101 Atheist Quotes

[Scott Free]

101 Atheist Quotes

1. The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality. - George Bernard Shaw
2. Faith means not wanting to know what is true. - Friedrich Nietzsche
3. I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. - Frank Lloyd Wright
4. 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
5. To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today. - Isaac Asimov
6. A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows. - Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
7. Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. - Seneca the Younger
8. Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. - Anonymous
9. Not only is there no god, but try getting a plumber on weekends. - Woody Allen
10. If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul. - Isaac Asimov
11. Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination. - Edward Abbey
12. 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
13. I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence. - Doug McLeod
14. The world holds two classes of men - intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence. - Abu’l‐Ala al Ma’arri
15. Since the Bible and the church are obviously mistaken in telling us where we came from, how can we trust them to tell us where we are going? - Anonymous
16. 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
17. The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike. - Delos B. McKown
18. Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer. - Anonymous
19. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. - Francis Bacon
20. The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. - Richard Dawkins
21. A God who kept tinkering with the universe was absurd; a God who interfered with human freedom and creativity was tyrant. If God is seen as a self in a world of his own, an ego that relates to a thought, a cause separate from its effect. he becomes a being, not Being itself. Anomnipotent, all‐knowing tyrant is not so different from earthly dictators who make everything and everybody mere cogs in the machine which they controlled. An atheism that rejects such a God is amply justified. - Karen Armstrong
22. It is not as in the Bible, that God created man in his own image. But, on the contrary, man created God in his own image. - Ludwig Feuerbach
23. People ask me what I think about that woman priest thing. What, a woman priest? Women priests. Great, great. Now there’s priests of both sexes I don’t listen to. - Bill Hicks
24. All the biblical miracles will at last disappear with the progress of science. - Matthew Arnold
25. Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence. - Anonymous
26. Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one. - Richard Dawkins
27. What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof. - Christopher Hitchens
28. In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.
29. It will yet be the proud boast of women that they never contributed a line to the Bible. - George W. Foote
30. On the first day, man created God. - Anonymous
31. I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. - Stephen Roberts
32. You do not need the Bible to justify love, but no better tool has been invented to justify hate. - Richard A. Weatherwax
33. What’s “God”? Well, you know, when you want something really bad and you close your eyes and you wish for it? God’s the guy that ignores you. - Steve Buscemi (From the movie “The Island”)
34. As far as I can tell from studying the scriptures, all you do in heaven is pretty much just sit around all day and praise the Lord. I don’t know about you, but I think that after the first, oh, I don’t know, 50,000,000 years of that I’d start to get a little bored. - Rick Reynolds
35. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish. - Anonymous
36. Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color. - Don Hirschberg
37. God should be executed for crimes against humanity. - Bryan Emmanuel Gutierrez
38. To say that atheism requires faith is as dim-witted as saying that disbelief in pixies or leprechauns takes faith. Even if Einstein himself told me there was an elf on my shoulder, I would still ask for proof and I wouldn’t be wrong to ask. - Geoff Mather
39. I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. - Mark Twain
40. Of all religions the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men. - Voltaire
41. And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence. - Bertrand Russell
42. 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
43. I’m a polyatheist - there are many gods I don’t believe in. - Dan Fouts
44. If it turns out that there is a God, I don’t think that he’s evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever. - Woody Allen
45. A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it.
46. Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a God superior to themselves. Most Gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. - Robert A Heinlein
47. I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing. - Douglas Adams
48. It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. - Mark Twain
49. He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave. - William Drummond
50. Remember, Jesus would rather constantly shame gays than let orphans have a family. - Steven Colbert
51. Which is it, is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s? - Friedrich Nietzsche
52. Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people. - Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney
53. Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every stage of human history than any other single idea. - Anonymous
54. When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal and wholesome life. - Sigmund Freud
