Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse.

Christopher Hitchens

God Is Not Great

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hitchens, Christopher. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Twelve/Hachette Book Group, 2007, ch. 5.