Food for thought...in bulk. More than a few words about Atheism. Quotes by intelligent people, who were known for doing many great things. If you are one of us, don't go on thinking you are alone... these are people you have heard of. While I could say a lot on the subject... at this time I am going to leave it to the pros.
"Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool." - Mark Twain, American writer (1835 - 1910)
"Lighthouses are more helpful then churches." - Benjamin Franklin, American Founding Father (1706 - 1790)
"The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men, the more widespread is the decline of religious belief." - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychologist (1856 - 1939)
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." - Douglas Adams, British writer (1952 - 2001)
"It is worth remembering that if God created the world and all things in it, he created smallpox, plague, and filariasis. Any person who intentionally loosed such horrors upon the earth would be ground to dust for his crimes." - Sam Harris, American author (1967 - present)
"All Bibles are man-made." - Thomas Edison, American inventor (1847 - 1931)
"I see no God up here." - Yuri Gagarin, first human in outer space (1934 - 1968)
"Science may not offer eternal salvation, but it offers the possibility of a life free from the spiritual slavery caused by an irrational fear of the unknown." - Marcelo Gleiser, Brazilian physicist & astronomer (1959 - present)
"A man without a religion is like a fish without a bicycle." - Unknown
"One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests." - Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician & orator (1833 - 1899)
"All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few." - Stendhal, French writer (1783 - 1842)
"The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer (1803 - 1882)
"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, American television producer (1921 - 1991)
"The death of dogma is the birth of reality." - Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (1724 - 1804)
"There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages." - Richard Lederer, American author (1938 - present)
"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, 3rd U.S. President & Founding Father (1743 - 1826)
"Is it any wonder that there are atheists in the world, when the church behaves so abominably?" - Voltaire, French philosopher (1694 - 1778)
"The reason people use a crucifix against vampires is that vampires are allergic to bullshit." - Richard Pryor, American stand-up comedian (1940 - 2005)
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" - Epicurus, ancient Greek philosopher (341 BCE - 270 BCE)
"At some fundamental level, religion doesn't allow for compromise. It's the art of the impossible." - Barack Obama, current U.S. President (1961 - present)
"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, American activist & writer (1934 - present)
"I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator." - David Attenborough, British broadcaster & naturalist (1926 - present)
"Atheists do look for answers to existence itself. They just don't make them up." - Teller (of 'Penn and Teller'), American magician and comedian (1948 - present)
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." - Benjamin Franklin, American Founding Father (1706 - 1790)
"It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him." - Arthur C. Clarke, British author (1917 - 2008)
"If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion." - Edmond de Goncourt, French writer (1822 - 1896)
"A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows." - Mark Twain, American writer (1835 - 1910)
"You do not need the Bible to justify love, but no better tool has been invented to justify hate." - Richard A. Weatherwax
"God is a concept by which we measure our pain." - John Lennon, British singer-songwriter (1940 - 1980)
"I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a guy nailed to two pieces of wood." - George Carlin, American stand-up comedian (1937 - 2008)
"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life th...at will live on in the memories of your loved ones." - Marcus Aurelius
"Science built the Academy, superstition the inquisition." - Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician & orator (1833 - 1899)
"All religions begin with a revolt against morality, and perish when morality conquers them." - George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (1856 - 1950)
"A believer is a bird in a cage, a freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing." - Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician & orator (1833 - 1899)
"If Atheism is a religion, then health is a disease!" - Clark Adams, American activist (1969 - 2007)
"My own mind is my own Church." - Thomas Paine, author and American Founding Father (1737 - 1809)
"The total absence of humor from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature." - Alfred North Whitehead, British mathematician & philosopher (1861 - 1947)
"We would be 1,500 years ahead if it hadn't been for the church dragging science back by its coattails and burning our best minds at the stake." - Catherine Fahringer, American activist (1922 - 2008)
"Most people's religion is what they want to believe, not what they do believe." - Luther Burbank, American botanist (1849 - 1926)
"Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; anything but live for it." - Charles Caleb Colton, British writer (1780 - 1832)
"The imaginary flowers of religion adorn man's chains. Man must throw off the flowers and also the chains." - Karl Marx, German political philosopher (1818 - 1883)
"The imaginary flowers of religion adorn man's chains. Man must throw off the flowers and also the chains." - Karl Marx, German political philosopher (1818 - 1883)