55. They felt that science would be corrosive to religious belief and they were worried about it. Damn it, I think they were right. It is corrosive to religious belief and it’s a good thing. - Steven Weinberg
56. Take from the church the miraculous, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the unknowable, the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains. - Robert G. Ingersoll
57. History teaches us that no other cause has brought more death than the word of god. - Giulian Buzila
58. Atheism is a non-prophet organization. - George Carlin
59. 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
60. A believer states everything must have a creator but fail to say how he was created. - Anonymous
61. “There are no atheists in foxholes” isn’t an argument against atheism, it’s an argument against foxholes. - James Morrow
62. People will then often say, ‘But surely it’s better to remain an Agnostic just in case?’ This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I’ve been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would choose not to worship him anyway.) - Douglas Adams
63. Properly read, the bible is the most potent force for Atheism ever conceived. - Isaac Asimov
64. If all the Christians who have called other Christians “not really a Christian” were to vanish, there’d be no Christians left. - Anonymous
65. An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support. - John Buchan
66. Gods dont kill people. People with Gods kill people. - David Viaene
67. If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which He has inflicted upon men, He would kill Himself. - Alexandre Dumas
68. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. - Sam Harris
69. I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose - Clarence Darrow
70. No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism. - Annie Wood Besant
71. I refuse to believe in a god who is the primary cause of conflict in the world, preaches racism, sexism, homophobia, and ignorance, and then sends me to hell if I’m ‘bad’. - Mike Fuhrman
72. Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. - Frater Ravus
73. 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
74. Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power but absolute power is corrupt only in the hands of the absolutely faithful. - Anonymous
75. Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense. - Chapman Cohen
76. The inspiration of the bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it. - Robert G. Ingersoll
77. When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion. - Robert Pirsig
78. I wonder who got the **** job of scouring the planet for the 15000 species of butterfly or the 8800 species of ant they eventually took on board Noah’s Ark. But at least we got that magical rainbow for all their trouble. - Azura Skye
79. I have no need for religion, I have a conscience. - Anonymous
80. Man has always required an explanation for all of those things in the world he did not understand. If an explanation was not available, he created one.
81. I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. - Richard Dawkins
82. What has been Christianity’s fruits? Superstition, Bigotry and Persecution.
83. The characters and events depicted in the damn bible are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. - Penn and Teller
84. If god is the alpha and the omega. The begining and the end, knows what has passed and what is to come, like it states in the bible, why do people pray and think it will make any difference. - Mark Fairclough
85. The finality of death is the coldest truth one must face. Religion makes the perfect distraction. - Anonymous
86. Religion is the opiate of the masses. - Karl Marx
87. If God created the world, then who created god? and who created whoever created god? So somewhere along the line something had to just be there. So why can’t we just skip the idea of god and go straight to earth? - Ryan Hanson
88. If we expect God to subscribe to one religion at the exclusion of all the others, then we should expect damnation as a matter of chance. This should give Christians pause when expounding their religious beliefs, but it does not. - Sam Harris
89. Atheists will celebrate life, while you’re in church celebrating death. - Anonymous
90. Animals do not have gods, they are smarter than that. - Ronnie Snow
91. I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever. - Daniel Boorstin
92. I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God. So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake… Religion is all bunk. - Thomas Edison
93. Fundamentalism, of any type, due to its prerequisite lack of intelligent thought, could prove to be the worst weapon of mass destruction, of all. - David J. Constable
94. To really be free, You need to be free in the mind. - Alexander Loutsis
95. Most religions prophecy the end of the world and then consistently work together to ensure that these prophecies come true. - Anonymous
96. Jesus hardly made the greatest sacrifice. He knew he would be resurrected anyway. - Anonymous
97. Religion is like a virus that affects the behaviour of its host in such a way as to propagate itself further. - Jack Pritchard
98. Religions are like pills, which must be swallowed whole without chewing. - Anonymous
99. Today’s religion will be the future’s mythology. Both believed at one time by many; but proved wrong by the clever. - Steven Crocker
100. The Bible - A Fairytale book of rules brainwashing millions. Obliviously used to help create war, kill, hate, judge and discriminate. - Anonymous
101. Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? - Douglas Adams

 

[L Gilbert]

hehe I have a collection somewhat like that somewhere in my pc.
If religious people were reasonable about faith, there wouldn't be any religious people. (I paraphrased something I heard in the show "House". Mostly because I can't remember what was actually said).

