"Has it ever occurred to you how lucky you are to be alive? More than 99
percent of all the creatures that have ever lived have died without
progeny, but not a single one of your ancestors falls into that group!
.. . . Not a single one of your ancestors, all the way back to the
bacteria, succumbed to predation before reproducing, or lost out in the
competition for a mate."
and
"The kindly God who lovingly fashioned each and every one of us and
sprinkled the sky with shining stars for our delight -- that God is, like
Santa Claus, a myth of childhood, not anything [that] a sane, undeluded
adult could literally believe in. That God must either be turned into a
symbol for something less concrete or abandoned altogether."
and
"I recently took part in a conference in Seattle that brought together
leading scientists, artists and authors to talk candidly and informally
about their lives to a group of very smart high school students. Toward
the end of my allotted 15 minutes, I tried a little experiment. I came
out as a bright [a person with a world-view that is naturalistic rather
than supernaturalistic]."
"Now, my identity would come as no surprise to anybody with the slightest
knowledge of my work. Nevertheless, the result was electrifying.
Many students came up to me afterwards to thank me, with considerable
passion, for "liberating" them. I hadn't realized how lonely and insecure
these thoughtful teenagers felt. They'd never heard a respected adult
say, in an entirely matter of fact way, that he didn't believe in God. I
had calmly broken a taboo and shown how easy it was."
"In addition, many of the later speakers, including several Nobel
laureates, were inspired to say that they, too, were brights. In each
case the remark drew applause. Even more gratifying were the comments of
adults and students alike who sought me out afterward to tell me that,
while they themselves were not brights, they supported bright rights. And
that is what we want most of all: to be treated with the same respect
accorded to Baptists and Hindus and Catholics, no more and no less."
--
Enkidu AA#2165
http://www.musings.leaddogs.org/
EAC Chaplain and ordained minister,
ULC, Modesto, CA
PGP ID: 0xC4CE8CF0
"The constitution does not provide for first and second class citizens."
* Wendell Willkie
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