Overheard

I believe in the Bill of Rights the way some folks believe in the Bible.

Molly Ivins, 1944-2007
The Progressive
(Jan 1995)

You could call me an atheist but I'm comfortable with just being a humanist, a human being.

Molly Ivins
As told to Warren Allen Smith, Author, Who's Who in Hell
Source: Philosophedia

We have been put into a time machine. Under Saddam it wasn't perfect, but women could go to work, university, get married or divorced. But at the moment women have lost almost all their rights.

We are outraged by a constitution that gives legality to these tribal, ethnic and religious heads, and has turned Iraq into an Islamic country. The U.S. government simply handed us over to Islamic forces.

We are seeing the rise of a civil war because religious groups are competing for power, and currently the group who has the most seats in Parliament is the most notorious. . . .With Sharia law, there is no minimum age for the marriage of a female. If you are six years old, you can be married to a man of any age. Under this change--that George Bush said was supposed to be for the freedom of women--we encourage pedophilia. Under these new laws, if you steal something you have your hands chopped off. If you have committed a major crime, you are beheaded.

This is what happens when you enact a constitution [based on] religious laws written 15 centuries ago. We have been forced to let go of all of our struggles in human rights.

Yanar Mohammed
"Our Darkest Hour"
The Satya, Feb. 2007

Faith is really the license that reasonable people give one another to keep believing when reason fails.

Author Sam Harris
The End of Faith
Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
Star-Telegram, Feb. 17, 2007

Churches and other faith-based organizations are particularly vulnerable to embezzlement.

Reporter Corey Hodges
Salt Lake Tribune
March 2, 2007

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction. A petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak. A vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser. A misogynistic, homophobic, racist, malevolent bully.

Author Richard Dawkins
The God Delusion
Washington D.C. booksigning
Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
Star-Telegram, Feb. 17, 2007

When Justice Anthony M. Kennedy asserts that challenging the administration's faith-based programs would be "unduly obtrusive" and would amount to "supervising the White House and what it can say, who it can talk to," he's apparently forgotten a key phrase that appears in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, referring to governments "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." In other words, Justice Kennedy, the White House should be supervised by "we the people," as another document puts it.

Steven A. Wells
Letter to the editor, Los Angeles Times
March 5, 2007

Government bodies in general could save themselves a ton of headaches, and cost trial attorneys a ton of money, if they would cease the invoking of the almighty in their official capacities.

We are all free to trust in God as individuals, but as a republic our faith ought to be placed in our system, our elected leaders and in ourselves.

The fact is some citizens--responsible, productive, valued citizens--not only do not trust in God, they don't even believe in Him. A motto on coins, a phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance, a prayer at the beginning of a meeting, all run counter to that individual's right to dual status as both an American and a nonbeliever.

Columnist Brent Batten
"Schools should not endorse any religion"
Naples News, March 20, 2007

Tom [Cruise] has been told he is Scientology's Christlike figure. Like Christ, he's been criticized for his views. But future generations will realize he was right.

Scientologist "source close to the actor"
The Sun [UK], Jan. 23, 2007

If you take out uncovered meat [women who don't wear scarves] and place it outside . . . and the cats come to eat it . . . whose fault is it . . . the cats' or the uncovered meat's?

The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.

Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali
Later apologized for remarks
The Australian, Oct. 26, 2006

I'm very pleased with the relationship I have with many Christian conservatives, and I think many of them would consider me favorably. [I've] established a very good relationship [with Rev. Jerry Falwell.]

U.S. Sen. John McCain
Dallas Morning News, Feb. 5, 2007