Positive Atheism Quotes - Page 13

• I get up and retire when I wish. I go out if I wish and I do not go out if I do not desire to do so, except for the two days on which I give lectures.

  Pierre Bayle

  Two, Giving, Wish

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• Compulsion in the literal Sense is maliciously misrepresented, by supposing it authorizes Violences committed against the Truth. The Answer to this; by which it is prov'd, that the literal Sense does in reality authorize the stirring up Persecutions against the Cause of Truth, and that an erroneous Conscience has the same Rights as an enlighten'd Conscience.

  Pierre Bayle

  Reality, Rights, Atheism

  Pierre Bayle, John Kilcullen, Chandran Kukathas (2005). “A philosophical commentary on these words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23: "Compel them to come in, that My house may be full"”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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• I lay down the Position, That whatever a Conscience well directed allows us to do for the Advancement of Truth, an erroneous Conscience will warrant for advancing a suppos'd Truth.

  Pierre Bayle

  Atheism, Advancement, Wells

  Pierre Bayle, John Kilcullen, Chandran Kukathas (2005). “A philosophical commentary on these words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23: "Compel them to come in, that My house may be full"”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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• Enough of acting the infant who has been told so often how he was found under a cabbage that in the end he remembers the exact spot in the garden and the kind of life he led there before joining the family circle.

  Samuel Beckett

  Garden, Circles, Atheism

  Samuel Beckett (2012). “The Unnamable”, p.33, Faber & Faber

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• There is no pestilence in a state like a zeal for religion, independent of morality.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Independent, Atheism, Pestilence

  Jeremy Bentham (1842). “The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Now First Collected: Under the Superintendence of His Executor, John Bowring ...”, p.70

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• One belief, more than any other, is responsible for the slaughter of individuals on the alter of the great historical ideas - justice or progress or happiness of future generations... or emancipation of a nation or race or class... this is the belief that somewhere... there is a final solution.

  Isaiah Berlin

  Race, Class, Ideas

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• If my interlocutor desires to convince me that Jupiter has inhabitants, and that his description of them is accurate, it is for him to bring forward evidence in support of his contention. The burden of proof evidently lies on him; it is not for me to prove that no such beings exist before my non-belief is justified, but for him to prove that they do exist before my belief can be fairly claimed. Similarly, it is for the affirmer of God's existence to bring evidence in support of his affirmation; the burden of proof lies on him.

  Annie Besant

  Lying, Burden Of Proof, Support

  Annie Besant (2014). “The Origins of Theosophy (Routledge Revivals): Annie Besant - The Atheist Years”, p.282, Routledge

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• This coarse and insulting way of regarding woman, as though they existed merely to be the safety-valves of men's passions, and that the best men were above the temptation of loving them, has been the source of unnumbered evils.

  Annie Besant

  Passion, Men, Safety

  Annie Besant (2012). “Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History”, p.200, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Hypothesis is a toll which can cause trouble if not used properly. We must be ready to abandon our hypothesis as soon as it is shown to be inconsistent with the facts.

  William Ian Beardmore Beveridge

  Atheism, Tolls, Causes

  William Ian Beardmore Beveridge (1950). “The Art of Scientific Investigation”

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• The Catholic priest, from the moment he becomes a priest, is a sworn officer of the pope.

  Otto von Bismarck

  Catholic, Atheism, Moments

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• The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.

  Hugo Black

  Mean, Government, Law

  "Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1". Writing for the court, 1947.

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• The Free Exercise Clause at the very least was designed to guarantee freedom of conscience by prohibiting any degree of compulsion in matters of belief. It was offended by a burden on one's religion. The Establishment Clause can be understood as designed in part to ensure that the advancement of religion comes only from the voluntary efforts of its proponents and not from support by the state. Religious groups are to prosper or perish on the intrinsic merit and attraction of their beliefs and practices.

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Religious, Exercise, Practice

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• Over our history there are always those who want to take this wall of separation and remove a brick here or there or damage it more than that. I think one has to be vigilant and constantly on the alert.

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Wall, Thinking, Atheism

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• By marriage the husband and wife are one person in law, that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during marriage.

  William Blackstone

  Husband, Law, Wife

  Sir William Blackstone, Edward Christian, John Frederick Archbold, Joseph Chitty (1827). “Commentaries on the Laws of England”, p.343

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• Until the content of a belief is made clear, the appeal to accept the belief on faith is beside the point, for one would not know what one has accepted. The request for the meaning of a religious belief is logically prior to the question of accepting that belief on faith or to the question of whether that belief constitutes knowledge.

  William Blackstone

  Religious, Atheism, Belief

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• Then the Parson might preach, & drink, & sing, And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring; And modest dame Lurch, who is always at Church, Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.

  William Blake

  Children, Spring, Bird

  'Songs of Experience' (1794) 'The Little Vagabond'

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• 'Come hither, my boy, tell me what thou seest there?' 'A fool tangled in a religious snare.'

  William Blake

  Religious, Boys, Tangled

  William Blake, W. H. Stevenson (2007). “Blake: The Complete Poems”, p.170, Pearson Education

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• Religious liberty in a nation is as real as the liberty of its least popular religious minority. Look not to the size of cathedrals or even to the words on the statute books for proof of the reality of religious freedom. Ask what is the fate of the Protestant in Spain, the Jew in Saudi Arabia, the Arab in Israel, the Catholic in Poland or the atheist in the United States.

  Paul Blanshard

  Religious, Atheist, Real

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• Those who accept freedom of religion as a right are obligated by this acceptance to take the maintenance of freedom of religion as a duty.

  Joseph Leon Blau

  Acceptance, Atheism, Maintenance

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• Since 1787 the principle of freedom of religion has been attacked but never overthrown. Keeping education in the United States free of sectarian influence has long been one of the primary struggles of believers in freedom of religion.

  Joseph Leon Blau

  Struggle, Long, Atheism

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• It might be said that religious freedom in the American sense, incorporating the separation of church and state, has been the pivotal concept of the national development of the United States of America.

  Joseph Leon Blau

  Religious, America, Atheism

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• Dr. Manton taught my youth to yawn, and prepared me to be a High-Churchman, that I might never hear him read nor read him more.

  Henry Bolingbroke

  Atheism, Drs, Might

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• One of the most constant characteristics of beliefs is their intolerance. The stronger the belief, the greater its intolerance. Men dominated by a certitude cannot tolerate those who do not accept it.

  Gustave Le Bon

  Men, Atheism, Stronger

  Gustave Le Bon, Alice Widener (1979). “Gustave Le Bon, the man and his works: a presentation with introduction, first translations into English, and edited extracts”, Liberty Fund

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• We see, then, that the disappearance of the conscious personality, the predominance of the unconscious personality, the turning by means of suggestion and contagion of feelings and ideas in an identical direction, the tendency to immediately transform the suggested ideas into acts; these, we see, are the principal characteristics of the individual forming part of a crowd. He is no longer himself, but has become an automaton who has ceased to be guided by his will.

  Gustave Le Bon

  Mean, Ideas, Personality

  Gustave Le Bon (1960). “Psychologie des foules”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• A crowd is not merely impulsive and mobile. Like a savage, it is not prepared to admit that anything can come between its desire and the realisation of its desire.

  Gustave Le Bon

  Atheism, Desire, Savages

  Gustave Le Bon (2012). “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”, p.27, Courier Corporation

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