steven weinberg

• - i really don't like god. you know it's silly to say that i don't like god, i don't believe in god but in the same sense that i don't like iago or i don't like the reverend slope or any of the other villains of literature. the god of the traditional judaism and christianity and islam seems to me a terrible character. he is a god who is obsessed with the degree to which the people worship him and anxious to punish with the most awful torments those who don't worship him in the right way. now realize that many people don't believe in that anymore who call themselves muslims or jews or christians but that is the traditional god and he is a terrible character. i don't like him.
  
  i have a friend or had a friend, now dead, abdus salam, very devout muslim, who was trying to bring science into the universities in the gulf states. and he told me that he had a terrible time, because although they were very receptive to technology they felt that science would be corrosive to religious belief. and they were worried about it. and damn, i think they were right. it is corrosive to religious belief. and it's a good thing too.
  
  [bbc - the atheism tapes 2, jonathan miller ile yaptığı söyleşiden]