"I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world." - Richard Dawkins, British biologist (1941 - present)
"Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it." - Christopher Hitchens, British author (1949 - present)
"Faith means not wanting to know what is true." - Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844 - 1900)
"I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay their hands on everything they can get." - Napoleon Bonaparte, French military & political leader (1769 - 1821)
"The spiritualization of sensuality is called love: it is a great triumph over Christianity." - Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844 - 1900)
"What is the function that a clergyman performs in the world? Answer: he gets his living by assuring idiots that he can save them from an imaginary hell. It's a business almost indistinguishable from that of a seller of snake-oil for rheumatism." - H. L. Mencken, American writer (1880 - 1956)
"Atheism is the voice of a few intelligent people." - Voltaire, French philosopher (1694 - 1778)
"A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes." - James K. Feibleman
"Wherever God erects a house of prayer,The Devil always builds a chapel there;And 'twill be found, upon examination,The latter has the larger congregation."--Daniel Defoe, English writer (1661-1731)
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein, German physicist (1879 - 1955)
"Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst." - Thomas Paine, British author, revolutionary, & American Founding Father (1737 - 1809)
"We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further." - Richard Dawkins, British biologist & author (1941 - present)
"There is a condition worse than blindness, and that is, seeing something that isn't there." - Thomas Hardy, British writer (1840 - 1928)
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty." - Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. President & Founding Father (1743 - 1826)
"The churches answered criticism in the past with murder." - A. C. Grayling, British philosopher (1949 - present)
"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, British writer (1917 - 2008)
"A bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say at the age of eighteen." - Oscar Wilde, Irish writer (1854 - 1900)
"The Old Testament is responsible for more atheism, agnosticism, disbelief—call it what you will—than any book ever written; it has emptied more churches than all the counterattractions of cinema, motor bicycle and golf course." - A. A. Milne, British writer (1882 - 1956)
"To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy." - William Ralph Inge, British author (1860 - 1954)
"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom." - Bertrand Russell, British mathematician & philosopher (1872 - 1970)
"Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity." - Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844 - 1900)
"I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose." - Clarence Darrow, American lawyer (1857 - 1938)
"All the biblical miracles will at last disappear with the progress of science." - Matthew Arnold, British poet (1822 - 1888)
"The best cure for Christianity is reading the Bible." - Mark Twain, American novelist (1835 - 1910
"I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion is anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds. 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." - Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and mathematician (1872 - 1970)
"There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings." - Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844 - 1900)
"The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion." - Arthur C. Clarke, British author (1917 - 2008)
"Most people can't bear to sit in church for an hour on Sundays. How are they supposed to live somewhere very similar to it for eternity?" - Mark Twain, American novelist (1835 - 1910)
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick, American writer (1928 - 1982)
"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself." -Sir Richard Francis Burton, English explorer and diplomat (1821 – 1890)
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." -Sir Winston Churchill, British politician and writer (1874 – 1965)
"In dark ages people are best guided by religion, as in a pitch-black night a blind man is the best guide; he knows the roads and paths better than a man who can see. When daylight comes, however, it is foolish to use blind, old men as guides." - Heinrich Heine, German poet (1797 - 1856)
"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844 - 1900)
"When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal and wholesome life." - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychologist (1856 - 1939)
"Gods are children's blankets that get carried over into adulthood." - James Randi, Canadian-American magician & author (1928 - present)
"There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven." - Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician & orator (1833 - 1899)
"The essence of Christianity is told to 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." - Frank Zappa, American composer & electric guitarist (1940 - 1993)
"Atheism is a non-prophet organization." - George Carlin, American comedian (1937 - 2008)
"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." - Thomas Paine, British author, revolutionary, & American Founding Father (1737 - 1809)
"Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively, fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature." - Carl Sagan, American astronomer (1934 - 1996)
"Men rarely (if ever) managed to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child." - Robert A. Heinlein, American writer (1907 - 1988)
"It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand." - Mark Twain, American writer (1835 - 1910)
