I was a devil of a scapegrace in my time. . . . Father racked his head for days together to find a punishment that I should remember; but it was all no good. . . bread and water was a welcome change to me from the everyday monotony of potatoes and bread-and-butter. After a sound drubbing followed by half a day’s fasting, I felt more like laughing than like crying; and, in half a while, all was forgotten and my wickedness began afresh and worse than ever.
Kurt Vonnegut
How on earth can religious people believe in so much arbitrary, clearly invented balderdash?. . . . The acceptance of a creed, any creed, entitles the acceptor to membership in the sort of artificial extended family we call a congregation. It is a way to fight loneliness. Any time I see a person fleeing from reason and into religion, I think to myself, There goes a person who simply cannot stand being so goddamned lonely anymore.
