"Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatics to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes.

Virgins? What virgins? | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

This Guardian article from Ibn Warraq is already from 2002, but I came over it only now. It is hilarious in pointing out the absurdity of religious martyrdom. But it is also very enlightened in how far religious scripture is only the product of certain socio-economic circumstances and not revealed by anything supranatural.

Trash production

One of the habits of US citizens I cannot stand very much is the production of rubbish my using disposable material whenever eating in a place for less than 50 Dollars/person. Even in the elegant Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles I had to beg to get my Cappuccino served in a porcelain cup instead in one of this disgusting polystyrol containers. I am not knowledgeable enough to decide if the environmental effect of washing all the porcelain cups is more severe than the disposal of all the rubbish, but I just don't like it.