"If churches don't have to pay taxes, they also can't call the fire department when they catch fire. Sorry reverend, that's one of those services that goes along with paying in. I'll use the fire department I pay for. You can pray for rain." - Bill Maher, American comedian (1956 - present)
"Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have." - Penn Jillette, American illusionist and writer (1955 - present)
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." - Seneca the Younger, Roman philosopher (c. 4 CE - 65 CE)
"The idea of God is the sole wrong for which I cannot forgive mankind." - Marquis de Sade, French writer (1740 - 1814)
"Truth does not have to be accepted on faith. Scientists do not hold hands every Sunday, singing, "Yes gravity is real! I will have faith! I will be strong! Amen." - Dan Barker, American activist (1949 - present)
"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." - Isaac Asimov, Russian-American author (c. 1920 - 1992)
"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love." – Butch Hancock, American country/folk songwriter (1945 - present)
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell, British philosopher (1872 - 1970)
“There is in every village a torch - the teacher; and an extinguisher - the clergyman.” - Victor Hugo, French writer (1802 - 1885)
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire, French writer & philosopher (1694 - 1778)
"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, American physicist (1933 - present)
“All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.” - Aldous Huxley, British novelist (1894 - 1963)
"You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep-seated need to believe." - Carl Sagan, American astronomer (1934 - 1996)
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot, French philosopher (1713 - 1784)
"If ignorance of nature gave birth to gods, knowledge of nature is made for their destruction." - Percy Bysshe Shelley, British poet (1792 - 1822)
"Fear is the mother of all gods." - Lucretius, Roman poet (c. 99 - 55 B.C.E.)
"When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." – Robert M. Pirsig, American writer (1928 - present)
"All thinking men are atheists." - Ernest Hemingway (American writer, 1899 - 1961)
"I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create." - Vincent van Gogh (Dutch painter, 1853 - 1890)
"I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs." - Frederick Douglass (American escaped slave, c. 1818 - 1895)
"I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother, and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine." - Charles Darwin (British naturalist, 1809 -1882)
"No man who ever lived knows any more about the hereafter ... than you and I; and all religion ... is simply evolved out of chicanery, fear, greed, imagination and poetry." - Edgar Allan Poe (American writer, 1809 - 1849)
"Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life." - Aristotle (Greek philosopher, 384 - 322 B.C.E.)
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan (American astronomer and author, 1934 - 1996)
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony (American civil rights leader, 1820 - 1906)
"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 (Portuguese explorer, c. 1480 - 1521)
"As people become more intelligent they care less for preachers and more for teachers." - Robert G. Ingersoll (American politician and orator, 1833 - 1899)
"No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means." - George Bernard Shaw (Irish playwright, 1856 - 1950)
"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness." - 14th Dalai Lama (Tibetan spiritual leader, 1935 - present)
"There is no god higher than truth." - Mahatma Gandhi (Indian spiritual, political, and civil rights leader, 1869 - 1948)
"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." - Albert Einstein (German-born Swiss-American theoretical physicist, 1879 - 1955)
"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." - Thomas Jefferson (3rd U.S. President and Founding Father, 1743 - 1826)
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." - Joseph Goebbels (German Nazi Minister of Propaganda, 1897 - 1945)
"History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help." - Robert A. Heinlein (American science fiction writer, 1907 - 1988)
"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet." - Napoleon Bonaparte (French military and political leader, 1769 - 1821)
"I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death." - George Carlin
"It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity." - Abraham Lincoln
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, & the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." - Karl Marx
“This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion it.” – John Adams
A knowledge of the true age of the earth and of the fossil record makes it impossible for any balanced intellect to believe in the literal truth of every part of the Bible in the way that fundamentalists do. Edward Abbey
"Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion." Edward Abbey
"Paradise is not a garden of bliss and changeless perfection where the lions lie down like lambs (what would they eat?) and the angels and cherubim and seraphim rotate in endless idiotic circles, like clockwork, about an equally inane and ludicrous -- however roseate -- unmoved mover. That particular painted fantasy of a realm beyond time and space which Aristotle and the church fathers tried to palm off on us has met, in modern times, only neglect and indifference passing on into oblivion it so richly deserved, while the paradise of which I write and wish to praise is with us yet, the the here and now, the actual, tangible, dogmatically real earth on which we stand." Edward Abbey
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