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Quote by Wei Jingsheng

“We want to be masters of our own destiny. We need no Gods or Emperors. We do not believe in the existence of any saviour. We want to be masters of the world and not instruments used by autocrats to carry out their wild ambitions. We want a modern lifestyle and democracy for the people. Freedom and happiness are our sole objectives in accomplishing modernisation.”

Quote by Wei Jingsheng

Author

Wei Jingsheng
Wei Jingsheng

Wei Jingsheng, born on May 20, 1950, in Beijing, China, is a prominent Chinese political activist and dissident. He gained fame in the late 1970s for his involvement in the Democracy Wall movement, advocating for political reform and democratization. In 1979, he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison for allegedly leaking state secrets and counter-revolutionary activities. After his release in 1993, he continued his activism and later exiled to the United States in 1997. Internationally, Wei is seen as a symbol of democracy and human rights, though his views remain controversial in China. His life reflects the complexities of China's early reform era. more

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“I myself am not comfortable with the notion of secularists congregating in groups, except perhaps for defensive purposes: the last thing a secularist should wish to do is to act like a religion, with its rigid hierarchies, its suppression of divergent opinion, and, above all, its ruthless attempts (now mercifully inhibited by laws) to outlaw "heresy" by brute force. Opinions must be changed, one at a time if necessary, but if there are those who wish to persist in religious belief, they should certainly be allowed to do so.”

“The atheist, agnostic, or secularist ... should insist on the need to engage in a meaningful debate on the entire issue of the truth or falsity (or probability or improbability) of religious tenets, without being subject to accusations of impiety, immorality, impoliteness, or any of the other smokescreens used by the pious to deflect attention from the central issues at hand.”