#extremism

"The take-home message is that we should blame religion itself, not religious extremism - as though that were some kind of terrible perversion of real, decent religion. Voltaire got it right long ago: 'Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.' So did Bertrand Russell: 'Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do."

"Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched."[My Uncle Sosthenes]"

"What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men, and that as a result he's certain he'll go to heaven if he cuts your throat?"

"From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable."

"There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy, they justify almost anything."