Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't read more

Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.

The biblical account of Noah's Ark and the Flood is perhaps the most implausible story for fundamentalists to defend. Where, read more

The biblical account of Noah's Ark and the Flood is perhaps the most implausible story for fundamentalists to defend. Where, for example, while loading his ark, did Noah find penguins and polar bears in Palestine?

God has been so lavish in his gifts that you can lose some priceless ones, the equivalent of whole kingdoms, read more

God has been so lavish in his gifts that you can lose some priceless ones, the equivalent of whole kingdoms, and still be indecently rich,.

Should our moral beliefs really prove to be dependent on factual assumptions shown to be incorrect, it would be hardly read more

Should our moral beliefs really prove to be dependent on factual assumptions shown to be incorrect, it would be hardly moral to defend them by refusing to acknowledge the facts.

As a first approximation, I define "belief" not as the object of believing (a dogma, a program, etc.) but as read more

As a first approximation, I define "belief" not as the object of believing (a dogma, a program, etc.) but as the subject's investment in a proposition, the act of saying it and considering it as true.

All the gods are dead except the god of war.

All the gods are dead except the god of war.

Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler.

Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler.

A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

Do you know how to digest your food? Do you know how to fill your lungs with air? Do you read more

Do you know how to digest your food? Do you know how to fill your lungs with air? Do you know how to establish, regulate and direct the metabolism of your body -- the assimilation of foodstuff so that it builds muscles, bones and flesh? No, you don't know how consciously, but there is a wisdom within you that does know.