Atheism Quotes - Page 18

• I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in rationalism, thus you don't have to waste your time in either attacking or defending.

  Isaac Asimov

  Play, Waste, Reason

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• It has long been observed, that an atheist has no just reason for endeavouring conversions; and yet none harass those minds which they can influence, with more importunity of solicitation to adopt their opinions. In proportion as they doubt the truth of their own doctrines, they are desirous to gain the attestation of another understanding: and industriously labour to win a proselyte, and eagerly catch at the slightest pretense to dignify their sect with a distinguished name.

  Samuel Johnson

  Atheist, Winning, Names

  Samuel Johnson (1819). “The Beauties of Samuel Johnson: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous”, p.40

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• Science should be taught not in order to support religion and not in order to destroy religion. Science should be taught simply ignoring religion.

  Steven Weinberg

  Order, Support, Taught

  Freethought Today (unidentified article/page), April 2000.

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• If you have a sloppy religion you get a sloppy atheism.

  Ronald Knox

  Ifs, Sloppy

  "The Knox Brothers". Book by Penelope Fitzgerald, Ch. IV, 1977.

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• Even the Atheists... readily acknowledge it for an indubitable truth, that there must be something... which was never made or produced - and which therefore is the cause of those other things that are made, something... whose existence must needs be necessary... Wherefore all the question now is, what is this... self-existent thing, which is the cause of all other things that are made.

  Ralph Cudworth

  Atheist, Self, Needs

  "The True Intellectual System of the Universe, Volume I". Book by Ralph Cudworth (pp. 266-267), 1678.

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• Everything is more or less organized matter. To think so is against religion, but I think so just the same.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Thinking, Matter, Organized

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• I don't think that the laws can be considered to be like God because they have been figured out.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Thinking, Law, Has Beens

  "Superstrings: A Theory of Everything?". Book by Paul C. W. Davies and Julian R. Brown, 1988.

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• Every step which the intelligence of Europe has taken has been in spite of the clerical party.

  Victor Hugo

  Party, Taken, Europe

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• 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

  Atheist, Race, Views

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.50, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Why am I an atheist? The short answer is that I cannot accept any of the alternatives. I simply don't find them believable.

  Barbara Smoker

  Atheist, Alternatives, Answers

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• An atheist is as religious as a theist.

  Kedar Joshi

  Religious, Atheist, Theist

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• The major obstacle to a religious renewal is the intellectual classes, who are highly influential and tend to view religion as primitive superstition. They believe that science has left atheism as the only respectable intellectual stance.

  Robert Bork

  Religious, Believe, Views

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• I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, God, Religious

  Albert Einstein (2013). “Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives”, p.39, Princeton University Press

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• I would fain ask one of these bigotted Infidels, supposing all the great Points of Atheism... were laid together and formed into a kind of Creed, according to the Opinions of the most celebrated Atheists; I say, supposing such a Creed as this were formed, and imposed upon any one People in the World, whether it would not require an infinitely greater Measure of Faith, than any Set of Articles which they so violently oppose.

  Joseph Addison

  Faith, Atheist, Religion

  The Spectator, No. 185, October 2, 1711.

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• 

  When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

  Emo Philips

  Funny, Death, Forgiveness

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• Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.

  Carl Sagan

  God, Spiritual, Philosophy

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.54, Ballantine Books

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• As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, - as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, - and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

  John Adams

  Christian, Religious, Atheist

  "Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Signed at Tripoli". The Barbary Treaties 1786-1816, avalon.law.yale.edu. November 04, 1796.

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• We are afraid of the known and afraid of the unknown. That is our daily life and in that there is no hope, and therefore every form of philosophy, every form of theological concept, is merely an escape from the actual reality of what is. All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man and therefore of society.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Death, Atheist, Philosophy

  "Freedom From The Known" by Jiddu Krishnamurti, 1969.

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• You don't get to advertise all the good that your religion does without first scrupulously subtracting all the harm it does and considering seriously the question of whether some other religion, or no religion at all, does better.

  Daniel Dennett

  Atheist, Doe, Firsts

  Daniel C. Dennett (2006). “Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon”, p.56, Penguin

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• Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Law, Presidential

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Reports of Cases Determined in the General Court of Virginia: From 1730, to 1740; and from 1768, to 1772”, p.140

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• When women understand that governments and religions are human inventions; that Bibles, prayer-books, catechisms, and encyclical letters are all emanations from the brains of man, they will no longer be oppressed by the injunctions that come to them with the divine authority of *Thus sayeth the Lord.*

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Atheist, Prayer, Book

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton (2003). “The Woman's Bible: A Classic Feminist Perspective”, p.8, Courier Corporation

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• I'd be more willing to accept religion, even if I didn't believe it, if I thought it made people nicer to each other but I don't think it does.

  Andy Rooney

  Atheist, Believe, Thinking

  Andy Rooney (2009). “Sincerely, Andy Rooney”, p.226, Hachette UK

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• It was the schoolboy who said, ""Faith is believing what you know ain't so.""

  Mark Twain

  Faith, Atheist, Believe

  Following the Equator ch. 12, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897)

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• I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.

  Galileo Galilei

  Spiritual, Atheist, Believe

  "Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina". Essay by Galileo Galilei, 1615.

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• Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history.

  James Madison

  Government, Religion, Constitution Of The United States

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