Positive Atheism Quotes - Page 25

• It is characteristic of theistic "tolerance" that no one really cares what the people believe in, just so they believe or pretend to believe.

  Emma Goldman

  Believe, People, Tolerance

  Emma Goldman (1915). “Mother Earth, a Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Social Science and Literature”

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• Redemption through the Cross is worse than damnation, because of the terrible burden it imposes upon humanity, because of the effect it has on the human soul, fettering and paralyzing it with the weight of the burden exacted through the death of Christ.

  Emma Goldman

  Soul, Humanity, Atheism

  Emma Goldman (1913). “Victims of Morality, and The Failure of Christianity: Two Lectures”

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• Christ and his teachings are the embodiment of submission, of inertia, of the denial of life; hence responsible for the things done in their name.

  Emma Goldman

  Teaching, Names, Atheism

  Emma Goldman (1913). “Victims of Morality, and The Failure of Christianity: Two Lectures”

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• A profession that we are a nation "under God" is identical, for establishment clause purposes, to a profession that we are a nation "under Jesus," a nation "under Vishnu," a nation "under Zeus," or a nation "under no god," because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion.

  Alfred Goodwin

  Jesus, Atheism, Purpose

  "America's pledge of allegiance ruled unconstitutional" by Duncan Campbell, www.theguardian.com. June 26, 2002.

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• The coercive effect of this policy is particularly pronounced in the school setting given the age and impressionability of schoolchildren, and their understanding that they are required to adhere to the norms set by their school, their teacher, and their fellow students.

  Alfred Goodwin

  Teacher, School, Understanding

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• Hallucinations and illusions are not facts useful for scientific investigation.

  Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

  Atheism, Hallucinations, Facts

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• Further, economic systems ... have never arranged themselves by themselves. It is men who do the ordering according to their attitudes, desires and understanding of things. Changes take place, not independent of man's will, but on account of man's wills. Civilization has progressed by man's interference with material conditions.

  Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

  Attitude, Independent, Men

  "Atheism Questions and Answers". Book by Goparaju Ramachandra Rao, 1980.

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• The language of theism which was familiar to the people, gave Gandhi the advantage of easy communication with the people, but it is atheistic in principle. It could have been the starting point for the atheistic movement in the modern age.

  Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

  Communication, People, Atheism

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• Satyagraha means insistence on what one knows to be the truth. The insistence implies the exercise of free will as the need of social obligation. If one is content to know the truth himself, he does not become a votary of Satyagraha. A Satyagrahi should not only know the truth but should insist upon it in social relations. So Satyagraha is activation of truthfulness.

  Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

  Mean, Exercise, Atheism

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• The insistence on truthfulness does not disturb the freedom of the individual. The social obligation implied in Satyagraha turns the freedom of the individual into moral freedom. An atheist is free to say or to do what he likes, provided he does what he says and says what he does. So, in the context of social relations, the freedom of the individual is moral freedom.

  Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

  Atheist, Atheism, Doe

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• Existentialist philosophy recognizes the existence of the individual as the real purpose of human life. The recognition is basically atheistic and it encourages the individual to free himself from the impositions of custom, governmental authority, economic pressures, and cultural inhibitions.

  Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

  Philosophy, Real, Atheism

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• The love of individual freedom has stood in the way of the appreciation of social obligations.

  Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

  Appreciation, Atheism, Way

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• Real morality is possible when the sanctions for morality are also tangible and real.

  Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

  Real, Atheism, Tangible

  "Atheism: Questions and Answers". Book by Goparaju Ramachandra Rao, 1980.

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• I affirm my faith when I'm asked about it. But I always try to do so in a way that communicates absolute respect, not only for people who worship in a different way, but just as much respect for those who do not believe in God and who are atheists.

  Al Gore

  Atheist, Believe, People

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• Atheists have just as much of a right to the public discourse as any ... people of any religious faith in this country.

  Al Gore

  Country, Religious, Atheist

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• If you're going to get into big time religion, these are the games you have to play. You go into it as a business and you work it as a business.

  Marjoe Gortner

  Games, Play, Atheism

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• It's the same at a rock-and-roll concert. You have an opening number with a strong entrance; then you go through a lot of the old standards, building up to your hit song at the end.

  Marjoe Gortner

  Song, Strong, Rocks

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• As a preacher, I'm working with the crowd, watching the crowd, trying to bring them to that high point at a certain time in the evening. I let everything build up to that moment when they're all in ecstasy. The crowd builds up and you have to watch it that you don't stop it. You start off saying you've heard that tonight's going to be a great night; then you begin the whole pitch and keep it rolling.

  Marjoe Gortner

  Night, Atheism, Trying

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• I really don't put it down. I never have. It's just that I analyze it and look at it from a very rational point of view. I don't see it as coming from God and say that at a certain point the Holy Spirit zaps you with a super whammy on the head and you've "gone for tongues" and there is it. Tongues is a process that people build up to. Then, as you start to do something, just as when you practice the scales on the piano, you get better at it.

  Marjoe Gortner

  Views, Practice, Piano

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• I like to summarize what I regard as the pedestal-smashing messages of Darwin's revolution in the following statement, which might be chanted several times a day, like a Hare Krishna mantra, to encourage penetration into the soul: Humans are not the end result of predictable evolutionary progress, but rather a fortuitous cosmic afterthought.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Atheism, Cosmic, Fortuitous

  "Dinosaur in a Haystack". Book by Stephen Jay Gould, "Can We Complete Darwin's Revolution?" (p. 327), 1995.

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• ... no compelling data to support its anachronistic social Darwinism.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Data, Support, Atheism

  Stephen Jay Gould (2006). “The Mismeasure of Man (Revised & Expanded)”, p.238, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Why get excited over this latest episode in the long, sad history of American anti-intellectualism? Let me suggest that, as patriotic Americans, we should cringe in embarrassment that, at the dawn of a new, technological millennium, a jurisdiction in our heartland has opted to suppress one of the greatest triumphs of human discovery.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Patriotic, Discovery, Long

  Stephen Jay Gould (2011). “I Have Landed”, p.215, Harvard University Press

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• ... a local, indigenous, American bizarre-ity.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Atheism, Bizarre, Indigenous

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• The board transported its jurisdiction to a never-never land where a Dorothy of the new millennium might exclaim: "They still call it Kansas, but I don't think we're in the real world anymore."

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Real, Thinking, Land

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• Orchids manufacture their intricate devices from the common components of ordinary flowers, parts usually fitted for very different functions. If God had designed a beautiful machine to reflect his wisdom and power, surely he would not have used a collection of parts generally fashioned for other purposes. Orchids were not made by an ideal engineer; they are jury-rigged from a limited set of available components. Thus, they must have evolved from ordinary flowers.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Beautiful, Flower, Orchids

  Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History”, p.20, W. W. Norton & Company

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