The enemy of humanism is not faith. The enemy of humanism is hate, is fear, is ignorance, is the darker part of man—that is in every humanist, every person in the world. That is the thing we have to fight. Faith, is something we have to embrace. Faith in god means believing, absolutely, in something with no proof whatsoever. Faith in humanity means believing, absolutely, in something with a huge amount of proof to the contrary. We are the true believers.
To criticise a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous but to criticise their religion - that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticise ideas—any ideas even if they are sincerely held beliefs—is one of the fundamental freedoms of society. And the law which attempts to say you can criticise or ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed. It all points to the promotion of the idea that there should be a right not to be offended. But in my view the right to offend is far more important than any right not to be offended. The right to ridicule is far more important to society than any right not to be ridiculed because one in my view represents openness - and the other represents oppression.
Good evening - it’s been a **long** day… (dance)
G’devening. (dance) It’s Thursdee night. (dance)
