Dave Barry
American author, columnist, humorist (1947 - )
• “The problem with writing about religion is that you run the risk of offending sincerely religious people, and then they come after you with machetes.”
• “People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.”
• “The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion or ethnic background, is that we all believe we are above-average drivers.”
• “Hobbies of any kind are boring except to people who have the same hobby. (This is also true of religion, although you will not find me saying so in print.)”
• “I like the relaxed way in which the Japanese approach religion. I think of myself as basically a moral person, but I'm definitely not religious, and I'm very tired of the preachiness and obsession with other people's behavior characteristic of many religious people in the United States. As far as I could tell, there's nothing preachy about Buddhism. I was in a lot of temples, and I still don't know what Buddhists believe, except that at one point Kunio said 'If you do bad things, you will be reborn as an ox.'” (Dave Barry Does Japan)
• "I liked making people laugh, and I decided I was an atheist early on. My Dad was all right with that. We argued about it all the time, but it was good-natured. He was the most open-minded human being I've ever known." (Barry’s father was a Presbyterian minister)
• “The thing about religion is that everybody else’s always appears stupid.”
• “The problem with writing about religion is that you run the risk of offending sincerely religious people, and then they come after you with machetes.”
• “People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.”
• “The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion or ethnic background, is that we all believe we are above-average drivers.”
• “Hobbies of any kind are boring except to people who have the same hobby. (This is also true of religion, although you will not find me saying so in print.)”
• “I like the relaxed way in which the Japanese approach religion. I think of myself as basically a moral person, but I'm definitely not religious, and I'm very tired of the preachiness and obsession with other people's behavior characteristic of many religious people in the United States. As far as I could tell, there's nothing preachy about Buddhism. I was in a lot of temples, and I still don't know what Buddhists believe, except that at one point Kunio said 'If you do bad things, you will be reborn as an ox.'” (Dave Barry Does Japan)
• "I liked making people laugh, and I decided I was an atheist early on. My Dad was all right with that. We argued about it all the time, but it was good-natured. He was the most open-minded human being I've ever known." (Barry’s father was a Presbyterian minister)
• “The thing about religion is that everybody else’s always appears stupid.”
3 comments:
Great quotes - I might have to reference a few :)
Richard Dawkins last night made the comment about most people believe they are smarter than the average person and are better drivers than the average person.
The final quote that you have listed is so true. So so true. Fortunately for me, I don't have a religion so they're all stupid!
I once used this last quote in a conversation at work and a woman 2 desks away got all huffy and said, "I'm a Christian and my religion isn't stupid." That was exactly the point. Her religion sounds perfectly reasonable to her (I guess only god knows why!!!) but some Buddhist is laughing his ass off when communion is explained to him. And I know, in her church people are shaking their heads about "crazy" Hindus.
Funny. I just finished a 3 or 4 e-mail exchange with Barry's assistant Judi who also assists Leonard Pitts (wasn't that Elaine's job on Seinfeld?) Anyway, I was attempting to explain to Dame Judi (unsuccessfully) why non-believers find theists so repulsively smug. Maybe I just should have told her to listen to her other boss!
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