« D’aucuns prétendent que la démocratie est incompatible avec l’islam. Or en vérité, par principe la démocratie sait accorder une place à tous les croyants. À ce titre l’Amérique qui est l’une des plus grandes démocraties est aussi l’une des nations les plus religieuses du monde. Les trois quarts de nos citoyens croient en une forme de pouvoir transcendant. Des millions d’entre eux vont à l’office chaque semaine et prient tous les jours. Et ils le font sans la moindre crainte de répression étatique. Dans notre démocratie, nul n’est puni pour se trouver en possession d’un coran. Nous ne condamnons personne à la peine capitale pour s’être converti à l’islam. La démocratie ne menace ni l’islam ni aucune autre religion. La démocratie est le seul système de gouvernement qui garantit leur protection. »
Kim Ung-Yong (born March 7, 1963) is a Korean child prodigy. He was able to read and write in Japanese, Korean, German, and English by his fourth birthday. At the age of four, on November 2, 1967, he solved complicated differential and integral calculus problems on Japanese television, demonstrated his proficiency in German, English, Japanese, and Korean, and composed poetry. Kim was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records under "Highest IQ"; the book estimated the boy's score at 210.
Kim was a guest student of physics at Hanyang University from the age of three until he was six. At the age of seven he was invited to the United States by NASA. He finished his university studies, eventually getting a Ph.D. in physics at Colorado State University before he was 15. In 1974, during his university studies, he began his research work at NASA and continued this work until his return to Korea in 1978.
When he returned to Korea, he decided to switch from physics to civil engineering and eventually received a doctorate in that field. Kim was offered the chance to study at the most prestigious universities in Korea, but instead chose to attend a provincial university.
"Have you ever wondered why we talk of spelling? There is a spell word, the root mantra of restriction. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. That name and all the names it generates were designed to set limits upon humanity's ability to express abstract thoughts. What you see depends entirely upon the words you have to describe what you see. Nothing exists until we say that it does."