Religion poisons everything

Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.

Don't take security in the false refuge of consensus.

We are both preachers. He preached the teaching of Jesus Christ, and I preached my philosophy.
He asked me: “Do you pray?”
“No.”
“Do you beseech God to forgive your trespasses?”
“No.”
“Do you not thank God for his bounty?”
“No.”
“Do you not depend on God's support?”
“No.”
And with this his puzzlement increased until he was assured that my fate lies in hell indeed.

Religions and states and classes and tribes and nations do not have to work or argue for their adherents and subjects. They more or less inherit them. Against this unearned patrimony there have always been speakers and writers who embody Einstein's injunction to 'remember your humanity and forget the rest.' It would be immodest to claim membership in this fraternity/sorority, but I hope not to have done anything to outrage it. Despite the idiotic sneer that such principles are 'fashionable,' it is always the ideas of secularism, libertarianism, internationalism, and solidarity that stand in need of reaffirmation.

How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy that their country was founded to escape.