Gene Robinson Quotes

Islam is a totalitarian ideology. It rules every aspect of life — economics, family law, whatever. It has religious symbols, it has a God, it has a book — but it’s not a religion. It can be compared with totalitarian ideologies like Communism or fascism. There is no country where Islam is dominant where you have a real democracy, a real separation between church and state.

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.

Too many religious organizations are in the business of enforcing beliefs.

The only time I every fear religion is when it has the power of the state behind it.

Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group of vigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they don't seem to see this.

No one is more dangerous than someone who thinks he has "The Truth".

History is replete with examples of what happens when any group of authorities do not have to answer to empirical evidence but are free to define truth as they see fit. None of the examples has a happy ending.

When you destroy people's religious expression, they will establish secularized religions like Marxism.

Whenever a political regime or religious establishment refuses to tolerate criticism, it advertises itself as repressive, backward, and insecure.

People and nations wither away without the freedom to question what is presented to them as the truth.

Morality crusades unite military regimes and religious zealots alike.

Oh, the truth, oh yeah, lot of trouble that got us into, didn't it, over the last maybe thousand years? Hitler knew the truth, so did Stalin, so did Mao Zedong, so did the Inquisition. They all knew the truth and that caused such horror. Certainty is the enemy.

I consider Khomeini's position dangerous. He does not have the right to pass judgment-that is not the Islamic way.

The control of information is something the elite always does, particularly in a despotic form of government. Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people.

But as in all cults, what's central to the Communist Party is the belief system and the elimination of nuance. From there you're very slowly led down the road to fanaticism and mass murder.

Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who don't have all the answers to think that they do.

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

I'm intrigued by fanatics - people who are seduced by the promise, or the illusion, of the absolute.

Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized.

Fundamentalists are not friends of democracy. And that includes your fundamentalists in the United States.

Not to mention the fact that of course terrorists hate freedom. I think they do hate. But believe me, I don't think they sit there abstractly hating freedom.

The Chinese government is quickly losing its ideological legitimacy, maintain its rule with force, but cannot draw strength from the ideology of Marx and Mao.

Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.