Malachy McCourt Quotes
I see the way I look upon organized religion, I was a victim of that of mythology, and of cruelty, and all the absurd stuff.
McCourt, Malachy. Interview. Big Think, Freethink Media, 2010.
Some of the founding fathers were deeply religious men while others were not so. Some varied in their believes at different times of their lives, and a number were not very facorable towards orthodox religion. At the time, Roman Catholic and Protestant churches were persecuting other religions throughout Europe and people were still being killed for their heretical beliefs. Most important to some of them, kings and other monarchs whom they abhorred, all at the time claimed the Divine Right of Kings and the established churches were the most important support for monarchs. At the time most organized religions were opposed to freedom of conscience and certainly opponents of separation of church and state. American churches tended to take on American values but were never given the chance to dominate the American government they way many had in Europe and the rest of the world.
He was writing about the superstitions that there were specific people—witches and warlocks—whose magic could bring hail, thunder and other natural phenomena. At the time he wrote this most educated clerics believed in witchcraft and magic.
Some scientists are religious believers. Many are not. However, relatively few hold the position that Dawkins does that religion is and has been an evil force in the world. These argue that religions and religious factionalism has caused as many deaths as epidemics and pandemics and is an evil for society. While that argument has been historically true in much of the world, religious conflict deaths has actually decreased in frequency over the last century and may be at a world-wise low as a percentage of the world population. With the exception of Islamic fundamentalist extremism, there is no religious group that advocates religious violence and has a majority of any country. Moderate Muslims have never before been in greater numbers, so it can be argued that modern society and most religions have been reforming themselves over the years.
Malachy Gerard McCourt is an Irish-American actor, writer, one-time pub owner, and politician. He was the 2006 Green Party of New York candidate for governor in New York State, losing to the Democratic candidate Eliot Spitzer. He is the younger brother of author Frank McCourt.
