185 replies to this topic

[thefirstimmortal]

The less reasonable a cult is, the more men seek to establish it by force.

[thefirstimmortal]

That is the idea -- that we should all be wicked if we did not hold to the Christian religion. It seems to me that the people who have held to it have been for the most part extremely wicked. You find this curious fact, that the more intense has been the religion of any period and the more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has been the cruelty and the worse has been the state of affairs. In the so-called Ages of faith, when men really did believe the Christian religion in all its completeness, there was the Inquisition, with all its tortures; there were millions of unfortunate women burned as witches; and there was every kind of cruelty practiced upon all sorts of people in the name of religion.

[thefirstimmortal]

My conclusion is that there is no reason to believe any of the dogmas of traditional theology and, further, that there is no reason to wish that they were true. Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.

[thefirstimmortal]

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.

[thefirstimmortal]

One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.

[thefirstimmortal]

If some good evidence for life after death were announced, I'd be eager to examine it; but it
would have to be real scientific data, not mere anecdote.... Better the hard truth, I say, than
the comforting fantasy.
Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, p. 204

[thefirstimmortal]

It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however
satisfying and reassuring.

[thefirstimmortal]

Faith in the supernatural is a desperate wager made by man at the lowest ebb of his fortunes.

[thefirstimmortal]

If I deny the existence of a God -- if I deny the idea of a gold paved city with pearly walls and
jasper gates somewhere out of knowledge and space and prefer to die and to trust the
unfaltering laws of nature -- if, in plain words I don't want to go to heaven, whose business is
it but my own?

[thefirstimmortal]

If those who oppose Freethought did not strive to force all to think as they do, accept Christ
by faith, believe the bible to be infallible, keep Sunday as a holy day, and work for a future
reward, then our fight would be at an end instantly. Liberty of Conscience is all we ask -- not
control of any class, creed, or sect.

[thefirstimmortal]

If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If he is infinitely wise, why
should we have doubts concerning our future? If he knows all, why warn him of our needs
and fatigue him with our prayers? If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If he is just,
why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses? If grace does
everything for them, what reason would he have for recompensing them? If he is all-powerful,
how offend him, how resist him? If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind, to
whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable? If he is immovable, by what right do we
pretend to make him change his decrees? If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with
him? IF HE HAS SPOKEN, WHY IS THE UNIVERSE NOT CONVINCED? If the knowledge of
a God is the most necessary, why is it not the most evident and the clearest.

[thefirstimmortal]

This is the pivot upon which all religions turn; they all assume that it is in our power to believe
or not to believe: whereas the mind can only believe that which it thinks true. A human being
can only be supposed accountable for those actions which are influenced by his will. But
belief is utterly distinct from and unconnected with volition it is the apprehension of the
agreement or disagreement of the ideas that compose any proposition. Belief is a passion or
involuntary operation of the mind, and, like other passions, its intensity is precisely
proportionate to the degree of excitement. Volition is essential to merit or demerit. But the
Christian religion attaches the highest possible degree of merit and demerit to that which is
worthy of neither, and which is totally unconnected with the peculiar faculty of the mind whose
presence is essential to their being.

[thefirstimmortal]

When the atheist is told that God is unknowable, he may interpret this claim in one of two
ways. He may suppose, first, that the theist has acquired knowledge of a being that, by his
own admission, cannot possibly be known; or, second, he may assume that the theist simply
does not know what he is talking about.

[thefirstimmortal]

To imagine that "God moves in mysterious ways" is to put up a smokescreen of mystery behind which fantasy may survive in spite of all the facts.

[thefirstimmortal]

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

[thefirstimmortal]

As for the accusation of intellectual pride, surely the boot is on the other foot. Atheists don't
claim to know anything with certainty -- it's the believers who know it all.

[thefirstimmortal]

People who believe in a divine creator, trying to live their lives in obedience to his supposed wishes and in expectation of a supposed eternal reward, are victims of the greatest confidence trick of all time.

[thefirstimmortal]

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.

[thefirstimmortal]

It was the schoolboy who said, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so."
-- Following the Equator, ch. 12, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897)
Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835-1910)

[thefirstimmortal]

It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

[thefirstimmortal]

The skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches, as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found.

[thefirstimmortal]

Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected
the world.
-- Voltaire, quoted from James A. Haught in "Honest Minds, Past and Present" Talks for History of Freethought conference
Sept. 20-21, 1997, Cincinnati, Ohio sponsored by Council for Secular Humanism and Free Inquiry Group

[thefirstimmortal]

Every sensible man, every honest man, must hold the Christian sect in horror.
-- Voltaire, quoted from James A. Haught in "Honest Minds, Past and Present" Talks for History of Freethought conference
Sept. 20-21, 1997, Cincinnati, Ohio sponsored by Council for Secular Humanism and Free Inquiry Group

[thefirstimmortal]

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

[thefirstimmortal]

God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.
-- Voltaire, Notebooks, vol. 2, "The Piccini Notebooks" (1968 ed.)

[thefirstimmortal]

It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.

[thefirstimmortal]

The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was
forbidden was on the Tree of Knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because
you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just
kept your fucking mouth shut and hadn't asked any questions.
-- Frank Zappa, interview, Playboy, May 2, 1993

[thefirstimmortal]

You might be a Fundamentalist if . . .
you believe that the ancient Israelites were great scientists.

[thefirstimmortal]

You might be a Fundamentalist if . . .
you believe that Israeli air-to-air missles are guided by angels.

[thefirstimmortal]

"My world isn't given to angels--it's given to flesh, bone and blood human beings."