Quotes
"Faith is the donkey's back upon which those who are too weak to walk on their own must ride." - Anonymous
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” - Voltaire
"Religious Cult: The church down the street from yours." [B.C. cartoon; 30 April 1994]
"Religion is to rationality as bullshit is to horsepower." - Anonyms
"Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our grave, or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.” - Any Rand
“History is full of people who out of fear, or ignorance, or lust for power have destroyed knowledge of immeasurable value which truly belongs to us all. We must not let it happen again.” - Carl Segan
“Legitimate truth is the product of evidence, not of our willingness to believe." [#11 Timotheus]
"Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to guide me. A stranger appears and says to me: 'My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.' This stranger is a theologian." - Denis Diderot
"The missionaries go forth to Christianize the savages, as if the savages weren't dangerous enough already." [Edward Abbey]
"Fantastic doctrines (like Christianity or Islam or Marxism) require unanimity of belief. One dissenter casts doubt on the creed of millions. Thus the fear and hate; thus the torture chamber, the iron stake, the gallows, the labor camp, the psychiatric ward." [Edward Abbey]
"The world holds two classes of men, intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence." [Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma'arri; (973-1057; Syrian poet)]
"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That unalterable rule applies both to God and man." [John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton; (Lord Acton) in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, April 5,1887]
"Thought is one of the manifestations of human energy, and among the earlier and simpler phases of thought, two stand conspicuous, Fear and Greed. Fear, which, by stimulating the imagination, creates a belief in an invisible world, and ultimately develops a priesthood; and Greed, which dissipates energy in war and trade." [Brooks Adams (1848-1927), The Law of Civilization and Decay]
"The power of the priesthood lies in the submission to a creed. In their onslaughts on rebellion they have exhausted human torments; nor, in their lust for earthly dominion, have they felt remorse, but rather joy, when slaying Christ's enemies and their own." [Brooks Adams; The Emancipation of Massachusetts]
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" [Douglas Adams]
"I refuse to prove that I exist" says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing." "Oh," says man, "but the Babel Fish is a dead give-away, isn't it? It proves You exist, and so therefore You don't. Q.E.D." "Oh, I hadn't thought of that." says God, who promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. [Douglas Adams, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"]
"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" [John Adams, letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, Dec. 27, 1816]
"The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly monopolized learning. And ever since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate A FREE INQUIRY? The blackest billingsgate, the most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality, is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated, and applauded. But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will swarm about your eyes and hand, and fly into your face and eyes." [John Adams, letter to John Taylor]
"The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly monopolized learning. And ever since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate A FREE INQUIRY? The blackest billingsgate, the most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality, is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated, and applauded. But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will swarm about your eyes and hand, and fly into your face and eyes." [John Adams, letter to John Taylor]
"God has infinite wisdom, goodness and power; he created the universe; his duration is eternal, a parte ante and a parte post. His presence is as extensive as space. What is space? An infinite spherical vacuum. He created this speck of dirt and the human species for his glory; and with deliberate design of making nine-tenths of our species miserable for ever for his glory. This is the doctrine of Christian theologians, in general, ten to one. Now, my friend, can prophecies or miracles convince you or me that infinite benevolence, wisdom, and power, created, and preserves for a time innumerable millions, to make them miserable forever, for his own glory? Wretch! What is his glory? Is he ambitious? Does he want promotion? Is he vain, tickled with adulation, exulting and triumphing in his power and the sweetness of his vengeance? Pardon me, my Maker, for these awful questions. My answer to them is always ready. _I believe no such things_. My adoration of the author of the universe is too profound and too sincere. The love of God and his creation-delight, joy, triumph, exultation in my own existance- though but an atom, a molecule organique in the universe- are my religion". [John Adams, in a latter to Jefferson, Sept. 14, 1813, from "Christianity and the Constitution: The Founding faith of our Fathers" John Eidsmoe ISBN: 0-8010-3444-2]
"Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs. This is the principle behind lotteries, dating, and religion." [Scott Adams; "The Dilbert Principle"]
"The truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear." [Herbert Agar; "A Time for Greatness" 1942]
"Faith in God and seventy-five cents will get you a cup of coffee." [Wayne Aiken]
"Sensible men no longer believe in miracles; they were invented by priests to humbug the peasants." [King Alfonso]
"Goodnight, thank you, and may your god go with you" [Dave Allen; Irish Comedian, at the end of all of his shows]
"In those parts of the world where learning and science have prevailed, miracles have ceased; but in those parts of it as are barbarous and ignorant, miracles are still in vogue." [Ethan Allen, Reason the Only Oracle of Man, pamphlet, 1784]
"There is not the slightest question but that the God of the Old Testament is a jealous, vengeful God, inflicting not only on the sinful pagans but even on his Chosen People fire, lighting, hideous plagues and diseases, brimstone, and other curses." [Steve Allen, "Steve Allen, on the Bible Religion & Morality"]
"There are hundreds of millions who believe the Messiah has come. If he did, then it is unfortunately the case that his heroic sacrifice and death have had no effect whatsoever on the very problem his coming might have been expected to address, for history demonstrates, beyond question, that we Christians have been just as dangerous, singly and en masse, as non-Christians." [Steve Allen, "Steve Allen, on the Bible Religion & Morality"]
"No actual tyrant known to history has ever been guilty of one-hundredth of the crimes, massacres, and other atrocities attributed to the Deity in the Bible." [Steve Allen, "More Steve Allen, on the Bible Religion & Morality"]
