“If that barb had been half an inch or an inch to one side, then he’d be saying, ‘Crikey’.â€
Les Peel, pastor of a church in Beerwah, Queensland, on the death by stingray barb of Australian conservationist and “crocodile hunter†Steve Irwin (Sydney Morning Herald, 4 September)
“There’s a controversy in the United States because there is a lack of awareness of a thing called philosophy.â€
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Joseph Fessio, provost of Ave Maria University in Florida, on the “creationism problem†in the US; his Ignatius Press publishes Pope Benedict XVI’s books in English (Reuters, 4 September)
“I can understand the frustration and the anger and, most importantly, the concern about their future. I can’t blame them for thinking, ‘Where were you when we needed you?'â€
John Howard, appointed by the Bush administration to coordinate the government’s 9/11 health efforts, on the delays and failures to deliver assistance to recovery workers made sick at ground zero (The New York Times, 5 September)
“Students should shout at the president and ask why liberal and secular university lecturers are present in the universities.â€
Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for a return to the radicalism of the 1980s (Associated Press, 5 September)
“I don’t think we are going to evolve a rational mind – there are benefits to being irrational.â€
Bruce Hood, professor of experimental psychology at the University of Bristol, UK, on how superstition has an evolutionary basis (The Times, London, 5 September)