 8th, 2012 · No Comments · Atheism, Christianity, Humanism, Morality, Religion
As for (Commandment) Number Five, by all means respect for the elders, but why is there nothing (in the Ten Commandments) to forbid child abuse? (Insolence on the part of children is punishable by death, according to Leviticus 20:9, only a few verses before the stipulation of the death penalty for male homosexuals.) A cruel […]
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Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of – “The Grapes of Wrath” – John Steinbeck
June 14th, 2012 · No Comments · Atheism, Christianity, Humanism, Morality, Philosophy, Religion
I figgered about the Holy Sperit and the Jesus road. I figgered, ‘Why do we got to hang it on God or Jesus? Maybe,’ I figgered, ‘maybe it’s all men an’ all women we love; maybe that’s the Holy Sperit—the human sperit—the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.’ […]
Tags:Humanism·morality·philosophy·religion
There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue – “The Grapes of Wrath” – John Steinbeck
June 13th, 2012 · No Comments · Atheism, Christianity, Humanism, Morality, Philosophy, Quotes, Religion
There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do. It’s all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain’t nice, but that’s as far as any man got a right to say.’
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Tags:Humanism·morality·philosophy·religion
Prayer in Parliament – “Inside the Canberra Press Gallery: Life in the Wedding Cake of Old Parliament House” – Rob Chalmers
May 29th, 2012 · No Comments · Atheism, Australiana, Christianity, Democracy, Politics, Religion
Yet many people would believe no prayer is needed, from whatever faith. When the Federal Parliament first met after Federation, no prayer was offered. This led to a storm of protest from various Christian evangelical organisations, the Parliament gave way to the pressure and the prayer became part of proceedings. Gregor McGregor, leader of the […]
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Tags:atheism·Australian Politics·Christianity·Politics·religion
The Before and the After of Life – “The God Delusion” – Richard Dawkins
April 24th, 2012 · No Comments · Atheism, Religion
Mark Twain’s dismissal of the fear of death is another: ‘I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.’
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Tags:After Life·Death·religion
Seneca on Religion – “The God Delusion” – Richard Dawkins
April 23rd, 2012 · No Comments · Atheism, Politics, Quotes, Religion
Seneca the Younger: ‘Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.’
For Good People to Do Evil Things Takes Religion – “The God Delusion” – Richard Dawkins
April 23rd, 2012 · No Comments · Atheism, Humanism, Morality, Philosophy, Religion
As the Nobel Prize-winning American physicist Steven Weinberg said, ‘Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.’ Blaise Pascal (he of the wager) said something similar: ‘Men never […]
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