Programming considered harmful

• gotos make it possible to write bad programs
  
• threads make it possible to write bad programs
  
• global variables make it possible to write bad programs
  
• anonymous functions make it possible to write bad programs
  
• macros make it possible to write bad programs
  
• mutable variables make it possible to write bad programs
  
• continuations make it possible to write bad programs
  
• dynamic scoping makes it possible to write bad programs
  
• objects make it possible to write bad programs
  
• recursion makes it possible to write bad programs
  
• ...

Take this argument far enough, and you are left with the S-K combinators, and now it is impossible to write good programs.

Having few features in a programming language is a fault, not a virtue. The bigger fault lies in failing to provide the language with the facilities to be extended with new features.

No amount of language design can force a programmer to write clear programs.

--Guy Steele & Gerald Sussman