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e32d551 "[ :] 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 of is a filthy slander, undeserving of you and an insult to this audience. 's thought was not taught in Germany; was so derided in Germany along with every other form of unbelief that all the great modern atheists, , and were 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 of , that says 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, making evolution science albert-einstein barbaric fascistic fuhrer mein-kampf superstitious separation-of-church-and-state einstein nazi charles-darwin sigmund-freud freud pope vatican nazism catholicism united-states hitler darwinism darwin fascism jewish germany Christopher Hitchens
05e2e68 "When the late Pope John Paul II decided to place the woman so strangely known as on the fast track for beatification, and thus to qualify her for eventual sainthood, the Vatican felt obliged to solicit my testimony and I thus spent several hours in a closed hearing room with a priest, a deacon, and a monsignor, no doubt making their day as I told off, as from a rosary, the frightful faults and crimes of the departed fanatic. In the course of this, I discovered that the pope during his tenure had surreptitiously abolished the famous office of "Devil's Advocate," in order to fast-track still more of his many candidates for canonization. I can thus claim to be the only living person to have represented the Devil ." religion beatification canonisation deacons devil-s-advocate fanatacism monsignors mother-teresa pope pope-john-paul-ii priests pro-bono satan testimony sainthood vatican devil Christopher Hitchens
6c09794 The seasonal urge is strong in poets. Milton wrote chiefly in winter. Keats looked for spring to wake him up (as it did in the miraculous months of April and May, 1819). Burns chose autumn. Longfellow liked the month of September. Shelley flourished in the hot months. Some poets, like Wordsworth, have gone outdoors to work. Others, like Auden, keep to the curtained room. Schiller needed the smell of rotten apples about him to make a poem. Tennyson and Walter de la Mare had to smoke. Auden drinks lots of tea, Spender coffee; Hart Crane drank alcohol. Pope, Byron, and William Morris were creative late at night. And so it goes. seasons winter poets poetry writing apple april auden byron de-la-mare insomnia longfellow may morris nocturnal season september shelley spender tennyson pope apples coffee spring wordsworth milton fall hart-crane autumn tea keats night writers burns schiller Helen Bevington
af96e55 In 1054, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope excommunicated each other. That was the end of holiness for both churches. religion pope Frank Herbert
6298c9c "[Pope] Clement waved his hands in irritation as if to dismiss the very idea. "The world is crumbling into ruin. Armies are marching. Men and women are dying everywhere, in huge numbers. Fields are abandoned and towns deserted. The wrath of the Lord is upon us and He may be intending to destroy the whole of creation. People are without leaders and direction. They want to be given a reason for this, so they can be reassured, so they will return to their prayers and their obiediences. All this is going on, and you are concerned about the safety of two Jews?" mankind god-s-wrath scapegoats victimization papal-authority end-of-the-world victims decay pope ruin genocide civilization plague panic punishment turmoil jews Iain Pears
806ae42 "Do you wish to speak in Provencal, French, or Latin? They are all I can manage, I'm afraid." "Any will do," the rabbi replied in Provencal. "Splendid. Latin it is," said Pope Clement." papal-authority pope languages communication conceit mockery Iain Pears
e98e126 "Max would conclude, "that's who I want to be. The pope. And I'll do the same thing he does. I'll keep all the goddamn money." money pope Richard Russo
0a28c2e The Pope is often an embarrassment. Each Pope nurses his own foibles and follies, pet truths and pet hates, and all must be accommodated within the seamless seemingly unchanging whole of Catholic Truth. Often the Popes contradict one another, and even more often, they contradict the great masters they reanimate to support their own certainties. The theologians take it as a joke. They are interested in the power of the Church and her authority. Power, authority and revenues, are what they are there to protect. They can dye black white. They do. religion pope hypocrisy power Jeanette Winterson
4ec7e76 I'm of the camp that if an angel tells you one thing, and a man in ruby slippers tells you another, you go with the angel. papal pope Sean Patrick Brennan