Religion

Something that has deeply influenced my attitude to the church is the way that they have used the promise of a better life to exploit people. It's the idea of consolation for having a horrible life now. I went round Rome and just walking into the smaller churches you notice the fabulous fresco around the walls and the roof. In the medieval and renaissance times people would live in complete squalor but then they would come into these churches and look up. The brightness of those colours compared to the misery of their lives would have been so obvious. A lot of vulnerable people end up in the church. They might be targeted and I think vulnerability is why they end up believing. I certainly believe that some churches target vulnerable people - http://www.oxfordmuse.com/selfportrait/portrait12.htm

Secularisation is almost always celebrated by liberals, as if religion were such a curse that the unenlightened have to be liberated - by force if necessary - from its clutches. But religion represents the values and beliefs of the overwhelming majority of the world population. The resultant war on world religion conducted by the West through capitalism, sex and glamour was therefore not likely to be unopposed - Phillip Blond, http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/1602/

Scrutamini scripturus - these two words have undone the world - John Selden

Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful. It is straightforward - and never mind, for now, about plagues and famines: if God existed, and if He cared for humankind, He would never have given us religion - Martin Amis, http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,725608,00.html

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people - Karl Marx , German political theorist and social philosopher, 1818-1883

Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think - Schopenhauer

Religion has gone away,and all we are left with is ourselves. So we have to be interested in ourselves - AS Byatt http://www.markvernon.com/friendshiponline/dotclear/index.php?post/2010…

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one he must more approve of the homage of Reason than of blindfolded fear - Thomas Jefferson

Personally, I choose to go with Occam's razor: if there is no evidence of God, then the simplest explanation is that there is no God. Of course I can't rule out the possibility, I just think it is not very likely - Marcus Chown http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/05/looking-for-god-in…

Out of all of the sects in the world, we notice an uncanny coincidence: the overwhelming majority just happen to choose the one that their parents belong to. Not the sect that has the best evidence in its favour, the best miracles, the best moral code, the best cathedral, the best stained glass, the best music: when it comes to choosing from the smorgasbord of available religions, their potential virtues seem to count for nothing, compared to the matter of heredity. This is an unmistakable fact; nobody could seriously deny it. Yet people with full knowledge of the arbitrary nature of this heredity, somehow manage to go on believing in their religion, often with such fanaticism that they are prepared to murder people who follow a different one - Richard Dawkins