--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: God, Satan, Paradise, and Hell all…" description: "\"God, Satan, Paradise, and Hell all vanished one day in my fifteenth year, when I quite abruptly lost my faith. ... and afterwards, to prove my new-foun..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/33b/salman-rushdie-153_atheism_god-satan-paradise-and-hell-all-vanished_960184.jpg" --- # God, Satan, Paradise, and Hell all vanished one day in my… ![“God, Satan, Paradise, and Hell all vanished one day in my fifteenth year, when I quite abruptly lost my faith. ... and afterwards, to prove my new-found atheism, I bought myself a rather tasteless ham sandwich, and so partook for the first time of the forbidden flesh of the swine. No thunderbolt…” quote by Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/33b/salman-rushdie-153_atheism_god-satan-paradise-and-hell-all-vanished_960184.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/33b/salman-rushdie-153_atheism_god-satan-paradise-and-hell-all-vanished_960184.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/33b/salman-rushdie-153_atheism_god-satan-paradise-and-hell-all-vanished_960184.jpg) > “God, Satan, Paradise, and Hell all vanished one day in my fifteenth year, when I quite abruptly lost my faith. ... and afterwards, to prove my new-found atheism, I bought myself a rather tasteless ham sandwich, and so partook for the first time of the forbidden flesh of the swine. No thunderbolt arrived to strike me down. ... From that day to this I have thought of myself as a wholly secular person.” [Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salman-rushdie/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A personal crisis of faith led to embracing atheism, symbolized by eating pork despite cultural taboos. **In simple terms:** Lost faith, chose secular life. Key Takeaway Question assumptions, live authentically. Themes faith identity secularism Mood reflective defiant introspective Type personal confessional narrative When to use this quote - college years - family gatherings - religious debates - personal reflection Key Concepts existentialism cultural taboo personal transformation Questions to Reflect On - How did this act change your worldview? - What does “forbidden” mean to you? A Different Perspective May face social backlash for rejecting tradition. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Atheism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/atheism/) [Faith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/faith/) [Hell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hell/) [Lost faith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/lost-faith/) [Paradise](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paradise/) [Religion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/religion/) [Satan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/satan/) [Secular](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/secular/) [Strikes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/strikes/) ## Related quotes > [ There isn't \[in new atheism\]. Nothing that wasn't in Bertrand Russell or probably Robert Ingersoll. 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But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-brown/be-mild-with-the-mild-shrewd-with-the-crafty-confiding-to-the-honest/) [John Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-brown/) > [We love the kindly wind and hail, The jolly thunderbolt, We watch in glee the fairy trail Of ampere, watt, and volt.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ogden-nash/we-love-the-kindly-wind-and-hail-the-jolly-thunderbolt-we-watch-in/) [Ogden Nash](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ogden-nash/) > [Love, thine is the future. Death, I use thee, but I hate thee. Citizens, there shall be in the future neither darkness nor thunderbolts;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/victor-hugo/love-thine-is-the-future-death-i-use-thee-but-i-hate-thee-citizens/) [Victor Hugo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/victor-hugo/) > [My countrymen should have nerves of steel, muscles of iron, and minds like thunderbolt.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/swami-vivekananda/my-countrymen-should-have-nerves-of-steel-muscles-of-iron-and-minds/) [Swami Vivekananda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/swami-vivekananda/) > [Soon all of you immortals Will be as dead as we are! Come on then, what are you waiting for? Have you run out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/euripides/soon-all-of-you-immortals-will-be-as-dead-as-we-are-come-on-then-what/) [Euripides](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/euripides/) > [Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our teeples, drowned the cocks! You sulphurour…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/blow-winds-and-crack-your-cheeks-rage-blow-you-cataracts-and/) [William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/) ## More by Salman Rushdie > [If my child had prejudice in his head, I'd be ashamed. I would see it as my failure as a parent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/salman-rushdie/if-my-child-had-prejudice-in-his-head-i-d-be-ashamed-i-would-see-it/) [Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salman-rushdie/) > [It's a terrible thing that your life turns into a good story.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/salman-rushdie/it-s-a-terrible-thing-that-your-life-turns-into-a-good-story/) [Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salman-rushdie/) > [Sometimes by a woodland stream he watched the water rush over the pebbled bed, its tiny modulations of bounce and flow. 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I remember in 1989, two months before the fall…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/salman-rushdie/i-m-not-a-prophet-but-i-always-thought-it-was-natural-for/) [Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salman-rushdie/) > [I'd wanted to create a storm so that I could become more famous and richer.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/salman-rushdie/i-d-wanted-to-create-a-storm-so-that-i-could-become-more-famous-and/) [Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salman-rushdie/) > [Who what am I? My answer: I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/salman-rushdie/who-what-am-i-my-answer-i-am-the-sum-total-of-everything-that-went/) [Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salman-rushdie/) > [“...proving once again that there was no escape from recurrence.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/salman-rushdie/proving-once-again-that-there-was-no-escape-from-recurrence/) [Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salman-rushdie/) > [“information, in a stream-of-consciousness soliloquy that revealed the extent to which he had internalised the adversarial fragmentation of American culture and made it a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/salman-rushdie/information-in-a-stream-of-consciousness-soliloquy-that-revealed-the/) [Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salman-rushdie/) > [A little bit of one story joins onto an idea from another, and hey presto, . . . not old tales but new ones.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/salman-rushdie/a-little-bit-of-one-story-joins-onto-an-idea-from-another-and-hey/) [Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salman-rushdie/) > [I'm a novelist. 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