What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men, and that as a result he's certain he'll go to heaven if he cuts your throat?

Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched."

[My Uncle Sosthenes]

There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy, they justify almost anything.

From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.

Fanaticism is the opposite of love. A wise man once told me - he's a Muslim, by the way - that he has more in common with a rational, reasonable-minded Jew than he does with a fanatic from his own religion. He has more in common with a rational, reasonable-minded Christian or Buddhist or Hindu than he does with a fanatic of his own religion. In fact, he has more in common with a rational, reasonable-minded atheist than he does with a fanatic of his own religion.

All extreme opinions consume themselves.