 

[diamond lady]

I have got one too

‘’A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic
Can put out the sun by scribbling the word darkness on the walls of his cell (C.S lewis)

 

[talloola]

I have got one too

‘’A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic
Can put out the sun by scribbling the word darkness on the walls of his cell (C.S lewis)

Then, give me an honest answer, how can someone worship and believe in God, when
they 'don't', and still be true to oneself.

 

[diamond lady]

It is impossible to be true to yourself, if you’re not true to your Creator first
To deny God is to deny yourself

 

[Nuggler]

I have got one too

‘’A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic
Can put out the sun by scribbling the word darkness on the walls of his cell (C.S lewis)

............And it would be the typical religious response to lunacy, to put someone in a cell, instead of giving them treatment and hope.

:angry3:

 

[FUBAR]

It is impossible to be true to yourself, if you’re not true to your Creator first
To deny God is to deny yourself

But whose God? If you believe in one God you also have to believe in everyone else's God, and God didn't create me--my parents did........:-?

 

[darkbeaver]

It is impossible to be true to yourself, if you’re not true to your Creator first
To deny God is to deny yourself

It's impossible to be true to yourself if you're not familiar with the true creator. God (the one) does not allow self denial, ever.

 

[talloola]

It is impossible to be true to yourself, if you’re not true to your Creator first
To deny God is to deny yourself

But that tells me 'nothing', for it is just your opinion, not a fact.
I am not going to become a slave to someone else's beliefs, out of guilt,
I will live my life with a comfortable knowledge within myself, that I am in
balance with my earth, and not in search of unproven entities.

 

[Scott Free]

My God, I love thee! Not because
I hope for heaven thereby;
Nor because those who love thee not
Must burn eternally.

- excerpt from My God, I Love Thee by ST. Francis Xavier

I would argue that this poet has hit the nail on the head, though he denies it, for the motivating force behind belief (at least in Christianity). It is exactly fear of punishment and hope for reward that pushes the believer onward in their delusion. This is why it is best to start religious training early, in childhood, while the mind is still open to the concept of boogie men and monsters; for that is all god is: a phantasm of childhood anxiety. The idea terrifies the initiated (and surely Satan helps me type this) but to the fully formed adult with a good understanding of history it is readily apparent who the real boogie men are and who their king is.

 

[karrie]

I would argue that this poet has hit the nail on the head, though he denies it, for the motivating force behind belief (at least in Christianity). It is exactly fear of punishment and hope for reward that pushes the believer onward in their delusion. This is why it is best to start religious training early, in childhood, while the mind is still open to the concept of boogie men and monsters; for that is all god is: a phantasm of childhood anxiety. The idea terrifies the initiated (and surely Satan helps me type this) but to the fully formed adult with a good understanding of history it is readily apparent who the real boogie men are and who their king is.

Your view is just as zealous and hysterical as the zealots on the other side of the issue. Life comes in a much wider variety of people than you seem to recognize. Not everyone fits into the black and white, polarized view you seem to have

 

[darkbeaver]

My God, I love thee! Not because
I hope for heaven thereby;
Nor because those who love thee not
Must burn eternally.

- excerpt from My God, I Love Thee by ST. Francis Xavier

I would argue that this poet has hit the nail on the head, though he denies it, for the motivating force behind belief (at least in Christianity). It is exactly fear of punishment and hope for reward that pushes the believer onward in their delusion. This is why it is best to start religious training early, in childhood, while the mind is still open to the concept of boogie men and monsters; for that is all god is: a phantasm of childhood anxiety. The idea terrifies the initiated (and surely Satan helps me type this) but to the fully formed adult with a good understanding of history it is readily apparent who the real boogie men are and who their king is.

