A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

Millions upon millions were sacrificed upon the altars of bigotry. The Catholic burned the Lutheran, the Lutheran burned the Catholic, the Episcopalian tortured the Presbyterian, the Presbyterian tortured the Episcopalian. Every denomination killed all it could of every other; and each Christian felt in duty bound to exterminate every other Christian who denied the smallest fraction of his creed.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1874-05-03), “Heretics and Heresies,” Free Religious Society, Kingsbury Hall, Chicago

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

@veer66

Claims like "X language is for beginners" or "Y language isn't suitable for real problems" are just dressed-up versions of "X language sucks". They are pseudo-religious arguments, not technical ones. They are not useful in choosing technology to use.

A "real programmer" chooses languages, libraries, and other technical things based on utility, not holy wars (like "vi vs. Emacs", or "tabs vs. spaces").

e.g. For different problems and situations, you might choose a language because it is technically suited to a particular problem class. Or you might choose it because the group to work on the problem has deep experience with it, even though another language is slightly better suited to the problem. Or you might pick one based on a dozen other factors - and usually you will actually use more than one in making the choice.

Hollow assessments like "Python is for beginners" aren't useful. The people who make such statements are generally not particularly well-versed in the thing they are criticizing, and possibly not with programming/engineering in general.

If you want real assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of a language or other part of a tech stack, they're out there - but they will be articles and essays, not sentences.

A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

   According to the theologians, God, the Father of us all, wrote a letter to his children. The children have always differed somewhat as to the meaning of this letter. In consequence of these honest differences, these brothers began to cut out each other’s hearts.
   In every land, where this letter from God has been read, the children to whom and for whom it was written have been filled with hatred and malice. They have imprisoned and murdered each other, and the wives and children of each other. In the name of God every possible crime has been committed, every conceivable outrage has been perpetrated. Brave men, tender and loving women, beautiful girls, and prattling babes have been exterminated in the name of Jesus Christ.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1874-05-03), “Heretics and Heresies,” Free Religious Society, Kingsbury Hall, Chicago

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

MAGA Evangelicals want to turn the clock back to the 12th Century, and rid the United States of 'infidels and non-believers'.

A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

   I do not say, and I do not believe, that Christians are as bad as their creeds. In spite of church and dogma, there have been millions and millions of men and women true to the loftiest and most generous promptings of the human heart. They have been true to their convictions, and, with a self-denial and fortitude excelled by none, have labored and suffered for the salvation of men. Imbued with the spirit of self-sacrifice, believing that by personal effort they could rescue at least a few souls from the infinite shadow of hell, they have cheerfully endured every hardship and scorned every danger.
   And yet, notwithstanding all this, they believed that honest error was a crime. They knew that the Bible so declared, and they believed that all unbelievers would be eternally lost. They believed that religion was of God, and all heresy of the devil. They killed heretics in defense of their own souls and the souls of their children. They killed them because, according to their idea, they were the enemies of God, and because the Bible teaches that the blood of the unbeliever is a most acceptable sacrifice to heaven.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1874-05-03), “Heretics and Heresies,” Free Religious Society, Kingsbury Hall, Chicago

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

A quotation from Jeremy Taylor

I have lived to see Religion painted upon Banners, and thrust out of Churches, and the Temple turned into a Tabernacle made ambulatory, and covered with skins of Beasts and torn curtains, and God to be worshipped not as he is the Father of our Lord Jesus (an afflicted Prince, the King of sufferings) nor as the God of peace (which two appellatives God new took upon him in the New Testament, and glories in for ever:) but he is owned now rather as the Lord of Hosts, which title he was pleased to lay aside when the Kingdom of the Gospel was preached by the Prince of peace. But when Religion puts on Armour, and God is not acknowledged by his New-Testament titles, Religion may have in it the power of the Sword, but not the power of Godliness.

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) English cleric and author
The Rule and Exercise of Holy Living, Epistle Dedicatory (1650)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/taylor-jeremy/75342/

A quotation from Addison

We are told by some of the Jewish Rabbins, that the first Murder was occasioned by a religious Controversy; and if we had the whole History of Zeal from the Days of Cain to our own Times, we should see it filled with so many Scenes of Slaughter and Bloodshed, as would make a wise Man very careful how he suffers himself to be actuated by such a Principle, when it only regards Matters of Opinion and Speculation.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-10-02), The Spectator, No. 185

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/addison-joseph/53201…

A quotation from Addison

There is nothing in which Men more deceive themselves than in what the World calls Zeal. There are so many Passions which hide themselves under it, and so many Mischiefs arising from it, that some have gone so far as to say it would have been for the Benefit of Mankind if it had never been reckoned in the Catalogue of Virtues. It is certain, where it is once Laudable and Prudential, it is an hundred times Criminal and Erroneous; nor can it be otherwise, if we consider that it operates with equal Violence in all Religions, however opposite they may be to one another, and in all the Subdivisions of each Religion in particular.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-10-02), The Spectator, No. 185

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/addison-joseph/53093…

A quotation from C. C. Colton

There is no cruelty so inexorable and unrelenting, as that which proceeds from a bigoted and presumptuous supposition of doing service to God. Under the influence of such hallucination, all common modes of reasoning are perverted, and all general principles are destroyed.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 222 (1820)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/colton-charles-caleb…

#quote #quotes #quotation #cruelty #divineinspiration #fanaticism #religion #religiouspersecution #holywar #self-delusion #self-righteousness #zealotry

#NowSpinning #ManOWar #Vinyl #LP #FightingTheWorld 1987 #HeavyMetal #Music #BlowYourSpeakers #Defender #OrsonWelles #HolyWar #DrumsOfDoom #MasterOfRevenge #BlackwindFireAndSteel

When Timothy Snyder speaks, I listen. Today, he outlines how Trump's nomination of Pete Hegseth represents 13 steps to national destruction. Here's the posting in toto:

"1. Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for secretary of defense, has no qualifications for the job. He has never run a large organization and has no national security expertise."

#Trump #PeteHegseth #fascism #ChristianNationalism #military #HolyWar #Crusade
/1

https://snyder.substack.com/p/pete-hegseth-the-short-course

Meet DJT's nominee for US #SecretaryOfDefense, a #WhiteNationalist
spokesman on Fox News, whose bicep has a tattoo of the “Jerusalem cross,” a symbol of the ancient caucasian #HolyWar against #Muslims and #Jews, and his autobiography #AmericanCrusade that portrays him as a hero against the "woke"

https://slowcivilwar.substack.com/p/the-pentagon-papers-of-pete-hegseth