IRC-Galleria

"It's easier to say that I'm a radical Atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, that I have thought about it a great deal, and that it's an opinion I hold seriously. It's funny how many people are genuinely surprised to hear a view expressed so strongly. In England we seem to have drifted from vague, wishy-washy Anglicanism to vague, wishy-washy Agnosticism - both of which I think betoken a desire not to have to think about things too much.

People will then often say, "But surely it's better to stay Agnostic just in case?" This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out I've been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-tyour-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would choose not to worship him anyway.)"

-Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt