
Letter to I.L. Leontev (March 22, 1890)
Letters
Source: Life Itself : A Memoir (2011), Ch. 54 : How I Believe In God
Context: Over the high school years, my belief in the likelihood of a God disappeared. I kept this to myself. I never discussed it with my parents. My father in any event was a nonpracticing Lutheran, until a deathbed conversion that rather disappointed me. I’m sure he agreed to it for my mother’s sake. Did I start calling myself an agnostic or an atheist? No, and I still don’t. I avoid that because I don’t want to provide a category that people can apply to me. Those who say that “believer” and “atheist” are concrete categories do violence to the mystery we must be humble enough to confess. I would not want my convictions reduced to a word.
Letter to I.L. Leontev (March 22, 1890)
Letters
"Sex and Violence: A Perspective" (1981), p. 88
Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law (1987)
Original: Una delle peggiori categorie di individui è quella che vuole sempre aver ragione sapendo di non averla.
Source: prevale.net
I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994)
Context: If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.
I would also want a God who would not allow a Hell. Infinite torture can only be a punishment for infinite evil, and I don't believe that infinite evil can be said to exist even in the case of Hitler. Besides, if most human governments are civilized enough to try to eliminate torture and outlaw cruel and unusual punishments, can we expect anything less of an all-merciful God?
I feel that if there were an afterlife, punishment for evil would be reasonable and of a fixed term. And I feel that the longest and worst punishment should be reserved for those who slandered God by inventing Hell.
discussing the support and encouragement she received at the start of her film career
Filmmaker Magazine - Article & Interview by Vadim Rizov - “Women Directors are One More Problem We Don’t Need”: Joan Micklin Silver on Chilly Scenes of Winter https://filmmakermagazine.com/88270-women-directors-are-one-more-problem-we-dont-need-joan-micklin-silver-on-chilly-scenes-of-winter/#.X_JSlC9h3Up - 11 November 2014 - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210911141834/https://filmmakermagazine.com/88270-women-directors-are-one-more-problem-we-dont-need-joan-micklin-silver-on-chilly-scenes-of-winter/