I'm an atheist and I thank God for it.
George Bernard ShawRead
Looking back, I'm almost happy I lost that fight. Just imagine if I would have come back to Germany with a victory. I had nothing to do with the Nazis, but they would have given me a medal. After the war I might have been considered a war criminal.
Interpretation
Reflecting on past events can lead to unexpected gratitude for outcomes that seemed negative at the time.
In this quote, Max Schmeling reflects on his past experiences during the war, expressing that losing a fight ultimately spared him from a moral dilemma. He suggests that a victory would have linked him to the Nazi regime through a misplaced honor, which could have tarnished his legacy and potentially labeled him as a war criminal, highlighting the complexities of morality in historical contexts.
In practice
During a speech on the complexities of moral choices in times of war.
I'm an atheist and I thank God for it.
In every child who is born, no matter what circumstances, and of no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again: and in him, too, once more, and of each of us, our terrific responsibility toward human life; toward the utmost idea of goodness, of the horror of terror, and of God.
Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy.
It is not the walls that make the city, but the people who live within them. The walls of London may be battered, but the spirit of the Londoner stands resolute and undismayed.
Any conception of a god that is less than sovereign is an idol and no god at all.
Accept everything just the way it is.
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