#ali

You can see the same immorality or amorality in the Christian view of guilt and punishment. There are only two texts, both of them extreme and mutually contradictory. The Old Testament injunction is the one to exact an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (it occurs in a passage of perfectly demented detail about the exact rules governing mutual ox-goring; you should look it up in its context (Exodus 21). The second is from the Gospels and says that only those without sin should cast the first stone. The first is a moral basis for capital punishment and other barbarities; the second is so relativistic and "nonjudgmental" that it would not allow the prosecution of Charles Manson. Our few notions of justice have had to evolve despite these absurd codes of ultra vindictiveness and ultracompassion. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#christianity #compassion #guilt #immorality #justice

Qu'importe, mon Dieu, que je brûle toute l'éternité en enfer, si c'est ta volonté. ↗

— St. Thérèse de Lisieux

#hell #l-enfer #religion #ste-thérèse #will-of-god

Ai pus nitroglicerină sub perna lui dumnezeu ... ↗

— Saşa Pană

#religion #surrealism #religion

To become truly human,one has to try an release oneself from the shackles of race,religion and nationality.The quantum of humanism one acquires is inevitably filtered when one limits oneself."-Ashoka Jahnavi Prasad(Kant Lecture,20090) ↗

— Ashoka Prasad

#nationality #race #religion #religion

My father, for whose skills as a surgeon I have the deepest respect, says, "The operation with the best outcome is the one you decide not to do." Knowing when not to operate, knowing when I am in over my head, knowing when to call for the assistance of a surgeon of my father's caliber--that kind of talent, that kind of "brilliance," goes unheralded. ↗

— Abraham Verghese

#healing #medicine #surgeon #respect

Some part of him had hoped that a woman might one day see beyond his scars to the man he was inside. But Megan was doing more than just ignoring his ugliness. She was _accepting_ it with a woman's gentleness, her touch soothing memories of savage pain, grief, loneliness. ↗

— Pamela Clare

#romantic-suspense #soldier #romantic

You know how sometimes you tell yourself that you have a choice, but really you don't have a choice? Just because there are alternatives doesn't mean they apply to you. ↗

— Rick Yancey

#apocalypse #cassie #choices #fiction #horror

The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for civilisation. ↗

— Benjamin Disraeli

#comfort #materialism #progress #science #science

Not all the magic of earth is benevolent. ↗

— Alden Bell

#hopeful #reality #science-fiction #zombies #science

I was worried about sex," he went on. "But you know what, Sulie? It's like being told I can't have any caviar for the next couple years. I don't even like caviar. And when you come right down to it, I don't want sex right now. I supposed you punched that into the computer? 'Cut down sex drive, increase euphoria'? Anyway, it finally penetrated my little brain that I was just making trouble for myself, worrying about whether I could get along without something I really didn't want. It's a reflection of what I think other people think I should want. ↗

— Frederik Pohl

#science-fiction #sex #science