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Quote by Darrel Ray

“Many of them [people who escaped religion] recounted both the terror and the relief they felt after leaving religion behind. Terror at realizing there was no longer an imaginary friend; relief that no one was looking over their shoulder any more. Several described the experience as similar to that of a child learning to go to sleep without a favorite teddy bear. Others described it as simply growing up or outgrowing the need for the imaginary friends of childhood.”

Quote by Darrel Ray

Author

Darrel Ray, born on August 24, 1950, is a writer whose works primarily explore the relationship between religion, sex, science, and human behavior. more

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“Some people who experience a religious conversion seem to undergo a personality change. They can be quite congenial and easygoing when talking about mundane things, but when they start talking about their faith, their demeanor changes. Their tone of voice modifies, their smile becomes tense and they become defensive when questioned about their evidence for belief. It becomes difficult to have a friendly conversation with them.”

People Seems Religion Belief Difficult Voice Religious Talking Personality Conversation Evidence Conversion Tone Friendly Tense Mundane Demeanor

Author:Darrel Ray

“Fundamentalism in most of its forms is the active creation of antibodies to some threatening [god] virus. As long as threatening religions or mutations [heresies] are present, fundamentalism will churn out antibodies to keep the population under control and prevent mutations from getting out of hand.”

Long Hands Form Religion Creation Population Active Fundamentalism Threatening Heresy Viruses Mutation Antibodies

Author:Darrel Ray

“Islam has some of the best defenses against other god viruses and has the potential to be more parasitically aggressive when consolidating political power with a society.”

Political Religion Islam Defense Aggressive Viruses Political Power

Author:Darrel Ray

“Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.”

Source: Essays and Lectures

“Jesus must have been married to have been called a rabbi.”

Has Beens Religion Jesus Married Rabbi

Author:Darrel Ray

“Just as the chicken pox virus continues to live quietly in the body after the disease is gone, the god virus may live quietly in the host until something evokes it.”

May Body Religion Gone Disease Chickens Host Viruses Evoke Pox

Author:Darrel Ray

“Education is the key to perpetuation of the [god] virus for the Taliban, Baptist or Catholic. If the virus cannot control public education, it will seek to divert resources from public coffers to fundamentalist school funding. From the madrassa schools of Pakistan to the Christian push for school vouchers in the United States and the religious home school movement, religions seek to control education or to control the resources for education.”

Ifs States Home School Christian Religion Religious United United States Movement Keys Resources Catholic Pakistan Funding Viruses Baptists Taliban Fundamentalist Public Education Vouchers

Author:Darrel Ray

“The lancet fluke (Dicrocoelium) infects the brain of ants by taking control and driving them to climb to the top of a blade of grass where they can be eaten by a cow. The ingested fluke then lays eggs in the cow gut. Eventually, the eggs exit the cow, and hungry snails eat the dung (and fluke eggs). The fluke enters the snail's digestive gland and gets excreted in sticky slime full of a seething mass of flukes to be drunk by ants as a source of moisture.”

Religion Brain Source Mass Lays Driving Hungry Drunk Grass Guts Climbs Eggs Cows Blades Ants Exit Sticky Snail Blades Of Grass Glands Slime Flukes Moisture Seething

Author:Darrel Ray

“Once infected, the individual [infected with a god virus] cannot detect major contradictions in his beliefs and behavior. Belief systems become self-evident to him, and no amount of logical discourse will move him from his belief. If a Mormon and Catholic were to debate the merits of their respective religions, neither could see his own inconsistencies and logical fallacies, but would see the other's quite clearly.”

Ifs Self Moving Religion Individual Belief Amount Behavior Majors Catholic Debate Merit Contradiction Logical Evident Discourse Viruses Fallacy Belief Systems Inconsistency Logical Fallacy

Author:Darrel Ray

“Have you ever observed somebody go through a religious conversion? The person seems perfectly reasonable to you and has no particular concern for religion. Then a parent, friend or child dies or he gets a serious illness or is involved in a car accident. In just a matter of weeks, he seeks out and finds the answers to all of life's questions and starts studying and spouting all sorts of doctrine. During such a window of vulnerability, religion can commandeer a person's brain.”