Christopher Hitchens

I boldly assert, in fact I think I know, that a lot of friendships and connections absolutely depend upon a sort of shared language, or slang. Not necessarily designed to exclude others, this can establish a certain comity and, even after a long absence, re-establish it in a second. ”

Well, I'll put it this way: you can certainly say belief in God makes people behave worse. That can be proved beyond a doubt. ”

The suicide-bombing community is not absolutely 100 percent religious, but it is pretty nearly 100 percent religious. ”

Trust is not the same as faith. A friend is someone you trust. Putting faith in anyone is a mistake. ”

Well look, I mean, I think that prayer and holy water, and things like that are all fine. They don't do any good, but they don't necessarily do any harm. It's touching to be thought of in that way. It makes up for those who tell me that I've got my just desserts. ”

Even if I accepted that Jesus - like almost every other prophet on record - was born of a virgin, I cannot think that this proves the divinity of his father or the truth of his teachings. The same would be true if I accepted that he had been resurrected. ”

My children, to the extent that they have found religion, have found it from me, in that I insist on at least a modicum of religious education for them. ”

The human wish to credit good things as miraculous and to charge bad things to another account is apparently universal. ”

One has children in the expectation of dying before them. In fact, you want to make damn sure you die before them, just as you plant a tree or build a house knowing, hoping that it will outlive you. That's how the human species has done as well as it has. ”

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. ”