What they do to the little ones with thier bull**** really makes me angry. I think it's a crime myself to allow children to be dipped in that well. I remember the crap I went through for awhile when I was young, they use fear of god to instill love of god and that is as sick as you can get.

 

[Scott Free]

Your view is just as zealous and hysterical as the zealots on the other side of the issue.

Not actually. I have been on both sides of the fence. There is a difference.

Life comes in a much wider variety of people than you seem to recognize.

I realize some people aren't able to look at the evidence and to them it might seem like an inability to accept their superstitions as real (and I don't) is a flaw in me, however, being superstitious is the bigger flaw.

Not everyone fits into the black and white, polarized view you seem to have

No, they do.

If someone wants to break out of my "polarized view" then it's easy enough to do; they need only prove themselves right. So, if there is a god, show it to me; if your prayers work demonstrate it, if your god is real that shouldn't be so hard.

If you hope that I will show mercy on your superstitions and pretend for your benefit that they are real then, I'm sorry to say, your completely out of luck. I will not do that. Enough is enough and the fear mongering has to stop.

Don't assume I am so inflexible only because you can't make a convincing argument to dissuade me of a notion.

You need only show one demonstrative shred of evidence that god is real - just one. I don't think that is very inflexible.

 

[karrie]

You need only show one demonstrative shred of evidence that god is real - just one. I don't think that is very inflexible.

You know darn well that trying to prove the existence of something we don't understand, can't comprehend, is impossible. Where you seem lost is to the fact that there are many people out there seeking god who won't bother to even try to defend religion. The two... the existence of god, and whether or not religion is correct about god... are two different subjects. Proving that religions are flawed proves only that. It doesn't give you a scientific basis for explaining whether or not there is a noncorporeal energy in this world that people perceive as god. That's where you come off as highly inflexible and biased, yes. You attack the whole thing from the highly emotionally charged view of religion. You spend your time tearing down and criticizing religion. And all the while you ignore the actual root of the larger question. Black and white. Walk into the grey and you'll find a place where one can separate the two, recognize the roots of religion and their human birth, and also explore the question of what sparks a concept of god in almost every culture under the sun.

 

[Scott Free]

What they do to the little ones with thier bull**** really makes me angry. I think it's a crime myself to allow children to be dipped in that well. I remember the crap I went through for awhile when I was young, they use fear of god to instill love of god and that is as sick as you can get.

I agree. To this day I find myself inadvertently wondering (a leaned childhood reflexive action) if that monster god can hear me, or if a bad thing is his icy work meant to punish me. My reactions were put there in me through a deliberate process of child abuse. I do not blame my parents since the same was done to them and they only did what they thought was right.

Who I blame are the architects of these cults. The original founders who meant to claim authority by nearness to god; to usurp my liberty and replace it with their authority. How great mankind might have been without their cancer? It boggles the mind to contemplate.

 

[Scott Free]

You know darn well that trying to prove the existence of something we don't understand, can't comprehend, is impossible. Where you seem lost is to the fact that there are many people out there seeking god who won't bother to even try to defend religion. The two... the existence of god, and whether or not religion is correct about god... are two different subjects. Proving that religions are flawed proves only that. It doesn't give you a scientific basis for explaining whether or not there is a noncorporeal energy in this world that people perceive as god. That's where you come off as highly inflexible and biased, yes. You attack the whole thing from the highly emotionally charged view of religion. You spend your time tearing down and criticizing religion. And all the while you ignore the actual root of the larger question. Black and white. Walk into the grey and you'll find a place where one can separate the two, recognize the roots of religion and their human birth, and also explore the question of what sparks a concept of god in almost every culture under the sun.

I'm not sure exactly what it is you think I'm railing against. I'm not even sure what it is you think I'm saying.

