martyrs

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
30deefa	The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs... In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three, and three but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no candid man can say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what presents no idea? He who thinks he does, only deceives himself. He proves, also, that . [ ]	reason athanasian-creed trinitarian athanasian the-trinity trinity martyrs gullibility	Thomas Jefferson
d2c68b3	In all times, and all countries especially in those countries which are divided within by religious faith, there are always fanatics who will be well contented to be regarded as martyrs.	religion martyrs	Alexandre Dumas
345669d	Every November of my boyhood, we put on red poppies and attended highly patriotic services in remembrance of those who had 'given' their lives. But on what assurance did we know that these gifts had really been made? Only the survivors--the living--could attest to it. In order to know that a person had truly laid down his life for his friends, or comrades, one would have to hear it from his own lips, or at least have heard it promised in advance. And that presented another difficulty. Many brave and now dead soldiers had nonetheless been conscripts. The known martyrs--those who actually, voluntarily sought death and rejoiced in the fact--had been the kamikaze pilots, immolating themselves to propitiate a 'divine' emperor who looked (as Orwell once phrased it) like a monkey on a stick. Their Christian predecessors had endured torture and death (as well as inflicted it) in order to set up a theocracy. Their modern equivalents would be the suicide murderers, who mostly have the same aim in mind. About people who set out to lose their lives, then, there seems to hang an air of fanaticism: a gigantic sense of self-importance unattractively fused with a masochistic tendency to self-abnegation. Not wholesome. The better and more realistic test would therefore seem to be: In what cause, or on what principle, would you your life?	suicide war christianity friends sacrifice death religion christian-martyrs conscription kamikaze memorials poppies self-abnegation suicide-attack martyrs masochism orwell november comrades soldiers theocracy ugliness causes martyrdom self-importance patriotism principles fanaticism childhood torture	Christopher Hitchens
f1fcccf	We can always be sure of one thing--that the messengers of discomfort and sacrifice will be stoned and pelted by those who wish to preserve at all costs their own contentment. This is not a lesson that is confined to the Testaments.	history religion bible brave-new-world martyrs prophets old-testament	Christopher Hitchens
c1eaa56	"{ }	integrity coop credulity divines dreadful catholic-church luminous martyrs christendom catholic sages believers catholicism submission cruelty realization church shame lie contempt ritual ugly hell	H.G. Wells
43e62d8	There are hundreds of political prisoners right now in America's jails who were so taken by Malcolm [X's} spirit that they became warriors and the powers that be understood them as warriors. They knew that a lot of these other middle-class [black] leaders were not warriors; they were professionals; they were careerists. But these warriors had callings, and they have paid an incalculable and immeasurable price in those cells.	racism leadership african-american-men black-leadership black-liberation-movement black-middle-class black-prophets black-revolutionaries careerists conscientious-objection freedom-fighters industrial-prison-complex mass-incarceration political-advocacy political-prisoners prison-reform martyrs african-americans malcolm-x black-history-month racial-discrimination warriors political-philosophy	Cornel West
d02e6a6	As More says, it hardly makes a man a hero, to agree to stand and burn once he is chained to a stake. I have written books and I cannot unwrite them. I cannot unbelieve what I believe. I cannot unlive my life. pg.404	thomas-more martyrs	Hilary Mantel

30deefa

The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs... In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three, and three but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no candid man can say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what presents no idea? He who thinks he does, only deceives himself. He proves, also, that . [ ]

reason athanasian-creed trinitarian athanasian the-trinity trinity martyrs gullibility

Thomas Jefferson

d2c68b3

In all times, and all countries especially in those countries which are divided within by religious faith, there are always fanatics who will be well contented to be regarded as martyrs.

religion martyrs

Alexandre Dumas

345669d

Every November of my boyhood, we put on red poppies and attended highly patriotic services in remembrance of those who had 'given' their lives. But on what assurance did we know that these gifts had really been made? Only the survivors--the living--could attest to it. In order to know that a person had truly laid down his life for his friends, or comrades, one would have to hear it from his own lips, or at least have heard it promised in advance. And that presented another difficulty. Many brave and now dead soldiers had nonetheless been conscripts. The known martyrs--those who actually, voluntarily sought death and rejoiced in the fact--had been the kamikaze pilots, immolating themselves to propitiate a 'divine' emperor who looked (as Orwell once phrased it) like a monkey on a stick. Their Christian predecessors had endured torture and death (as well as inflicted it) in order to set up a theocracy. Their modern equivalents would be the suicide murderers, who mostly have the same aim in mind. About people who set out to lose their lives, then, there seems to hang an air of fanaticism: a gigantic sense of self-importance unattractively fused with a masochistic tendency to self-abnegation. Not wholesome. The better and more realistic test would therefore seem to be: In what cause, or on what principle, would you your life?

suicide war christianity friends sacrifice death religion christian-martyrs conscription kamikaze memorials poppies self-abnegation suicide-attack martyrs masochism orwell november comrades soldiers theocracy ugliness causes martyrdom self-importance patriotism principles fanaticism childhood torture

Christopher Hitchens

f1fcccf

We can always be sure of one thing--that the messengers of discomfort and sacrifice will be stoned and pelted by those who wish to preserve at all costs their own contentment. This is not a lesson that is confined to the Testaments.

history religion bible brave-new-world martyrs prophets old-testament

Christopher Hitchens

c1eaa56

"{ }

integrity coop credulity divines dreadful catholic-church luminous martyrs christendom catholic sages believers catholicism submission cruelty realization church shame lie contempt ritual ugly hell

H.G. Wells

43e62d8

There are hundreds of political prisoners right now in America's jails who were so taken by Malcolm [X's} spirit that they became warriors and the powers that be understood them as warriors. They knew that a lot of these other middle-class [black] leaders were not warriors; they were professionals; they were careerists. But these warriors had callings, and they have paid an incalculable and immeasurable price in those cells.

racism leadership african-american-men black-leadership black-liberation-movement black-middle-class black-prophets black-revolutionaries careerists conscientious-objection freedom-fighters industrial-prison-complex mass-incarceration political-advocacy political-prisoners prison-reform martyrs african-americans malcolm-x black-history-month racial-discrimination warriors political-philosophy

Cornel West

d02e6a6

As More says, it hardly makes a man a hero, to agree to stand and burn once he is chained to a stake. I have written books and I cannot unwrite them. I cannot unbelieve what I believe. I cannot unlive my life. pg.404

thomas-more martyrs

Hilary Mantel