If you add me on facebook and scroll down to my favourite quotes section, you will see a large collection of atheist and anti-religious quotes from various people. Anyone who knows me well will understand that I believe 100% in each of them, and will freely admit to be anti-religious. So for those who don’t have facebook, here are my favourite quotes:
‘An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist believes that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man.’
‘I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.’ - Steven Roberts
‘And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence.’ - Bertrand Russell
‘Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.’
‘We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.’ - Gene Roddenberry
‘Without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.’ - Steven Weinberg
‘Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.’
‘Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a God superior to themselves. Most Gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.’ - Robert A. Heinlein
‘I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.’ - Thomas Jefferson
‘Which is it, is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s?’ - Friedrich Nietzsche
‘Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish.’
‘Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people.’ - Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney
‘Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one.’ - Richard Dawkins
‘The Government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian religion.’ - John Adams, 2nd President of the United States
‘You do not need the bible to justify love, but no better tool has been invented to justify hate.’ - Richard A. Weatherwax
‘They felt that science would be corrosive to religious belief and they were worried about it. Damn it, I think they were right. It is corrosive to religious belief and it’s a good thing.’ - Steven Weinberg
‘Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?’ - Epicurus
‘It is not as in the Bible, that God created man in his own image. But, on the contrary, man created God in his own image.’ - Ludwig Feuerbach
Popularity: 100% [?]
February 8th, 2008 at 8:55 AM
Ah, for all the reason you can muster, there is still a longing for contact with something larger than this existence and there are many who find it and are strengthened and consoled by it.
Not to mention miraculous healing etc. which you may choose to not believe in, but is actually so prevalent that you have to try very hard to ignore it.
February 8th, 2008 at 8:59 AM
I’m not saying there isn’t for some people, but for Atheists there is no “longing” as you say. We simply accept the facts of the world in which we can see.
Also, it might be useful to point out that although I am anti-religious, I am not anti-belief. I think belief is a very powerful thing to have and can improve us individually, but once you start organising people of similar belief, things start turning nasty.
February 8th, 2008 at 9:03 AM
I am incapable of blind faith because I am not blind.
February 8th, 2008 at 9:39 AM
@paul: i recommend reading about Rudolf Otto and his theory of the Numinous:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numinous
there’s much of your “longing”, apart from simple fear and projections of the parental role. there’s a reason why you become religios at an age of 3-6, rarely ever later
February 8th, 2008 at 2:45 PM
I really liked this list. But I’m agnostic so there you go.
February 8th, 2008 at 3:10 PM
[…] of his favorite quotes are very similar to mine. I’m just too lazy to write them […]
February 8th, 2008 at 4:00 PM
“There are so many varying interpretations on the Bible; yet not one sings of intellectual praise.” (almost exact…Bertrand Russell quote)
February 8th, 2008 at 4:09 PM
These are great!! Thanks for sharing them in a single concise page.
#1 - Paul,
Placebos also work and for the same reason. If the mind is convinced of the validity of the cure, it actually has a tremendous ability to heal the body of many ills on its own. Many are obviously beyond this. So, for my diabetes I take Insulin, never prayer.
As for strength and consolation from religion, I would suggest seeking strength from within. Religion is far too divisive and demonstrably false to do a damn thing for me. A universe in which one could legitimately pray to a god for temporary suspension of the laws of physics would be demonstrably different than the universe in which we live. (Not an original observation on my part, probably a paraphrase or near quote from The God Delusion.)
February 8th, 2008 at 5:38 PM
AH man… I was hoping for more hate comments… Come on people these quotes are great… I think I’ll go to a Christian website and post a like to this one. Yes that will do nicely >:D wish me luck!
