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

70 Copy quote
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

32 Copy quote
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

42 Copy quote
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

28 Copy quote
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

40 Copy quote
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

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

Dan Barker

Real, Believe, Insanity

21 Copy quote
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

19 Copy quote
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

17 Copy quote
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

14 Copy quote
I am an atheist because there is no evidence for the existence of God. That should be all that needs to be said about it: no evidence, no belief.

Dan Barker

Atheist, Doubt, Religion

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

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

Dan Barker

Beauty, Garden, People

18 Copy quote
Prayer never changes the laws of nature.

Dan Barker

Prayer, Law, Atheism

9 Copy quote
Theology is a subject without an object

Dan Barker

Theology, Subjects, Objects

5 Copy quote
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

20 Copy quote
Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits. It is intellectual bankruptcy.

Dan Barker

Atheist, Taken, Religion

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

13 Copy quote
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

4 Copy quote
Some theists, observing that all 'effects' need a cause, assert that God is a cause but not an effect. But no one has ever observed an uncaused cause and simply inventing one merely assumes what the argument wishes to prove.

Dan Barker

Religion, Wish, Atheism

Dan Barker (2009). “Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists”, p.108, Ulysses Press

15 Copy quote
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

17 Copy quote
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

6 Copy quote
I'm proud to be an atheist - it helps me stand for so much more and fall for so much less.

Dan Barker

Atheist, Fall, Religion

16 Copy quote
In any open question, we should argue from what we do know to what we do not know. We do know that fervent legends and stubborn myths arise easily and naturally. We do not know that dead people rise from the grave.

Dan Barker

People, Religion, Stubborn

Dan Barker, Richard Dawkins (2008). “Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists”, p.299, Ulysses Press

7 Copy quote
Truth does not demand belief.

Dan Barker

Doe, Demand, Belief

3 Copy quote
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

9 Copy quote
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

7 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Annie Laurie Gaylor

Michael Shermer

Matt Dillahunty

Richard Dawkins

Richard Carrier

Dan Barker

Follow

Born: June 25, 1949
Occupation: Musician
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics