Dan Barker Quotes

Quotes about:

Atheism Atheist Authority Belief Bible Christianity Compassion

I do understand what love is, and that is one of the reasons I can never again be a Christian. Love is not self denial. Love is not blood and suffering. Love is not murdering your son to appease your own vanity. Love is not hatred or wrath, consigning billions of people to eternal torture because they have offended your ego or disobeyed your rules. Love is not obedience, conformity, or submission. It is a counterfeit love that is contingent upon authority, punishment, or reward. True love is respect and admiration, compassion and kindness, freely given by a healthy, unafraid human being.

Dan Barker

Love, God, Christian

Dan Barker (2009). “Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists”, p.89, Ulysses Press

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Asking, ‘If there is no God, what is the purpose of life?’ is like asking, ‘If there is no master, whose slave will I be?’ If your purpose of life is to submit as a slave, then your meaning comes from flattering the ego of a person whom you should detest.

Dan Barker

Ego, Life Is Like, Purpose

Dan Barker (2011). “The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-filled Life Without God”, p.29, Ulysses Press

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Scientists do not join hands every Sunday and sing "Yes gravity is real! I know gravity is real! I will have faith! I believe in my heart that what goes up, up, up must come down, down, down. Amen!" If they did, we would think they were pretty insecure about the concept.

Dan Barker

Faith, Atheist, Real

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There is no evidence for a god, no coherent definition of a god, no good argument for a god, good positive arguments against a god, no agreement among believers about the nature or moral principles of a god, and no need for a god. We can live happy, moral, productive lives without such belief, and we can do it better.

Dan Barker

Agreement, Productive Life, Religion

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I have something to say to the religionist who feels atheists never say anything positive: You are an intelligent human being. Your life is valuable for its own sake. You are not second-class in the universe, deriving meaning and purpose from some other mind. You are not inherently evil—you are inherently human, possessing the positive rational potential to help make this a world of morality, peace and joy. Trust yourself.

Dan Barker

Atheist, Intelligent, Class

Dan Barker (1992). “Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist”, Freedom from Religion Fndtn

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The very concept of sin comes from the Bible. Christianity offers to solve a problem of its own making! Would you be thankful to a person who cut you with a knife in order to sell you a bandage?

Dan Barker

Bible, Fear, Cutting

Dan Barker (1992). “Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist”, Freedom from Religion Fndtn

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Insanity is believing your hallucinations are real. Religion is believing that other peoples' hallucinations are real.

Dan Barker

Real, Believe, Insanity

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All you have to do is walk into any children's hospital and you know there is no God. Prayer doesn't make any difference. Those people pray for their beloved children to live and they die.

Dan Barker

Prayer, Children, Differences

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You can cite a hundred references to show that the biblical God is a bloodthirsty tyrant, but if they can dig up two or three verses that say "God is love" they will claim that you are taking things out of context!

Dan Barker

Bible, Biblical, Tyrants

Dan Barker (1992). “Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist”, Freedom from Religion Fndtn

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Truth does not demand belief.

Dan Barker

Doe, Demand, Belief

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People are always asking, "What's the purpose of life?" That's easy. Relieve suffering. Create beauty. Make gardens.

Dan Barker

Beauty, Garden, People

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There is not a single contemporary historical mention of Jesus, not by Romans or by Jews, not by believers or by unbelievers, during his entire lifetime. This does not disprove his existence, but it certainly casts great doubt on the historicity of a man who was supposedly widely known to have made a great impact on the world. Someone should have noticed.

Dan Barker

Jesus, Men, Should Have

Dan Barker (1992). “Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist”, Freedom from Religion Fndtn

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Love is not obedience, conformity, or submission. It is a counterfeit love that is contingent upon authority, punishment, or reward. True love is respect and admiration, compassion and kindness, freely given by a healthy, unafraid human being.

Dan Barker

Love, Dream, Kindness

Dan Barker (2009). “Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists”, p.88, Ulysses Press

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If faith is a valid tool of knowledge, then anything can be true 'by faith,' and therefore nothing is true. If the only reason you can accept a claim is by faith, then you are admitting that the claim does not stand on its own merits.

Dan Barker

Religion, Atheism, Admitting

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Not thinking critically, I assumed that the successful prayers were proof that God answers prayer while the failures were proof that there was something wrong with me.

Dan Barker

Prayer, Successful, Thinking

Dan Barker (1992). “Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist”, Freedom from Religion Fndtn

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Isn't atheism just another religion?' No, it isn't. Atheism has no creeds, rituals, holy book, absolute moral code, origin myth, sacred spaces or shrines. It has no sin, divine judgment, forbidden words, prayer, worship, prophecy, group privileges, or anointed 'holy' leaders. Atheists don't believe in a transcendent world or supernatural afterlife. Most important, there is no orthodoxy in atheism.

Dan Barker

Atheist, Prayer, Book

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To think that the ruler of the universe will run to my assistance and bend the laws of nature for me is the height of arrogance.

Dan Barker

Running, Prayer, Thinking

Dan Barker (1992). “Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist”, Freedom from Religion Fndtn

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There are many gods which Christians reject. I just believe in one less god then they do. The reasons that you might give for your atheism toward the Roman gods are likely the same reasons I would give for not believing in Jesus.

Dan Barker

God, Christian, Jesus

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If the answers to prayer are merely what God wills all along, then why pray?

Dan Barker

Prayer, Fear, Atheism

Dan Barker (1992). “Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist”, Freedom from Religion Fndtn

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Theology is a subject without an object

Dan Barker

Theology, Subjects, Objects

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Freethinkers reject faith as a valid tool of knowledge. Faith is the opposite of reason because reason imposes very strict limits on what can be true, and faith has no limits at all. A Great Escape into faith is no retreat to safety. It is nothing less than surrender.

Dan Barker

Fear, Opposites, Safety

Dan Barker (1992). “Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist”, Freedom from Religion Fndtn

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If the Prodigal Son's a parable, and if Adam and Eve are metaphors, then maybe God is just figure of speech.

Dan Barker

Son, Atheism, Speech

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Faith is not the result of fuzy thinking. It is the cause of it.

Dan Barker

Faith, Thinking, Causes

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Without "The Law of Moses" would we all be wandering around like little gods, stealing, raping, and spilling blood whenever our vanity was offended?

Dan Barker

Fear, Vanity, Blood

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It is a fact of history and of current events that human beings exaggerate, misinterpret, or wrongly remember events. They have also fabricated pious fraud. Most believers in a religion understand this when examining the claims of other religions.

Dan Barker

Religion, Atheism, Current Events

Dan Barker (2009). “Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists”, p.248, Ulysses Press

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Born: June 25, 1949
Occupation: Musician
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