I will say, however, that if such a thing is so impossible to prove then do not try and claim some authority by it. You have none and the fact I recognize that launches zealots into a frenzy - but that is the reality regardless of how much they might froth at the mouth: they have no authority. They are superstitious little children.

 

[karrie]

I'm not sure exactly what it is you think I'm railing against. I'm not even sure what it is you think I'm saying.

I will say, however, that if such a thing is so impossible to prove then do not try and claim some authority by it. You have none and the fact I recognize that launches zealots into a frenzy - but that is the reality regardless of how much they might froth at the mouth: they have no authority.

Your post made a lot of statements lumping anyone of belief into one wide category Scoot. Both your OP quotes, and your assertions about belief in response to that poem. You present a very black and white view. The believer and the non. And the believer you lump into a pretty fanatical position with a very dark motivation. I'm merely pointing out that, no, not all beleivers are the same.

 

[Scott Free]

Your post made a lot of statements lumping anyone of belief into one wide category Scoot. Both your OP quotes, and your assertions about belief in response to that poem. You present a very black and white view. The believer and the non. And the believer you lump into a pretty fanatical position with a very dark motivation. I'm merely pointing out that, no, not all beleivers are the same.

The dark motivation I ascribe to them is for their fear mongering and other threats meant to coerce my compliance and usurp my liberty for their authority. I could give a rats ass if it is done nicely, for my benefit or out of love for me - it is a crime and a crime of the highest order!

That is the most evil and heinous thing anyone can do IMO; that is take liberty away. It is the fountainhead of all crime. And here (religion) we are led to believe that god is the greatest of criminals.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

You know darn well that trying to prove the existence of something we don't understand, can't comprehend, is impossible.

I know you weren't talking to me with that, but that phrase, "we don't understand, can't comprehend," seems to me to be one of the major stumbling blocks in any discussion of this sort. The burden of that remark seems to me to be that god is so different from us that we can't possibly understand anything about him, he's so far beyond the reach of our limited comprehension. Maybe so, but to me that renders the whole idea of god and all the things that follow from belief in him and his presumed characteristics completely incoherent. If we can't really comprehend anything about his nature and purposes, how can we even tell whether he's actually good or not, or know anything for sure about him at all, including the key question of his existence? He might be perfectly evil for all we know, we'd have no way of knowing.

A second stumbling block, or at least it's always been so for me, is the fact that there's so much room for doubt about whether he exists at all. He could easily remove all doubt if he wanted to, being who he is, but evidently he chooses not to, and relies on faith instead. Granting for the sake of argument that he exists, all religious traditions I know anything about say that human intelligence and the capacity for reason and logic are gifts he gave us to help us along in this world. But on the crucial question of his existence, he insists we not use them, we should instead just believe without evidence. Doubting Thomas, for example, is presented in the New Testament as a fool for insisting on evidence that Christ had risen, the other disciples were lauded for taking it on faith. The logic of that escapes me. I think Thomas was the only smart one there, faced with an extraordinary claim like that.

It further seems to me that "don't understand, can't comprehend," can't possibly be true. If we're to have any sort of relationship with god, he must make himself understandable and comprehensible to us on some level, and in that context I think we're entitled to expect certain standards of behaviour from him, which in my view he manifestly fails to meet. The problem of evil, for instance (refer to point #42 in the OP) has engaged many minds throughout human history, without resolution. The suffering of the innocents similarly remains unexplained. Ever been in a children's cancer ward? Not an experience I care to repeat. God, if he exists, doesn't appear to behave even as well as we'd expect an ordinarily moral and compassionate person to behave. If he exists, he does not have the characteristics most religious traditions ascribe to him, but really, to me the world makes much better sense if I just reject the hypothesis that he does. Which I do.

 

[darkbeaver]

Why do you refer to god as he? For men it seems to be natural but for women it seems to me to be a remnant of the paternalistic model.