February 8th, 2008 at 6:00 PM
hey paul, that is becasue the thinking mind intuits it is part of the vast whole of consciousness… meditation will fix you right up, and then you can understand what “god” is a metaphor for….
enjoy the quest, it ends in the formless vastness of being one’s self, and should never be stopped at mere belief
February 8th, 2008 at 6:01 PM
hey paul, that is because the thinking mind intuits it is part of the vast whole of consciousness… meditation will fix you right up, and then you can understand what “god” is a metaphor for….
enjoy the quest, it ends in the formless vastness of being one’s self, and should never be stopped at mere belief
February 8th, 2008 at 6:11 PM
Great quotes, Thank you. Openly atheist also.
February 9th, 2008 at 12:37 AM
Can’t this longing for a greater being be pursued in the desire for intellectual enlightenment. Despite having no real faith I find fulfillment in the endless pursuit of knowledge. If god was created by people then any power he has is really within us.
February 9th, 2008 at 6:09 AM
First off - Thank you Adrian. That is a really fine group of quotations.
I am anti-belief, in addition to being atheist, if, by belief, you mean belief in any type of supernatural being. I believe that delusion is harmful at all levels.
Paul (the one who responded above) expresses himself as one would expect a person of faith to do, but paragraph #2 opens the door even wider for sharp criticism. “Miraculous Healing”? Good grief, man, you lose on two counts right out of the box. If you want to go to your own “authority” first, I Corinthians clearly states that the age of healings was to pass. Then, bringing this into “today”; if you or anyone else on this planet can provide scientific evidence of a divine “healing”, you can instantly win a million dollars from The James Randi foundation.
Also, please see http://whydoesgodhateamputees.com/ and then try to defend “healings”. It’s not a matter of “choosing not to believe” - rather, it’s a matter that it has never happened in the history of the universe.
BAT
February 9th, 2008 at 8:01 AM
I really like your comments. I’m not anti anything but I do feel that organised religion is a bad thing. Your first quote is great. And I would like to agree with other people who have mentioned about a placebo effect. I’ve meditated and it made me feel better but I am intelligent enough to understand that it has more to do with encourage rest and relaxation than it does divine intervention.
I have another favourite quote to add to yours: If you’re too stupid to understand science, try religion.
February 10th, 2008 at 9:53 AM
I find it funny how the only way to “disprove” christianity is to insult it… Makes me think.
February 11th, 2008 at 8:12 PM
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February 11th, 2008 at 10:26 PM
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February 12th, 2008 at 2:38 AM
Belief is a statement of outcome.
One is a statement of physical or logical outcome. The other is emotional: predicting ones emotional state.
Relgion is a specific case of the general ability of “emotional belief”, something that people, and I’d suspect most if not all life, does.
Belief is useful. We value it. We respect it.
Religion takes a ride on that, our value, our respect.
February 12th, 2008 at 4:55 AM
Atheists and Agnostics have the burden of being polite so often to religious folks. It kind of pisses me off. Religious folks aren’t kind or polite to us. Religion is harmful and is a breeding farm for ignorance and much worse. Atheists have respect for personal spirituality and religiousity. It is only when those practices become invasive and malicious we have a problem.
February 12th, 2008 at 3:01 PM
@Weston:
No one insults Christianity in an attempt to ‘disprove’ it, we insult it because it’s absolutely ridiculous.
Logical thought disproves it sufficiently.
February 13th, 2008 at 7:13 AM
well, I like these quotes, and I like the ones by the founding fathers particularly, who were into the occult as far as I know.
Even though all politicians today all like to say our country was based on Christian values and beliefs…
but just because I don’t like sweeping generalizations, I’d like to say that not all religious people are disrespectful towards agnostics and atheists, and vice versa… people like to blame and take sides, but fact of the matter is, most people are not entirely considerate of one another, yet most people DO mean well… it’s just a matter of communication. Believing in something patently false does not automatically vilify you, but forcibly pushing your values on me does. Freedom is letting me do what I want, as long as it doesn’t keep you from doing what you want, aka mutual respect and consideration. Not doing EVERYTHING you want, or making people do what you want because you have more money or because the majority believes it’s what they want and since they’re voting for you, you have to appease.
