On 12 Oct 2004, at 22:36, Jack Baty wrote:
"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife" --Douglass Adams
There's no contradiction there at all: I for one am a polythesist, so I believe in a multitude of Gods to whom I can and sometimes do pray. I don't however believe in an afterlife (i.e. there is no afterlife for humans and the Gods are essentially immortal anyway). Granted, the quote IS paradoxical if you're, say, Christian or Muslim or similar. That doesn't however warrant any (IMHO patently absurd) sweeping generalizations.
;-)