So, if I were to follow this to its conclusion, I would reach the quite right conclusion that "truth" is the opiate of the "thinking man". Hallelujah! But... no opium for the sisters?
> & another favorite:
>
> “There exists, finally a somewhat numerous class of honest but timid
> souls who, too intelligent to take the Christian dogmas seriously,
> reject them in detail, but have neither the courage nor the strength
> nor the necessary resolution to summarily renounce them altogether.
And then there is the class of dishonest boors (no, not any of you, my dear friends!) just stupid enough to take anti-theist *dogma* seriously! I summarily renounce both religion and this sort of buffoonery! No, wait... Andy F dislikes attempts at smugness on my part, and what the hell do I have anyway to be smug about. I take it all back.
The problem that a thinking human has with opinion is that it has no Meaning ... it is not even Atheism. ;-)
No wait... that didn't come out right either. Let me try again. The problem that a thinking human has with religion is that it is like an arsehole... everybody has one but nobody wants to smell another's.
Well maybe not nobody... yeah, that didn't work out either. Perhaps keep the arsehole analogy and add some sort of double entendre involving "fucking with it"? I have a couple of ideas, but perhaps save it for later... impressionable minds abound.
What's a "soul"?
--ravi, The Opiate of LBO