John Pickard > Quotes

“The roots of modern anti-Semitism were well and truly laid down in the inflammatory and hateful writings of the Church fathers nearly two thousand years ago, all of whom have since been elevated to sainthood.”
― John Pickard, Behind the Myths - the Foundations of Judaism, Christianity and Islam

“These men are despisers of riches, and so very communicative as raises our admiration. Nor is there any one to be found among them who hath more than another; for it is a law among them, that those who come to them must let what they have be common to the whole order…every one’s possessions are intermingled with every other’s possessions…”[312] These comments of Josephus have since been confirmed by the Dead Sea Scrolls”
― John Pickard, Behind the Myths - the Foundations of Judaism, Christianity and Islam

“But if there is a significant weakness in the arguments of many modern atheists and secularists, it is that their case is presented as if the whole question of religion is purely an ideological struggle, an intellectual debate in which the followers of religion are charged with harbouring inferior and inconsistent ideas. This may indeed be the case, but it is important to see the historic foundation of these religions— and their continuation within society up to the present day— as being rooted in material social conditions and not due to intellectual stubbornness or obtuseness.”
― John Pickard, Behind the Myths: The Foundations of Judaism, Christianity and Islam

“Crone and Hinds refer to a long letter by the Caliph al-Walid II (743 – 744) which is one of the longest and most detailed letters of the period preserved in the chronicles of Tabari.”
― John Pickard, Behind the Myths - the Foundations of Judaism, Christianity and Islam