Frasi di Mary Eberstadt

“Se i nuovi atei hanno ragione su Dio e se tutti i credenti nel corso della storia si fossero sbagliati, allora Dio sarebbe il maggior "perdente" di tutti i tempi.”

“Uno dei tanti aspetti del nuovo ateismo che consente una facile satira è che i suoi esponenti tengono poco conto della storia.”

“Se i nuovi atei vogliono insistere sui morti dell'Inquisizione, come effettivamente tutti fanno, è legittimo; ma che dire dei morti del Marxismo, del Comunismo e del Fascismo tedesco, quei consapevoli, anzi dichiarati, regimi atei responsabili dei più odiosi crimini del XX secolo?”

“Si può far crescere i ragazzi fuori dalla famiglia, ma non si può sradicare da loro il desiderio di avere una vera famiglia naturale.”

“Between bad ideas of gender neutrality and even worse ideas of the innocence of pornography, we reach the world so vividly described by so many dissatisfied women today, one where men act like stereotypical women, and retreat from real relationships into a fantasy life via pornography (rather than Harlequin novels), and where women conversely act like stereotypical men, taking the lead in leaving their marriages and firing angry charges on the way, out of frustration and withheld sex.”

“The sheer decibel level of unreason surrounding the issue of abortion in academic writing about animal rights tells us something interesting. It suggests that, contrary to what the utilitarians and feminists working this terrain wish, the dots between sympathy for animals and sympathy for unborn humans are in fact quite easy to connect—so easy, you might say, that a child could do it. … Since ethical vegetarianism as a practice appears commonly rooted in an a priori aversion to violence against living creatures, so does it often appear to begin in the young. … A sudden insight, igniting empathy on a scale that did not exist before and perhaps even a life-transforming realization—this reaction should indeed be thought through with care. It is not only the most commonly cited feature of the decision to become a vegetarian. It is also the most commonly cited denominator of what brings people to their convictions about the desperate need to protect unborn, innocent human life. … Despite those who act and write in their name, actual vegetarians and vegans are far more likely to be motivated by positive feelings for animals than by negative feelings for human beings. As a matter of theory, the line connecting the dots between “we should respect animal life” and “we should respect human life” is far straighter than the line connecting vegetarianism to antilife feminism or antihumanist utilitarianism.”