Emancipate yourself from the idea of a celestial dictatorship and you've taken the first step to becoming free.
Christopher Hitchens vs. William Lane Craig, 04/04/2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KBx4vvlbZ8&t=1h45m56s
2000s, 2009
Kontext: Religion is the outcome of unresolved contradictions in the material world. If you make the assumption that it's man-made then very few things are mysterious to you: It would be obvious to you why there are so many religions; You will understand why it is that religion has been such a disappointment to our species - that despite innumerable revivals, innumerable attempts again to preach the truth, innumerable attempts to convert the heathen, innumerable attempts to send missionaries all around the world - that the same problems remain with us. That nothing is resolved by this. If all religions died out, or were admitted to be false, all of our problems would be exactly what they are now: How do we live with one another? Where, indeed, do morals and ethics come from? What are our duties to one another? How shall we build the just city? How shall we practice love? All these questions would remain exactly the same. Emancipate yourself from the idea of a celestial dictatorship and you've taken the first step to becoming free.
„Der erste Schritt, den jeder tun kann, ist, sich frei zu machen von dem Untertanengemüt.“
Warnung vor der Wollust http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Gellert,+Christian+F%C3%BCrchtegott/Gedichte/Geistliche+Oden+und+Lieder/Warnung+vor+der+Wollust. Aus: Werke, Bd. 1. hg. von Gottfried Honnefelder, Frankfurt/M.: Insel, 1979. S. 247
„Nur freie Schritte führen in die Freiheit!“
"Mit Buddha das Leben meistern. Buddhismus für Praktiker." 8. Aufl., Rowohlt Verlag 2009, S. 32 - ISBN 978-3-499-60586-4
„Unglaube ist der erste Schritt zur Philosophie.“
Letzte Worte, 31. Juli 1784
Original franz.: "Le premier pas", dit-il, "vers la philosophie, c'est l'incrédulité." Ce mot est le dernier qu'il ait proféré devant moi; il était tard, je le quittai, j'espérais le revoir encore. - Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de Diderot, par Madame de Vandeul, sa fille. Oeuvres complètes de Diderot, ed. J. Assézat, tome premier, Paris 1875, p. LVII books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=pXkNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PR57&dq=premier
Zugeschrieben
„Der erste Schritt […] ist die Erkenntnis: Nichts stimmt mehr.“
Die Alterslüge, Rowohlt 1995, S. 69, ISBN 3-499-60129-X
„Auch der längste Marsch beginnt mit dem ersten Schritt.“
Kapitel 64