I’m totally going off subject, although religion is in fact an ancient and/or tribal form of socio-political control and law making. But anyways, I like the quotes, they’re interestingly witty, and worth thinking about for a second…
February 13th, 2008 at 5:56 PM
Bornagain A Theist Said he does not believe in any thing not even himself? he must have a belief in something even if it is only that he believes that he is alive. If he believes in nothing then by his own admission he should be dead
February 13th, 2008 at 6:27 PM
Why in this day and age do people still cling to the outmoded idea that an entity known as a “god” still has the power to control our lives, this is an institutional concept created by the few (land owners, lords, kings, bishops, and any one with money) to control the peasants and serfs to do their bidding ” disobey me and the lord will strike you down as I as am his servant on earth”.If any body said that “today I have spoken to god” there would be men in white coats waiting for them with a tied at the back coat and long arms with buckles and a big hypodermic full of vallium. So I personally think that the idea of any so called supreme being should be beyond credibility.
February 14th, 2008 at 2:24 AM
Just FYI, the quote above suggesting that the United States is in “no sense founded on the Christian religion” is incorrectly attributed. John Adams didn’t say it; George Washington did. It was written in 1797 in the Treaty of Tripoli, and was initially included in the treaty draft to assuage the concerns of the “Musselman” (Muslims) on the other side of the agreement at the time. The phrase didn’t survive to be included in the final document.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:04 PM
I’m pretty indifferent but like to read this stuff. You still can consider that there is a god-like being or whatever out there, just not one like what we think. I do believe that organized religion is the cause of many evils and misconceptions across the globe. The mass public is like a herd of dumb cows waiting for the saltlick. Read this article and if you like check out their main page http://www.fullmoon.nu/articles/art.php?id=tal anyone liking these quotes will surely like this story… be it true or false.
March 11th, 2008 at 9:18 PM
An excellent selection of quotations.
I admire many deeply religious individuals who are admittedly better people than I am, such as those selfless nuns who denied themselves earthly comforts to administer to the impoverished and terrorized in Nicaragua and El Salvador. There are many such examples from all the major religious groups, but unfortunately, such selflessness and sacrifice seems to be lost by religious leaders, whose main focus is maintaining and extending their power, particularly over anyone not of like mind.
I have been an atheist all of my life and give my thanks to the god Stumbleupon for guiding me to this site of wonderful quotations and thoughtful posters. Amen.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:49 AM
Wonderful quotes that all highlight the glaring contradictions in the whole God idea. I personally found the “give a man a fish quote.” I’ve always used a similar mantra when explaining why I am an atheist. “If a building were burning down around him, the christian would perish in the flames while praying for salvation, while anyone else would look for a way out.” I do believe that faith and belief can lead someone to make themselves a better person (though they shouldn’t really need faith to tell them that), organized religion, especially christianity, is founded and run by people who, like in many other areas of authority, seek only to subvert others and solidify their own power. Faith = good, religion = bad
March 14th, 2008 at 1:18 AM
Couple of points for the prosecution:
If miraculous healing is so prevalent, why do most people still trust medical science? Indeed, why doesn’t the doctor give ailing people a blessing rather than drugs?
The idea of “longing for” or “feeling that there is” something bigger (i.e. God) is the crudest example of humanity’s arrogance. If there isn’t any concrete evidence to support such notions (and there isn’t), why would anyone waste their time believing in remote possibilities just for comfort?!
See also: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
March 15th, 2008 at 3:56 AM
@Brandon:
For one of the reasons why we often despise religion is the bigotry and inflaming and aggressive nature that accompanies the flaws of man’s character.
You’ve proven that religion is not the cause of bigotry, but inherent in everyone of us.
Excellent job in making the image of agnostics and atheists as aggressors and instigators stronger. We do not believe what we believe in to be rebellious or disrespectful, we believe in it because it’s what logic tells us.
