If I were asked for a one-sentence sound bite on religion, I would say I was against it.
Interpretation
The author expresses a strong opposition to religion.
In this quote, Salman Rushdie succinctly conveys his critical stance towards religion, suggesting that he fundamentally disagrees with its principles or impact on society. The brevity of his assertion emphasizes the weight of his conviction and invites further reflection on the role of religion in human experience.
In practice
In a discussion about personal beliefs, one might quote Rushdie to illustrate a secular perspective.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
Virtue can only flourish among equals.
All of us have to deal with death at one time or another, but to have in one's heart a solid conviction concerning the reality of eternal life is to bring a sense of peace in an hour of tragedy that can come from no other source under the heavens
Memories are like mulligatawny soup in a cheap restaurant. It is best not to stir them.
When...we, as individuals, obey laws that direct us to behave for the welfare of the community as a whole, we are indirectly helping to promote the pursuit of happiness by our fellow human beings.
We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.
Soon all of you immortals Will be as dead as we are! Come on then, what are you waiting for? Have you run out of thunderbolts?
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.