Positive Atheism Quotes - Page 9

• Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.

  Lord Acton

  Atheism, Sin, Liable

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• Any hope that America would finally grow up vanished with the rise of fundamentalist Christianity. Fundamentalism, with its born-again regression, its pink-and-gold concept of heaven, its literal-mindedness, its rambunctious good cheer... its anti-intellectualism... its puerile hymns... and its faith-healing... are made to order for King Kid America.

  Florence King

  Christian, Kings, Cheer

  Florence King (1990). “Reflections In A Jaundiced Eye”, p.33, Macmillan

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• Only among people who think no evil can Evil monstrously flourish.

  Logan Pearsall Smith

  Thinking, People, Evil

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• As you know, God is generally on the side of the big squadrons against the small ones.

  Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy

  God, Atheism, Sides

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• In the crowd, herd, or gang, it is a mass-mind that operates-which is to say, a mind without subtlety, a mind without compassion, a mind, finally, uncivilized.

  Robert M. Lindner

  Compassion, Mind, Atheism

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• God is man idealized.

  Amiri Baraka

  Men, Atheism

  Imamu Amiri Baraka (1966). “Home: Social Essays”, New York : Morrow

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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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• It turns out that the word atheism means much less than I had thought. It is merely the lack of theism.

  Dan Barker

  Mean, Atheism, Turns

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

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• Basic atheism is not a belief. It is the lack of belief. There is a difference between believing there is no god and not believing there is a god - both are atheistic, though popular usage has ignored the latter.

  Dan Barker

  Believe, Differences, Atheism

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

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• The orthodox faith painted God as a revengeful being, and yet people talk about loving such a being.

  P. T. Barnum

  People, Atheism, Orthodox

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• It has been asserted, that a moral Atheist would be a monster beyond the power of nature to create: I reply, that it is not more strange for an Atheist to live virtuously, than for a Christian to abandon himself to crime! If we believe the last kind of monster, why dispute the existence of the first?

  Pierre Bayle

  Christian, Atheist, Believe

  Pierre Bayle (1826). “An Historical and Critical Dictionary”, p.169

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• Consider, I pray, whether you are not renouncing all shame and sincerity to advance such principles. Because a comet appears in a group of stars which the ancients thought fit to call the Virgin, therefore, shall our women be barren, or have frequent miscarriages, or die old maids. I know of nothing which hangs so ill together! To offer such things in seriousness, shows the greatest contempt of mankind, and the most scandalous lying impunity.

  Pierre Bayle

  Stars, Lying, Miscarriage

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• So that, were it the purpose of God to produce comets as signs of his wrath it would be true to say that he is quickening a false devotion almost all over the world, increasing the number of pilgrims to Mecca, multiplying the offerings to the most famous impostors, inducing men to build mosques for Mohammedan worship, causing the invention of new superstitions among the dervishes - in a word, stimulating many abominable things which otherwise might not have been.

  Pierre Bayle

  Men, Offering, Numbers

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• I get up and retire when I wish. I go out if I wish and I do not go out if I do not desire to do so, except for the two days on which I give lectures.

  Pierre Bayle

  Two, Giving, Wish

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• Compulsion in the literal Sense is maliciously misrepresented, by supposing it authorizes Violences committed against the Truth. The Answer to this; by which it is prov'd, that the literal Sense does in reality authorize the stirring up Persecutions against the Cause of Truth, and that an erroneous Conscience has the same Rights as an enlighten'd Conscience.

  Pierre Bayle

  Reality, Rights, Atheism

  Pierre Bayle, John Kilcullen, Chandran Kukathas (2005). “A philosophical commentary on these words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23: "Compel them to come in, that My house may be full"”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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• Enough of acting the infant who has been told so often how he was found under a cabbage that in the end he remembers the exact spot in the garden and the kind of life he led there before joining the family circle.

  Samuel Beckett

  Garden, Circles, Atheism

  Samuel Beckett (2012). “The Unnamable”, p.33, Faber & Faber

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• One belief, more than any other, is responsible for the slaughter of individuals on the alter of the great historical ideas - justice or progress or happiness of future generations... or emancipation of a nation or race or class... this is the belief that somewhere... there is a final solution.

  Isaiah Berlin

  Race, Class, Ideas

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• This coarse and insulting way of regarding woman, as though they existed merely to be the safety-valves of men's passions, and that the best men were above the temptation of loving them, has been the source of unnumbered evils.

  Annie Besant

  Passion, Men, Safety

  Annie Besant (2012). “Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History”, p.200, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Hypothesis is a toll which can cause trouble if not used properly. We must be ready to abandon our hypothesis as soon as it is shown to be inconsistent with the facts.

  William Ian Beardmore Beveridge

  Atheism, Tolls, Causes

  William Ian Beardmore Beveridge (1950). “The Art of Scientific Investigation”

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• The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.

  Hugo Black

  Mean, Government, Law

  "Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1". Writing for the court, 1947.

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• Over our history there are always those who want to take this wall of separation and remove a brick here or there or damage it more than that. I think one has to be vigilant and constantly on the alert.

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Wall, Thinking, Atheism

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• By marriage the husband and wife are one person in law, that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during marriage.

  William Blackstone

  Husband, Law, Wife

  Sir William Blackstone, Edward Christian, John Frederick Archbold, Joseph Chitty (1827). “Commentaries on the Laws of England”, p.343

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• Theology is an attempt to explain a subject by men who do not understand it. The intent is not to tell the truth but to satisfy the questioner.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Men, Atheism, Telling The Truth

  Harry Persons Taber, Elbert Hubbard (1904). “The Philistine”

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• The Establishment Clause prohibits government from making adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community.

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  Government, Community, Political

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• This type of man who is devoted to the study of wisdom is always most unlucky in everything, and particularly when it comes to procreating children; I imagine this is because Nature wants to ensure that the evils of wisdom shall not spread further throughout mankind.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Education, Children, Learning

  Desiderius Erasmus (1986). “Literary and Educational Writings: Panegyricus and Philippum Austriaeducem. Moriae encomium. Dialogus Julius exclusus e coelis. Institutio principis christiani. Querela pacis”

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