"If...we assume that there is no God, it follows that morality is even more important than if there is a Deity. If God exists, his unlimited power can certainly redress imbalances in the scale of human justice. But if there is no God, then it is up to man to be as moral as he can." [Steve Allen]
"An all-powerful being would have the power to punish a sinner, by any means he might choose to employ. However, the Scriptures not only attribute to God a horrible vengefulness but also suggest that God is incredibly stupid. It would be stupid if an individual, intent on punishing a sinner or group of them, expended his destructive energy not only on those who it might be said deserved such punishment but also on enormous numbers of innocent people who simply had the bad luck to be in the physical proximity of evildoers. To argue that God works in this way is to put him precisely on the same moral plane as those modern terrorists who, to kill a particular individual or small group, will place a bomb on an airplane in the full knowledge that in addition to the five or six intended victims all the other occupants, in whom the terrorists have no particular interest, will be killed." [Steve Allen, "More Steve Allen on the Bible Religion, & Morality"]
"Believing that the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God, certain human beings are prepared to suspend not only reason but even common sense about any and all passages found within, no matter how vile or bloodthirsty." [Steve Allen, "More Steve Allen on the Bible Religion, & Morality"]
"Another philosopher suggests that saying prayers is equivalent to believing that the universe is governed by a Being who changes his mind if you ask him to." [Steve Allen, "Steve Allen On the Bible, Religion and Morality," 1990]
"In every single instance where churchmen placed themselves squarely athwart the path of science, as regards a particular knotty question, the religious forces were eventually defeated for the very sound reason that they were wrong." [Steve Allen, "Steve Allen On the Bible, Religion and Morality," 1990]
"In the beginning, there was nothing. And God said, "Let there be light." And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a lot better." [Woody Allen]
"Prayer won't cure AIDS. Research will." [American Foundation for AIDS Research; Public service advertisement, dropped because of complaints by religionists, from Freethought Today, March 1997]
"A belief is not true because it is useful." [Henri Frederic Amiel]
"Since it is no longer permissible to disparage any single faith or creed, let us start disparaging all of them. To be clear: an ideology is a belief system with an inadequate basis in reality; a religion is a belief system with no basis in reality whatever. Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful." [Martin Amis; writing in The Guardian, June 1, 2002.]
"This whole Christian theology thing is that god came down to experience life through his son. Well, how's he experiencing life if he doesn't get laid? Give me a break. And why would he not get laid, as he created the apparatus in the first place?" [Tori Amos, interview in _Vox_, May, 1994, by Steve Maline]
"I used to get really pissed off that my life was so dictated by when this Jesus guy was born and when he was dying every year. I felt really resentful that I couldn't get on with my own life because I was so busy with his." [Tori Amos]
"No, no, no; you don't argue with concepts. You have to claim Dogma, and therefore leave no room for rational thought." [Kevin J. Anderson; _Flashback_]
"Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned." [Anemones]
"Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent and the serpent didn't have a leg to stand on." [Anonymous]
"Since the Bible and the church are obviously mistaken in telling us where we came from, how can we trust them to tell us where we are going?" [Anonymous]
"It is impossible to tell where revelations stop and hallucinations begin." [Anonymous]
"Gods have done a lot in the past, will do a lot in the future, but are always strangely absent from the present." [Anonymous]
"I believe that there is no God, but that matter is God and God is matter; and that it is no matter whether there is any God or no." [Anon., "The Unbeliever's Creed," 1754]
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." [Susan B. Anthony]
"The temperature of Heaven can be rather accurately computed. Our authority is Isaiah 30:26, "Moreover, the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days." Thus Heaven receives from the Moon as much radiation as we do from the Sun, and in addition 7*7 (49) times as much as the Earth does from the Sun, or 50 times in all. The light we receive from the Moon is one 1/10,000 of the light we receive from the Sun, so we can ignore that ... The radiation falling on Heaven will heat it to the point where the heat lost by radiation is just equal to the heat received by radiation, i.e., Heaven loses 50 times as much heat as the Earth by radiation. Using the Stefan-Boltzmann law for radiation, (H/E) temperature of the earth (-300K), gives H as 798K (525C). The exact temperature of Hell cannot be computed... (However) Revelations 21:8 says "But the fearful, and unbelieving ... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." A lake of molten brimstone means that its temperature must be at or below the boiling point, 444.6C. We have, then, that Heaven, at 525C is hotter than Hell at 445C." [Applied Optics; vol. 11, A14, 1972]
"It is fear that first brought gods into the world." [Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon]
"To me it seems that mankind can never achieve its highest potentialities till it has thrown off the incubus of historic (and prehistoric) religion..." [William Archer (1856-1924), "Is the Battle, Won?"]
"If you were taught that elves caused rain, every time it rained, you'd see the proof of elves." [Ariex]
"The bible must be seen in a cultural context. It didn't just happen. These stories are retreads. But, tell a Christian that, No, No! What makes it doubly sad is that they hardly know the book, much less its origins." [Isaac Asimov]
"...anger is the common substitute for logic among those who have no evidence for what they desperately want to believe." [Isaac Asimov, in essay "Hobgoblin", 1980, reprinted in his essay collection "The Tyrannosaurus Prescription"]
"Every religion seems like a fantasy to outsiders, but as holy truth to those of the faith." [Isaac Asimov, in essay "Is Fantasy Forever", 1982, reprinted in his essay collection "The Tyrannosaurus Prescription"]
"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." [Isaac Asimov]
"So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You'd better rearrange your beliefs, then. Because you certainly can't rearrange the universe." [Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg _Nightfall_]
"It's rather a shame. Now that the creationists are deprived of their chance of burning people at the stake, their best argument is gone." [Isaac Asimov, "Life and Time," 1979]
"People everywhere enjoy believing things that they know are not true. It spares them the ordeal of thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for what they know." [Brook Atkinson; "Once Around the Sun"]
"If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm." [Marcus Aurelius]
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