Wednesday, July 07, 2004
God (its lack of existence) and Church (its balefully concrete crimes)
Having referred to "God" in the previous post I should emphasise that I reject the existence of any such being, on the basis that extraordinary claims require extraordianry evidence (to quote the rationalist rule that I at least first heard from Hitchens) - why on earth (or indeed in heaven) should we abandon the rules of evidence and scepticism we apply throughout life when we come to think about something really important?
Which brings me to a couple of things I've been meaning to mention.
One is another famous quote - by Voltaire, one of French literature's most pleasingly anti-religious, anti-clerical figures (not that I've read any of his work you understand). Apparently when he was on his deathbed, an attempt was made at a last-minute conversion: "Do you renounce Satan and all his works?" the priest demanded. "Now" Voltaire responded , "is no time to be making enemies".
I'll get back to the second thing - which will explain the second part of this post's title - in another post.
Which brings me to a couple of things I've been meaning to mention.
One is another famous quote - by Voltaire, one of French literature's most pleasingly anti-religious, anti-clerical figures (not that I've read any of his work you understand). Apparently when he was on his deathbed, an attempt was made at a last-minute conversion: "Do you renounce Satan and all his works?" the priest demanded. "Now" Voltaire responded , "is no time to be making enemies".
I'll get back to the second thing - which will explain the second part of this post's title - in another post.
