[Malesherbes]

Dostoyevsky wrote in “The Brothers Karamazov,” “If there is no God, then everything is permitted.” In the next century, we got Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and the rest of the thugs who thought that everything was permitted.

When Nietzsche wrote that God was dead, he meant dead in the minds of Europe’s elite. He feared the consequences of that belief, and his concept of the Uebermensch was an unsuccessful attempt to fill the void.

Agnosticism is rationally defensible; atheism is not. To believe that what we have is an accident requires a high degree of gullibility.

[Mr. Silverback]

To believe that what we have is an accident requires a high degree of gullibility.

And a spiritual veil.

[DodoDreamer]

“Agnosticism is rationally defensible; atheism is not.”

These are all very shadowy terms. Smart people, in my view, are neither atheists nor embracers of any organized religion, but I’m not sure agnostic is the correct term. I prefer to call them ‘seekers of truth’.

[DodoDreamer]

“Agnosticism is rationally defensible; atheism is not.”

These are all very shadowy terms. Smart people, in my view, are neither atheists nor embracers of any organized religion, but I’m not sure agnostic is the correct term. I prefer to call them ‘seekers of truth’.

[MrB]

“If there is no God, then everything is permitted.”

The basis of liberal ideology.

Not only must everything be permitted, everything must be permitted without judgement,

and if there are natural consequences for your behavior, someone innocent must pay for those consequences.