Positive Atheism Quotes - Page 6

• I think it's a bit excessive.

  Stephen Reinhardt

  Thinking, Atheism, Bits

  "Pledge of Allegiance Judges Facing Demonstrators at Courthouse". www.foxnews.com. July 17, 2002.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Agnostics are people who, like myself, confess themselves to be hopelessly ignorant concerning a variety of matters, about which metaphysicians and theologians, both orthodox and heterodox, dogmatize with the utmost confidence.

  Herbert Spencer

  People, Ignorant, Atheism

  15 Copy quote

• Through inculcating the notion that sacrifice is a virtue, Christianity has succeeded in convincing many people that misery incurred through sacrifice is a mark of virtue. Pain becomes the inignia of morality - and conversely, pleasure becomes the insignia of immorality. Christianity, therefore, does not say, "Go forth and be miserable." Rather, it says, "Go forth and practice the virtue of self-sacrifice." In practical terms, these commands are identical.

  George H. Smith

  Pain, Sacrifice, Practice

  4 Copy quote

• We know that there is no absolute knowledge, that there are only theories; but we forget this. The better educated we are, the harder we believe in axioms.

  Lincoln Steffens

  Believe, Atheism, Forget

  Lincoln Steffens (1931). “The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens”, p.816, Heyday

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Poor humanity, to saddle the gods with such a responsibility and throw in a vindictive temper. What griefs they hatch for themselves, what festering sores for us, what tears for our prosperity! This is not piety, this oft-repeated show of bowing a veiled head before a graven image; this bustling to every altar; this kow-towing and prostration on the ground with palms outspread before the shrines of the gods; this deluging of vow on vow. True piety lies rather in the power to contemplate the universe with a quiet mind.

  Lucretius

  Lying, Grief, Responsibility

  31 Copy quote

• The argument from design is ultimately an appeal to miraculous causes, i.e., causes that do not, and cannot, occur in the natural course of events. This is why an explanation via design is not a legitimate alternative to scientific and other naturalistic modes of explanation. To refer to a miraculous cause is to refer to something that is inherently unknowable, and this sanctuary of ignorance explains nothing at all. However much it may soothe the imagination of the ignorant, it does nothing to satisfy the understanding of a rational person.

  George H. Smith

  Ignorance, Imagination, Design

  George H. Smith (2000). “Why Atheism?”, Pyr Books

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• My colleague Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican, erroneously suggested that I support the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. That simply is not true. ... Unlike biological evolution, intelligent design is not a genuine scientific theory and, therefore, has no place in the curriculum of our nation's public school science classes.

  Edward Kennedy

  Teaching, School, Intelligent

  6 Copy quote

• But if you will recall the history of our civil troubles, you will see half the nation bathe itself, out of piety, in the blood of the other half, and violate the fundamental feelings of humanity in order to sustain the cause of God: as though it were necessary to cease to be a man in order to prove oneself religious!

  Denis Diderot

  Religious, Men, Blood

  18 Copy quote

• Believing in Hell must distort every judgement on this life.

  Cyril Connolly

  Believe, Judgement, Atheism

  6 Copy quote

• Perhaps God chose me to be an atheist?

  Bill Vaughan

  Atheist, Atheism

  4 Copy quote

• Children are the greatest sufferers from outgrown theologies.

  Luther Burbank

  Children, Theology, Sufferers

  Luther Burbank (1927). “My Beliefs”

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The finger of God never leaves identical fingerprints.

  Bill Vaughan

  God, Atheism, Fingerprints

  8 Copy quote

• Religions are like pills, which must be swallowed whole without chewing.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Atheist, Atheism, Pills

  98 Copy quote

• Of the six men who have done most to make America the wonder and the joy she is to all of us, not one could be the citizen of a government so constituted; for Washington and Franklin and Jefferson, certainly the three mightiest leaders in our early history, were heretics in their day, Deists, as men called them; and Garrison and Lincoln and Sumner, certainly the three mightiest in these later times, would all be disfranchised by the proposed amendment. Lincoln could not have taken the oath of office had such a clause been in the Constitution.

  John Chadwick

  Taken, Men, Oath Of Office

  6 Copy quote

• It is when we are in misery that we revere the gods; the prosperous seldom approach the altar.

  Silius Italicus

  Atheism, Misery, Approach

  4 Copy quote

• Silence is sometimes an argument of Consent.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Silence, Atheism, Argument

  Thomas Hobbes, Richard Tuck (1996). “Hobbes: Leviathan: Revised Student Edition”, p.184, Cambridge University Press

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• One religion after another has accepted and perpetuated man's original mistake in making a private servant of the mother of the race.

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  Mother, Mistake, Men

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman (2003). “His Religion and Hers: A Study of the Faith of Our Fathers and the Work of Our Mothers”, p.217, Rowman Altamira

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• They are looking in utter darkness for that which has no existence whatsoever.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Darkness, Atheism, Existence

  5 Copy quote

• A little Religion, and a little Honesty, goes a great way in Courts.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Honesty, Atheism, Littles

  Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson (2003). “A Benjamin Franklin Reader”, p.22, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Let no more gods or exploiters be served Let us learn rather to love one another.

  Francesc Ferrer i Guardia

  Atheism, Love One Another

  10 Copy quote

• Beyond the grave they will find nothing but death. But we shall keep the secret, and for their happiness we shall allure them with the reward of heaven and eternity.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Heaven, Secret, Atheism

  Fyodor Dostoevsky (1981). “Grand Inquisitor”, p.17, A&C Black

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Intolerance has always been one of the cornerstones of Christianity - the glorious heritage of the Inquisition.

  Madalyn Murray O'Hair

  Atheism, Heritage, Christianity

  13 Copy quote

• Like many people, I have no religion, and I am just sitting in a small boat drifting with the tide. I live in the doubts of my duty.... I think there is dignity in this, just to go on working.... Today we stand naked, defenseless, and more alone than at any time in history. We are waiting for something, perhaps another miracle, perhaps the Martians. Who knows?

  Federico Fellini

  Thinking, People, Waiting

  34 Copy quote

• The absolute nothingness of death is a blessing. Something to look forward to.

  Quentin Crisp

  Blessing, Atheism, Looks

  9 Copy quote

• I feel like I am not an American in the eyes of my government because of their religious beliefs. I think that is un-American.

  Michael Newdow

  Religious, Eye, Thinking

  5 Copy quote