“Things ain't what they used to be and never were.”
Will Rogers
People used to believe that the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West. Today we know that this is not how it works, but we still say that the Sun rises and sets because we are “accustomed.”
Back when Christianity was new, the Romans thought that the Mediterranean Sea was the center of the World and that they ruled the entire World all the way up to the edges. Since the “Age of Discovery,” five centuries ago, it has become extremely abnormal to believe this.
Pope Francis
“It's normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.”
Pope Francis (Jan. 15, 2015 referencing the Charlie Hebdo massacre.)
Today in Pakistan, people are still being executed for blasphemy. Historically blasphemy laws were normal. Every kingdom was supported by dogma that was always defended by blasphemy laws. One day, it was 180 degrees. The United States eliminated all the king's Divine Right stuff and gave the people the power of free speech along with an upgradeable constitution. Tom Paine said that in America, “the law is king” because the law is supposed to represent the voice of the people. Today in the free world, it is taken-for-granted that responsible adults sometimes have a duty to speak out against their government's policies.
“It is not enough to allow dissent. We must demand it, for there is much to dissent from.”
Robert Kennedy
“It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.”
Tom Paine
Thomas Jefferson:
“Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself… Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error.”
“We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”
“[I]t does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
“To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement.”
Thomas Jefferson
And it has:
Mark Twain and Robert G. Ingersoll on The Effects of the Enlightenment in Their Time
Barack Obama:
“The strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression; it is more speech… because, in the end, lies and misinformation are no match for the truth… Ideologies are not defeated with guns, they're defeated by better ideas… If you want a society that is free and vibrant and successful, part of that formula is the free flow of information [and] ideas, and that requires a free press. A free press is a foundation for any democracy… A great nation doesn't shy from the truth. It strengthens us. It emboldens us.”
Barack Obama
Robert G. Ingersoll:
“Any doctrine that will not bear investigation is not a fit tenant for the mind of an honest man. Any man who is afraid to have his doctrine investigated is not only a coward but a hypocrite.”
“[O]nly those are traitors in the great realm of thought who abandon reason and appeal to force.”
Robert G. Ingersoll
Christopher Hitchens speaking at the Freedom Fest in 2008:
“The recent recrudescence of something very sinister and very menacing, that is to say, despotism of the old form in Russia. One party rule; KGB rules, KGB standards for the treatment of dissent, for the treatment of the press, for the treatment of opposition politicians, for the treatment of neighboring countries as far distant as Georgia, and Chechnya, and Latvia, and Lithuania, the return, in other words, of what used to be called, “Great Russian Chauvinism,” under Putin and Medvedev is accompanied by something that was always the accompaniment of great Russian Czarist tyranny... Over the shoulder of the dictator stands every time you see it, the black cowled figure of the Russian orthodox bishop claiming as they do now, and as they are freely granted, by Putin and Medvedev, exclusive right to be the state church; no other Christian churches allowed either to recruit or proselytize in Russia; let alone, that a Jewish or Islamic force: not allowed at all. When Medvedev takes his oath of office as president, he takes it with an archbishop holding an icon up for him to kiss.
“You may remember that in the very strong field of stupid remarks made by President Bush, probably the stupidest (This is a very completive selection!) was his meeting with Vladimir Putin when he said, “As soon as he saw he was wearing his grandmother's crucifix, he could look into his eyes and know that he was a sincere and decent man.” Doesn't anyone here feel a moan of shame that any American President could make such a statement and be so uncritically received for it? Because to use the word “faith” is always to use the word as if it were a positive. And see what we've helped to baptize in Russia now: another form of Czarism, anti-Semitism, chauvinism, police dictatorship, with [our] baptizing it. And it's impossible to imagine this new form of Russian tyranny without this Christian carapace overlaid upon it.
“The origins of totalitarianism are theocratic. The original totalitarian temptation, the original totalitarian proposition is that we can refer all our difficulties, all our wishes, all our desires, all our hopes, all our dreads and fears to an unalterable dictatorship, a celestial North Korea in the sky that supervises us from dawn 'till dusk, that subjects us to constant surveillance while we are asleep, before we are born, after we are dead; and that, not until we can get rid of this diseased desire for dictatorship, this hatred of our own freedom, this wish for tyranny in our own heads do we stand the smallest chance of emancipating ourselves, our children, our allies, our friends, our comrades, and our descendants from the horror, the hell of dictatorship and massed murder in the here and now.”
Christopher Hitchens
