To become self-aware people must be allowed to hear a plurality of opinions and then make up their own minds. They must be allowed to say write and publish whatever they want. Freedom of expression is the most basic but fundamental right. Without it human beings are reduced to automatons.

I don't think that fundamentalism has anything to do with Jesus Christ. They call themselves Christians but if that's Christian count me out. Fundamentalism is built on fear and greed. They're telling you to give them your money otherwise you're going to hell.

I have been thinking about the notion of perfect love as being without fear and what that means for us in a world that's becoming increasingly xenophobic tortured by fundamentalism and nationalism.

I'm considered homophobic and crazy about these things and old fashioned. But I think that the family - father mother children - is fundamental to our civilisation.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights describes the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society. It follows that any choice and decision with regard to the size of the family must irrevocably rest with the family itself and cannot be made by anyone else.

Fundamentalists are panicked by the apparent disintegration of the family the disappearance of certainty and the decay of morality. Fear leads them to ask if we cannot trust the Bible what can we trust?

I believe that we must reach our brother never toning down our fundamental oppositions but meeting him when he asks to be met with a reason for the faith that is in us as well as with a loving sympathy for them as brothers.

There is a split between Muslims who want to practice their faith in peace and tolerance with other religions and other people and these extreme radical fundamentalists who have shown a total lack of tolerance for people with different views starting with people who they don't think are good Muslims and going on to include Christians and Jews.

Bad religion is arrogant self-righteous dogmatic and intolerant. And so is bad science. But unlike religious fundamentalists scientific fundamentalists do not realize that their opinions are based on faith. They think they know the truth.

I've always thought and it gets tested at times that I have a great faith in the fundamental goodness of human beings.