You might want to rethink your actions.
March 16th, 2008 at 7:22 PM
If there was an infinite chain of causes of the universe then there would be no universe now.
But there is a universe now.
Therefore there must be a first cause of the universe.
hmmm… sounds like God, please explain that with your materialism
The law of entropy says thinks become less complex and lose energy over time (heat loss)
‘…give a man religion and he will give the fish he catches to his sick neighbor who is unable to catch his own fish.’
Is there morality without religion. How can anything really be wrong?
I am interested in your responses
Judge a religious person not by how bad they are, but by how ‘less bad’ they are than when they were un-religious
March 16th, 2008 at 7:27 PM
sorry, I misspelled ‘things’ as ‘thinks’
Looks like religious people make mistakes
And, I meant to say that we can see throughout the history of earth that things have not become less complex, instead they have become more complex. Doesn’t seem to fit in with entropy.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:10 AM
Re:Noah
Things becoming more complex? See: Evolution
There must have been a first cause- it’s God, right? Nope. See: Big Bang Theory
How can anything really be wrong (without objective morality)? Morality is only relevant to humanity- it’s made BY humans FOR humans. See: Existentialism
Only religious people give fish to the needy, right? Yeah, if socialism- or indeed any other school of thought- is classed as a religion.
Religious people behave better than non-religious people, right? Erm, wrong again. See: Terrorism (motives therefor), Crusades, Iraq War (which “god” told Bush to wage), George W Bush, pedophilia in the Catholic priesthood, Osama bin Laden, Charles Manson, Israel-Palestine relations, conflict in Northern Ireland etc
HOWEVER, whether people who follow a certain moral code are “morally superior” to those with different views has NO BEARING on the question of the existence (or non-existence) of an immortal, invisible superbeing. That boils down to whether one can accept something as true despite there being absolutely no verifiable evidence to support its existence. Conveniently, such an ability is known as faith. See also: Russell’s teapot
March 17th, 2008 at 6:53 AM
Some points were made that atheists MUST immediately explain this or that thing, which completely misses the point of one the quotes above. We may not no everything now, but everyday we strive to find answers to these questions instead of writing them off with mysticism.
As for children believing at the age of six, I’m not positive that 3 year olds have the capacity to critically analyze information being fed to them by authority figures. And by the time they do the processing principles of conservatism could have taken hold.
Also for anyone interested check out Terror Management Theory. It has some interesting implications… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory
March 19th, 2008 at 12:03 AM
Thats not what I meant. I meant to ask this: What caused the big bang?
March 19th, 2008 at 2:55 PM
Noah,
There are several theories as to what caused the Big Bang, but ultimately we will never know since all the evidence has long since gone. We only know that it happened, or something very much like it happened.
If, like all arguments relating to God, we were to say “God did it” then we instantly have the even more complex question “What caused God” or “Where did God come from?”. If the answer theists give is anything like “He was always there”, then why couldn’t the same “logic” be applied to the Big Bang. If a God could have always existed, couldn’t the universe have always existed, simply expanding and collapsing again and again and again (as per the Big Crunch theory).
I personally think it’s more wise to admit that we will never know the cause of some things than to just jump to the assumption that it was God.
March 19th, 2008 at 8:43 PM
I never seen a miracle that did not fail. God has a very bad record of success.
I consider those of us that don’t believe in Gods to be much smarted and more in touch with reality than those who blindly follow lies. (Kind of like those Bush supporters) When you die, you are dead. Just that simple.
March 21st, 2008 at 4:12 AM
For the record, your first quote is by Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
April 1st, 2008 at 5:36 PM
Funny how many responses anything atheistic spawns in a very short period of time.
Quickly there will be religious people sort of ragging atheistic claims down, and just as quickly there will be people ragging down the religious.
I’m an atheist myself, and even though I find everything else a bit lunatic, I accept it. Mostly. My entire point of view on religion can almost be said with these few words:
Believing is good, as long as you don’t become ignorant.
