Top 15 Quotes By Famous Atheists
1. Creationists make it sound like a ‘theory’ is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night — Isaac Asimov
2. I don’t believe in God. My god is patriotism. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life. — Andrew Carnegie
3. All thinking men are atheists. — Ernest Hemingway
4. Lighthouses are more helpful then churches. — Benjamin Franklin
5. Faith means not wanting to know what is true. — Friedrich Nietzsche
6. The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. — George Bernard Shaw
7. Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile. — Kurt Vonnegut
8. I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. — Frank Lloyd Wright
9. Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. — Denis Diderot
10. A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows. — Samuel Clemens
11. The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life. — Sigmund Freud
12. Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. — Edward Gibbon
13. The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church. — Ferdinand Magellan
14. Not only is there no god, but try getting a plumber on weekends. — Woody Allen
15. It’s an incredible con job when you think about it, to believe something now in exchange for something after death. Even corporations with their reward systems don’t try to make it posthumous. — Gloria Steinem
2. I don’t believe in God. My god is patriotism. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life. — Andrew Carnegie
3. All thinking men are atheists. — Ernest Hemingway
4. Lighthouses are more helpful then churches. — Benjamin Franklin
5. Faith means not wanting to know what is true. — Friedrich Nietzsche
6. The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. — George Bernard Shaw
7. Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile. — Kurt Vonnegut
8. I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. — Frank Lloyd Wright
9. Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. — Denis Diderot
10. A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows. — Samuel Clemens
11. The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life. — Sigmund Freud
12. Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. — Edward Gibbon
13. The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church. — Ferdinand Magellan
14. Not only is there no god, but try getting a plumber on weekends. — Woody Allen
15. It’s an incredible con job when you think about it, to believe something now in exchange for something after death. Even corporations with their reward systems don’t try to make it posthumous. — Gloria Steinem
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dinah on -
awesome quotes! =) i especially love number 12 & 13 =) really speak into my heart =)
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Permalink Reply by Gina on -
10. A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows. — Samuel Clemens
BEST
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Permalink Reply by jljahrig on -
Love the quotes ~ I like Voltaire's quotes he loved to poke fun at the church and their sheep back in the day!
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. - Voltaire
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Permalink Reply by Nelson on -
love those Morgan!
some of my favorite quotes:
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
--Stephen Roberts
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
With or 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
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart
--H. L. Mencken
He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave
--William Drummond
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
The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also
--Mark Twain
I would defend the liberty of consenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent.
--Arthur C. Clarke
Creation science has not entered the curriculum for a reason so simple and so basic that we often forget to mention it: because it is false and because good teachers understand exactly why it is false.
--Stephen Jay Gould
Religion is unusual among divisible labels in being spectacularly unnecessary. If religious beliefs had any evidence going for them, we might had to respect them in spite of their concomitant unpleasantness. But there is no such evidence. To label people as death-deserving enemies because of disagreements about real world politics is bad enough. To do the same for disagreements about a delusional world inhabited by archangels, demons and imaginary friends is ludicrously tragic.
--Richard Dawkins
Faith does not give you the answers; it just stops you asking the questions.
--Frater Ravus
Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense
--Chapman Cohen
The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window
--Stephen King
Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of the astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.
--Carl Sagan
Why would some all powerful being create creatures capable of reason and then demand that they act in a manner contrary to their creation?
--Josh Charles
Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principle that they are laboring to dethrone: but if they argue without reason (which, in order to be consistent with themselves they must do), they are out of reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument.
-- Ethan Allen
Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this; that he does good not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it.
-- Mikhail Bakunin
Truth does not demand belief. Scientists do not join hands every Sunday, singing, "Yes, gravity is real! I will have faith! I will be strong! I believe in my heart that what goes up, up, up must come down, down, down. Amen!" If they did, we would think they were pretty insecure about it.
-- Dan Barker
Faith is a cop-out. It is intellectual bankruptcy. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits.
-- Dan Barker
Should we cover our heads and whimper because reality is not as we would have it? Beautiful lies are not superior to horrible truths, so why not hear the truth even when it is vulgar?
-- Matt Berry
Religions are conclusions for which the facts of nature supply no major premises.
-- Ambrose Bierce
A man full of faith is simply one who had lost the capacity for clear and realistic thought.
-- H. L. Mencken
Fear is the mother of all gods. Nature does all things without their meddling.
-- Lucretius
It is better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however reassuring.
-- Carl Sagan
Faith is the determination to remain ignorant in the face of all evidence that you are ignorant.
-- Shaun Mason
Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness to shine.
-- Arthur Shopenhauer
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Permalink Reply by brkfstclblvr on -
I love the Josh Charles quote!! Is that the actor Josh Charles (from Threesome, Sports Night, etc.)? Gotta love an adorable, logical, like-mided guy...
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Permalink Reply by James Cox on -
I do not see 'truth' as 'vulgar', but I can see it as non-validating.
At times I wonder of 'faith' is that last stand against raw fact. Like a frog grabing the throat of a large bird before the frog is consumed, that last act of defiance, before reality settles the issue of delusions of immortality.
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Permalink Reply by Scott on
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Vonnegut wasn't an atheist, he was a humanist. He meant that you should always question your faith, not just follow it blindly.
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Permalink Reply by Evan on
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Ugh. It depresses me that so many atheists trade one sort of folly for another and think themselves superior to their fellow man as a result. "All thinking men are atheists"? Please. To err is human, not Christian. In my experience, atheists hold plenty of patently illogical beliefs just as everyone else does; "Goddidit" just isn't one of them. It's this sort of rank arrogance that divides humanity and retards genuine progress. Was Einstein a fool, since he believed that there is a design? Was Aristotle nothing more than a useful idiot? What about Isaac Newton, or George Washington, or Mohandas Gandhi, or Francis Collins? Gullible morons all?
Much as I hate it when theists declare that atheism is just another religion, one generally based on just as much blind faith and bigotry as the rest of them, this sort of stereotyping and ill logic makes it difficult to credibly contest that position.
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Permalink Reply by Kairan Nierde on -
I agree that atheists need to get their houses in order before arrogantly claiming they have superior logical faculties. I know an atheist that believes in spirits and I bump into anti-vaccers on the net.
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Permalink Reply by Rob Klaers on -
The anti-vacciners I run into tend to be Religious Right Wing nuts..
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Permalink Reply by Nate Townsend on
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It is possible that atheism is in some cases just as faith based as a religion would be. At the same time, it requires a whole heck of a lot more effort to continue to say “No” when saying “Yes” is so much more popular. Even further beyond that, there are a great many people who just can’t be bothered to care about the religious debate and just want everyone involved to just stfu and get on with their lives.
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Permalink Reply by RamNex on -
Interesting thread; anyone wanna bring it back to life? :D
Here some of mine:
If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for a reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed. -Albert Einstein
Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; Give him a religion, and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish. -unknown
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Unknown
Two hands working can do more than a thousand hands clasped in prayer. -Unknown
The sailor does not pray for wind, he learns to sail. -Gustaf Lindborg
All religions are pieced together out of elements which seem so at odds with reason that any intelligence laughs at them. -Pierre Charron
As people become more intelligent, they care less for preachers and more for teachers. -Robert Ingersoll
The inspiration of the bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it. -Robert Ingersoll
Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity? -Arthur C. Clarke
Whatever we cannot easily understand we call God. This saves much wear and tear on the brain tissues. -Edward Abbey
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