Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the shift in perception regarding religion as a mere comfort after the events of September 11th, exposing the potential dangers of unfounded beliefs.
Richard Dawkins' quote highlights the transformation in societal views on religion following the September 11th attacks. Before these events, many considered religion to be a benign source of consolation, even if its beliefs lacked evidence. However, this perspective shifted dramatically as the attacks showcased how such beliefs could have profound and harmful consequences, prompting a reevaluation of the role of faith in society.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion on the impact of religion in modern society.
No educated person believes the Adam and Eve myth nowadays, but it's surprising how many parents think that it's somehow fun to pass on this falsehood to their children...I would want to argue that the truth of evolution is more interesting and more poetic
If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worst than ignorant, they are the deluded to the point of perversity.
The population of the U.S. is nearly 300 million, including many of the best educated, most talented, most resourceful, humane people on earth. By almost any measure of civilised attainment, from Nobel prize-counts on down, the U.S. leads the world by miles.
When you make machines that are capable of obeying instructions slavishly, and among those instructions are 'duplicate me' instructions, then of course the system is wide open to exploitation by parasites.
Even if not a single fossil has ever been found, the evidence from surviving animals would still overwhelmingly force the conclusion that Darwin was right.
The bitter hatreds that now poison Middle Eastern politics are rooted in the real or perceived wrong of the setting up of a Jewish State in an Islamic region. In view of all that the Jews had been through, it must have seemed a fair and humane solution. Probably deep familiarity with the Old Testament had given the European and American decision-makers some sort of idea that this really was the historic homeland of the Jews.
Man is the only creature disposed to kill huge numbers of members of his own species, and his instrument is usually the state.
There is nothing attractive about the gospel to the natural man; the only man who finds the gospel attractive is the man who is convicted of sin.
If God is the Creator of all things and evil is a thing, then God is the Creator of evil and He is to be blamed for its existence. No, evil is not a thing but a wrong choice, or the damage done by a wrong choice. Evil is no more a positive thing than blindness is, but it is just as real.
There comes a moment when we all must realize that life is short, and in the end the only thing that really counts is not how others see us, but how God sees us.
What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call 'thought'.
Our ordinary mind always tries to persuade us that we are nothing but acorns and that our greatest happiness will be to become bigger, fatter, shinier acorns; but that is of interest only to pigs. Our faith gives us knowledge of something better: that we can become oak trees.
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