One Aim
Holy rascals have only one aim: to pull the curtain back on parochial religion in order to liberate people from the Great and Terrible Wizards who use religion to frighten them into submission and to manipulate them into doing evil under the banner of good.
We are not antireligion; we are anti–unhealthy religion: religion that promotes a world of “us against them” and sanctions the exploitation, oppression, and even murder of “them” in this world and the torture of “them” in the next.
We are not antibelief; we are anti–irrational belief: belief that substitutes ancient fiction for modern science.
We are not anti-God; we are anti–mad Gods: Gods who sanction the lust for power that fuels those who invented them.
Holy rascals don’t yearn for the end of Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and the rest; we yearn for their liberation from the foolishness of Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims.
There is no need for temple or church, for mosque or synagogue, no need for complicated philosophy, doctrine, or dogma. Our own heart, our own mind, is the temple. The doctrine is compassion.
HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA, Ethics for the New Millennium