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Quote by 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.”

Quote by Darrel Ray

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Darrel Ray
Darrel Ray

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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“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.”

IfsStatesHomeSchoolChristianReligionReligiousUnitedUnited StatesMovementKeysResourcesCatholicPakistanFundingVirusesBaptistsTalibanFundamentalistPublic EducationVouchers
Author:Darrel Ray
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“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.”

ReligionBrainSourceMassLaysDrivingHungryDrunkGrassGutsClimbsEggsCowsBladesAntsExitStickySnailBlades Of GrassGlandsSlimeFlukesMoistureSeething
Author:Darrel Ray
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“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.”

IfsSelfMovingReligionIndividualBeliefAmountBehaviorMajorsCatholicDebateMeritContradictionLogicalEvidentDiscourseVirusesFallacyBelief SystemsInconsistencyLogical Fallacy
Author:Darrel Ray
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“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.”

ChildrenPersonsMatterSeemsReligionDiesParentReligiousAnswersBrainStudyWeekCarParticularSeriousInvolvedConcernWindowIllnessAccidentsConversionDoctrineVulnerabilityReasonableCar AccidentSerious Illness
Author:Darrel Ray
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“There is exactly the same degree of possibility and likelihood of the existence of the Christian God as there is of the existence of the Homeric god. I cannot prove that either the Christian god or the Homeric gods do not exist, but I do not think that their existence is an alternative that is sufficiently probable to be worth serious consideration.”

ThinkingChristianReligionExistencePossibilitySeriousProveDegreesAlternativesConsiderationLikelihoodChristian God
Book:Why I Am Not a Christian
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