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.
This so gnawed at him on some nights that he lay awake wondering just how many unknown and similarly inconsequential accidents and bits of happenstance were at this moment occurring or failing to occur in order to ensure he took his next breath, and the next.
It was during the Reagan years that defiance of international law and the U.N. Charter became entirely open.
There are certain things that we can deal with by following the rules. But at times, we find the rules restrict you from doing the right things. On such occasions, we have to rethink - either you change the rules or break the rules.
Beloved," said the Glorious One, "unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.
I was a westerner in Iran, an Iranian in the West. I had no identity. I didn't even know anymore why I was living.
The justification and the purpose of freedom of speech is not to indulge those who want to speak their minds. It is to prevent error and discover truth. There may be other ways of detecting error and discovering truth than that of free discussion, but so far we have not found them.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.