A short collection of quotes that are quite agreeable:
"It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public; and freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds which follows from the advance of science." [Darwin]
"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities." [Voltaire]
"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism." [Einstein]
"Faith means not wanting to know what is true." [Nietzsche]
"I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul.... No, all this talk of an existence for us, as individuals, beyond the grave is wrong. It is born of our tenacity of life – our desire to go on living … our dread of coming to an end." [Edison]
"The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma." [Lincoln]
"Religion is a byproduct of fear. For much of human history, it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?" [Arthur C. Clarke]
"Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies." [Thomas Jefferson]
"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile." [Kurt Vonnegut]
"Religion is based . . . Mainly on fear . . . Fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. . . . My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race." [Bertrand Russell]
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The Voltaire quote is disagreeable: he believed in god.
His famously paraphrased thought that 'if god didn't exist then man would have had to invent him' was however inadvertently as risible as the resurrection.
waitingforgodo
Level 8
Sep 18, 2020
0
He may have believed. I don't know, but this quote is agreeable to me.
Thanks for the list. Most pleasantly surprised by Lincoln's quote. I vote for B. Russell's for most cerebral, but Arthur C. Clark said nearly the same thing but in a more amusing way. Voltaire's had a great short and sweet flaire.
I liked all, except perhaps Nietzche's, which made me cringe, but only because of what I have read of his life and consider him a nihilist. Not a role model I want.
MikeInBatonRouge
Level 8
Sep 18, 2020
0
A lot of illogical quotes by illogical atheist.
Word
Level 8
Sep 17, 2020
0
I looked over them again, and don't see one illogical word in any of them. Can you be more specific?
Word:
@Eazyduzzit just 1 example: it says, "Religion is a byproduct of fear. For much of human history, it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? "
Religion (has been defined for 2000 years) ... is pure and faultless is this: to help widows and orphans in need and avoiding worldly corruption. James 1:27
How is it logical to say, " helping widows and orphans in need while avoiding worldly corruption is a by product of fear" and calling it a necessary evil? How is the historical definition of religion a necessary evil? It's not a logical statement.
@Word You know this group is mostly a collection of people who have been subjected to religion and don't believe it, don't you? Quoting the Bible means no more to me than quoting Dr.Seuss. Religion has hurt as many widows and orphans as it has helped.
Word:
@Eazyduzzit there are different definitions for words. Biblical religion is helping widows and orphans, if it is not helping widows and orphans then it is not biblical religion.
By some definition of religion, United States of America(the government)is the secret religion of the Masonic lodge secret religion racist devil worshippers.
Thanks for these wonderful quotes. I have heard most of them before and of course I agree with them. The problem is that believers come up with opposites of them and try to convince you on how religious these men were. They have apologists post false quotes from false sites. One way of checking this out with a certainty is to see how long the sites have been in existence. The quotes above can be found in any library.
DenoPenno
Level 9
Sep 17, 2020
1
Everybody quoted has one thing in common. They're brilliant.
"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism." [Einstein]
barjoe
Level 9
Sep 17, 2020
3
This is one of my favourites. The brilliant man is surely slamming Jonathan Edwards' miserable potion. I'm surprised a relativismist didn't nuance the "After" in regard to death. Perhaps this preposition was said with his renowned twinkle?
Darwin's comment may have been aimed at Ussher: wise strategy around immovable object. "Great was the fall of the house of Usher" - with one s. The Ulsterman had tried to misuse religion in one of the myriad foolish places where it gets tried out.
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