“Religion teaches you to be satisfied with nonanswers. It’s a sort of crime against childhood.”

— Richard Dawkins

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Richard Dawkins 322

English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author 1941

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“One of the things that is wrong with religion is that it teaches us to be satisfied with answers which are not really answers at all.”

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“These religions teach the slave virtues. They make inanimate things holy, and falsehoods sacred. They create artificial crimes.”

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Context: These religions teach the slave virtues. They make inanimate things holy, and falsehoods sacred. They create artificial crimes. To eat meat on Friday, to enjoy yourself on Sunday, to eat on fast-days, to be happy in Lent, to dispute a priest, to ask for evidence, to deny a creed, to express your sincere thought, all these acts are sins, crimes against some god, To give your honest opinion about Jehovah, Mohammed or Christ, is far worse than to maliciously slander your neighbor. To question or doubt miracles. is far worse than to deny known facts. Only the obedient, the credulous, the cringers, the kneelers, the meek, the unquestioning, the true believers, are regarded as moral, as virtuous. It is not enough to be honest, generous and useful; not enough to be governed by evidence, by facts. In addition to this, you must believe. These things are the foes of morality. They subvert all natural conceptions of virtue.