On Queen Street last Saturday

What struck me about the group of God botherers in the first picture was the completeness of their absorption in supplication. Not one of them noticed me, as I elbowed my way between them to get a decent shot with the cellphone. Their eyes were either closed, raised to the heavens, or glazed with tears. It was rather pleasant, compared to the aggressive style of evangelism I normally suffer on Auckland's main drag.

The quotes are from Marx, and are supposed to annoy those 'ligis types Skyler and Muzzlehatch.

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo. Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun.
Pompous German goat...