Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
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.
For good people to do evil things, it takes religion.
Atheism leads a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue.
Faith: not wanting to know what is true.
I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly.
It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
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?
The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike.
I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose.
I do not believe in god because I do not believe in Mother Goose.
To you I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition.
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.
I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.
Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.
An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death.
or simply:
