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Tom
https://www.goodreads.com/tmrss
Hope provides comfort, and hope does not always require probability. But we must believe that what we hope for is at least possible.
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![William Ralph Inge](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1275346811i/331497._UX200_CR0,18,200,200_.jpg)
“We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.”
―
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![Leo Tolstoy](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1651443031i/128382._UX200_CR0,24,200,200_.jpg)
“A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.”
―
―
![Ayn Rand](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1168729178i/432._UX200_CR0,22,200,200_.jpg)
“Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be left waiting for us in our graves-or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.”
― Atlas Shrugged
― Atlas Shrugged
![Christopher Hitchens](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1434046956i/3956._UY200_CR23,0,200,200_.jpg)
“[Said during a debate when his opponent asserted that atheism and belief in evolution lead to Nazism:]
Atheism by itself is, of course, not a moral position or a political one of any kind; it simply is the refusal to believe in a supernatural dimension. For you to say of Nazism that it was the implementation of the work ofCharles Darwinis a filthy slander, undeserving of you and an insult to this audience.Darwin’s thought was not taught in Germany;Darwinismwas so derided in Germany along with every other form of unbelief that all the great modern atheists,Darwin,EinsteinandFreudwere alike despised by the National Socialist regime.
Now, just to take the most notorious of the 20th century totalitarianisms – the most finished example, the most perfected one, the most ruthless and refined one: that of National Socialism, the one that fortunately allowed the escape of all these great atheists, thinkers and many others, to the United States, a country of separation of church and state, that gave them welcome – if it’s an atheistic regime, then how come that in the first chapter ofMein Kampf,thatHitlersays that he’s doing God’s work and executing God’s will in destroying the Jewish people? How come the fuhrer oath that every officer of the Party and the Army had to take, makingHitlerinto a minor god, begins, “I swear in the name of almighty God, my loyalty to the Fuhrer?” How come that on the belt buckle of every Nazi soldier it says Gott mit uns, God on our side? How come that the first treaty made by the Nationalist Socialist dictatorship, the very first is with the Vatican? It’s exchanging political control of Germany for Catholic control of German education. How come that the church has celebrated the birthday of the Fuhrer every year, on that day until democracy put an end to this filthy, quasi-religious, superstitious, barbarous, reactionary system?
Again, this is not a difference of emphasis between us. To suggest that there’s something fascistic about me and about my beliefs is something I won't hear said and you shouldn't believe.”
―
Atheism by itself is, of course, not a moral position or a political one of any kind; it simply is the refusal to believe in a supernatural dimension. For you to say of Nazism that it was the implementation of the work ofCharles Darwinis a filthy slander, undeserving of you and an insult to this audience.Darwin’s thought was not taught in Germany;Darwinismwas so derided in Germany along with every other form of unbelief that all the great modern atheists,Darwin,EinsteinandFreudwere alike despised by the National Socialist regime.
Now, just to take the most notorious of the 20th century totalitarianisms – the most finished example, the most perfected one, the most ruthless and refined one: that of National Socialism, the one that fortunately allowed the escape of all these great atheists, thinkers and many others, to the United States, a country of separation of church and state, that gave them welcome – if it’s an atheistic regime, then how come that in the first chapter ofMein Kampf,thatHitlersays that he’s doing God’s work and executing God’s will in destroying the Jewish people? How come the fuhrer oath that every officer of the Party and the Army had to take, makingHitlerinto a minor god, begins, “I swear in the name of almighty God, my loyalty to the Fuhrer?” How come that on the belt buckle of every Nazi soldier it says Gott mit uns, God on our side? How come that the first treaty made by the Nationalist Socialist dictatorship, the very first is with the Vatican? It’s exchanging political control of Germany for Catholic control of German education. How come that the church has celebrated the birthday of the Fuhrer every year, on that day until democracy put an end to this filthy, quasi-religious, superstitious, barbarous, reactionary system?
Again, this is not a difference of emphasis between us. To suggest that there’s something fascistic about me and about my beliefs is something I won't hear said and you shouldn't believe.”
―
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