Anthony Pagden

“I believe that the myths perpetrated by all monotheistic religions — all religions indeed — have caused more lasting harm to the human race than any other single set of beliefs (2008)”

“The ancient antagonisms that tore Europe apart twice in the twentieth century (and countless other times in the preceding centuries) are no more and, we can only hope, will never be resuscitated. The virulent racism that dominated so many of the ways other peoples were seen in the West during the nineteenth century may not have vanished, but it has certainly withered. (2008)”