Thereby I’m also saying, that I probably aren’t as “good” as believers, and maybe there’s something to it. If I had a god to believe in, then I would perhaps have more content in my everyday life. However, I just don’t see the need for any god. Far the most things can be proven by science. I can’t possibly see why believe in something, that doesn’t have the faintest connection with the real world of physics that we live in.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:33 AM
Noah,
Please get a firm grasp of Entropy before attempting to use it as evidence.
I will not attempt to explain the nuances in a couple of sentences as you should not try to a “little golden book” definition in relation to a personal observation of something as complex as the Earth.
If you want to use Entropy in this context, pick up a Physics book and learn about it first, don’t regurgitate someone else’s lame argument.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:52 AM
I love it when religious people post comments on blogs/sites like this using the argument that morality or humanity’s sense of ‘good’ would not exist without Christianity or religion. I’m happy to say I was raised without any knowledge of religion whatsoever, and I have thus far in my life been a ‘better’ person (in Christian terms) than most of my Christian friends. They cheat on their girlfriends, drink and drive, and overall make terrible decisions based on their emotions instead of using LOGIC like myself (not a moral code).
Thanks Mom and Dad.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:37 AM
It is quite sad that you say that Carl. Most Western Civilisations laws are based on Christian beliefs. Did you know that it used to be a crime to commit adultry? It is very much based on Christian beliefs, due to the fact that other Muslim countries do not have the same Laws.
Also, don’t you know that Christians set out to be perfect, but never are? If becoming a Christian meant you became perfect, why would there still be crime? The fact that your friends do those things mean that either they are not true Christians, or that you feel that you know exactly how Christians are meant to act… even though your are not one…kindy ignorant and silly. =S
June 29th, 2008 at 1:21 PM
Isaac: Wrong. Up until the renascence christian based laws made the world really crappy to live in. Discrimination, witch burning, wars, etc, etc. Before the new testament it was even worse. During the renascence however the humanistic views of old Greece came back to the modern world and Christianity adapted along with it. So yeah, modern laws are based on humanism.
Moral have existed in all parts of the world since human civilizations begun to pop up. Only a few of these has been based on Christianity. Go learn a bit about humanism, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism for example.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:06 AM
Hi,
I myself was an agnostic when I was young. I read a lot of Bertrand Russell.
Yes there has been a lot of harm and mischief and downright evil done in the name of religion. But it is the only means we have to gain the mystical experience. And even Russell respected mystics.
I would like to have your views on the mystical experience. Do you think that is worth striving for?
And instead of being an atheist - explore agnosticism. No one can prove that there is a god. Equally no one can prove that there isn’t. So keep an open mind.
All the best and warm regards
Nikhil
June 30th, 2008 at 4:41 PM
Nikhil,
Agnosticism and Atheism aren’t mutually exclusive. Atheism is the philosophical disbelief in gods (or belief in no gods), and agnosticism is the position on whether certain things can ever been known for certain.
I would describe myself as an agnostic atheist in that I don’t believe in any gods that humanity has come up with yet, but I am fully aware that since the concept of gods is unprovable, I cannot definitely say there are no gods.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:59 PM
Noah,
“What caused the big bang?”
Your question implies that all things must have a cause and/or creator. By your logic, for the big bang to have occured, God must have set thing in motion? My question for you…What or whom created god?
August 2nd, 2008 at 11:00 PM
It’s amazing
August 8th, 2008 at 1:44 PM
To Paul on the subject of miraculous healing. Yes about 0.04% of sick people get better through visiting Lourdes, etc and attribute their cure to miraculous intervention. What about the other 99.96% who didn’t get better? The miraculous cures are nothing more than the body healing itself and this would have ocurred whether or not the patient prayed or went to Lourdes. Proof of this is the fact that God has never cured an amputee - no matter how many people pray for him. Come on surely you can see through this!
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