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Nederlandske foreldre lærer døtrene sine å bli selvstendige. Mange, kanskje de fleste muslimske foreldre, oppdrar døtrene sine til å bli føyelige og underdanige. (...)
Muslimske skoler forkaster verdiene de universelle menneskerettighetene bygger på. Alle mennesker er ikke like på en muslimsk skole. I tillegg kan det ikke finnes ytringsfrihet eller samvittighetsfrihet der. Disse skolene utvikler ikke elevenes kreativitet - kunst, drama og musikk. De undertrykker tvert imot barnas kritiske evner som kan lede dem til å stille spørsmål ved troen. De forsømmer fag som er i strid med den islamske læren, for eksempel evolusjon og seksualitet. De lærer barna å pugge ting på rams, uten spørsmål, og de lærer jentene underdanighet. De forsømmer også å sosialisere barna til storsamfunnet.

Det var menn de knapt nok kjente som hentet dem til Nederland for å inngå ekteskap. De ble banket opp til de havnet på sykehus, men kunne ikke be om skilsmisse. Gjorde de det, måtte de forlate Nederland og reise hjem til familien og straffen som ventet dem der.

Indus, som har sitt utspring i isbreene i Tibet, har en ren blåfarge. Kabul, som stammer fra fjellkjeden Sanglakh i Afghanistan, er brun, nesten skitten i fargen. Der Indus sluker Kabul, er den ene siden av elven helt blå, mens den andre er helt grå, og i noen meter har elven to helt distinkte og atskilte farger og identiteter, før elven som ga sitt navn til India, renner videre gjennom fjellandskapet med en ny, blåbrun farge.

Nå vet jeg hva jeg har i vente hvis jeg igjen takker ja til å gå på fjelltur, stå på ski eller andre fysiske aktiviteter. Nordmenn er nesten som supermennesker, så spreke. Og èn ting til, hvis man sier til dem at man ikke kan gå på ski, så forstår ikke nordmenn at det betyr at man virkelig ikke kan gå på ski.

Jeg er bare meg selv og vil heller la være å drikke.

Av og til tror jeg at alkohol er som kontaktlim, uten den går man i sine parallelle verdener.

Nothing changes really about love.

Being there was to mean something it didn't use to mean. Going with the flow. Giving. Some people were giving, other people were not very giving. Barriers between the inside and outside of your head were to be trampled down. Authenticity required it.

JEG SER

Søndagsstillhet. Snø. Jeg ser
en skjære i piletreet ved elvebredden:
en antydning av en fugl
artistisk risset med kull
på den lyse vinterhimmelen.
Og treets pikelige spinkle greiner
fint kniplet av rim, elvisen
gjennomstukket av glisne sivstrå
langs strendene.
Og fjernt i sør
skogen
ennå med en blank kjølvannsstripe av sol
over de borteste høgdene.

Jeg ser.
Og vet at jeg ser.
Så enkelt blir en lykke til.

JEG HAR ALLTID SPURT

Jeg har stått aleine
og sett mot stjernene om kvelden.
Jeg har løftet mitt skogmanns-ansikt
Derfor var jeg aldri med
der neveslag i bordet
satte punktum bak menns meninger.

Jeg har alltid spurt.
Jeg har aldri svart.
Jeg har heller aldri
hørt andre svare. - -

DET LILLE LYSET

Det lille lyset,
ditt eget brennende sinn,
blender deg:
Den som går
med løkt i mørket,
han ser ikke stjernene.

Allan answered that in a purely physical sense he was lost, since he had no control of where he stood, but that didn't mean he was spiritually lost. Allan had always reasoned about religion that if you couldn't know for sure then there was no point in going around guessing.

As the American geneticist Jerry Coyne put in his review of Behe's book: 'If the history of science shows us anything, it is that we get nowhere by labelling our ignorance "God".' Or, in the words of an eloquent blogger, commenting on an article on intelligent design in the Guardian by Coyne and me,

Why is God considered an explanation for anything? It's not - it's a failure to explain, a shrug of the shoulders, an 'I dunno' dressed up in spirituality and ritual. If someone credits something to God, generally what it means is that they haven't a clue, so they're attributing it to an unreachable, unknowable sky-fairy. Ask for an explanation of where that bloke came from, and odds are you'll get a vague, pseudo-philosophical reply about having always existed, or being outside nature. Which, of course, explains nothing.

After five years, everybody in the camp knew how little cognitive activity there was in the head of prisoner number 133 - Herbert - and even when there was evidence of some activity, it seemed to only cause trouble internally.

After which, Director Alice went through the rules concerning showers and brushing your teeth, visits from outside, and visits to other resident senior citizens; what time various medicines were handed out; and between which times you could not disturb Director Alice or one of her colleagues unless it was urgent, which it rarely was, according to Director Alice, who added that in general there was too much grumbling among the residents.
- Can you take a shit when you want to? Allan asked.
Which is how Allan and Director Alice came to be at odds less than fifteen minutes after they had met.

• Of all the groupings here on Earth, I would think that the Trinity if the one I am least interested in, said Allan.

Allan liked his own company and that was good, because he lived an isolated life.

• The bad news, said Julius, lowering his voice a little, the bad news is that when we were well and truly pissed last night, we forgot to turn off the fan in the freezer room.
• And? said Allan.
• And ... the guy inside must be dead cold - or cold dead - by now.
  With a worried look, Allan scratched his neck while he decided whether to let news of this carelessness spoil the day.
• Oh dear, he said. But I must say that you've got these eggs just right, not too hard and not too runny.

You say you have experienced God directly? Well, some people have experienced a pink elephant, but that probably doesn't impress you. Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, distinctly heard the voice of Jesus telling him to kill women, and he was locked up for life. George W. Bush says that God told him to invade Iraq (a pity God didn't vouchsafe him a revelation that there were no weapons of mass destruction). Individuals in asylums think they are Napoleon or Charlie Chaplin, or that the entire world is conspiring against them, or that they can broadcast their thoughts into other people's heads. We humour them but don't take their internally revealed beliefs seriously, mostly because not many people share them. Religious experiences are different only in that the people who claim them are numerous. Sam Harris was not being overly cynical when he wrote, in The End of Faith:

We have names for people who have many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. When their beliefs are extremely common we call them 'religious'; otherwise, they are likely to be called 'mad', 'psychotic' or 'delusional' ... Clearly there is sanity in numbers. And yet, it is merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your thoughts, while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom window. And so, while religious people are not generally mad, their core beliefs absolutely are.

Min bror er et tre
det er ingen tvil om det
Hadde han fått det som han ville
hadde han stått fullstendig stille
og latt sine lange føtter
vokse som røtter
ned i jordens dyp
ja ned i jordens dyp