"If science knows something, it is knowledge. If it does not know something, it accepts the ignorance but takes the challenge, that 'One day we will know it.'

"Science is very humble in comparison to your religions. They are arrogant. They are claiming things they don't know. They are fighting for things which nobody has ever seen – Mohammedans fighting Christians, Hindus fighting Mohammedans, about the attributes of God. Nobody has seen God ever, and they are fighting and killing thousands of people in such stupid inquiries: What are the attributes of God?

"Theology is a contradiction in terms. Theo means God and logy means logic – logic about God. There is no logic about God and if there is logic there is no God. They both can't exist together.

"But the priest was having a good time. He was selling invisible commodities. They need not be produced, no work is involved, they don't exist at all; but he has proved himself to be the best salesman.

"I have heard about a store which announced at Christmas time that they have finally invented invisible clips to keep your hair in place so nobody will see the clips and you can make any kind of hairdo. Immediately there was a great line and a queue of women, and they were selling invisible clips. Women were looking in the boxes; of course the clips were invisible, so there was no question of seeing them.

"One woman, who had been waiting at then end of the queue, could not refrain from saying, 'I don't see the invisible clips. I know because they are invisible I cannot see them, but at least I should be able to touch them. But I don't see them – the box is empty. I move it, but there is no noise.'

"The salesman laughed and he said, 'Lady, we have been out of stock for three weeks! But because it is an invisible commodity we thought there is no problem. Even I cannot tell any difference between the empty box and the box full of invisible clips.'

"God, heaven, hell, angels – all the religions depend on these commodities. And they have immense power; for centuries they have been exploiting people."