Bertrand Russell

There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ's moral character, and that is that he believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.

Why I Am Not a Christian

Jesus Christ

I realise that the rest of the world probably knew these already, but since I've been an atheist from a very young age, I never troubled myself with the finer details of the gospels until now. What a strange man:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God ... Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well ... Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you

Matthew, Ch 5

Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice..'

Matthew, Ch 9

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother ... and one's foes will be members of one's own household ... Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it

Matthew, Ch 10

Like I say, funny old chap.

Terry Eagleton

On JC being the Son of God:

Jesus cannot have believed that he was literally the Son of God. Yahweh does not have testicles.

On Jesus the Radical:

Some aspects of the way Jesus is presented in these texts have an obvious radical resonance. He is presented as a homeless, propertyless, peripatetic, socially marginal, disdainful of kinsfolk, without a trade or occupation, a friend of outcasts and pariahs, averse to material possessions, without fear for his own safety, a thorn in the side of the Establishment and a scourge of the rich and powerful. The problem of much modern Christianity has been how to practice this lifestyle with two children, a car and a mortgage.

Foreword to Jesus Christ: The Gospels

To meditate on our being in the world is part of our being in the world

The Meaning of Life 2007:23