Thank God for Atheists

“The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.”

“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 religion than it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.”

“All thinking men are atheists.”

“Religion is a byproduct of fear. For much of human history, it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? Isn’t killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?”

“I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies.”

“Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.”

“I’m glad some people have that faith. I don’t have that faith. If there is a God, a caring God, then we have to figure he’s done an extraordinary job of making a very cruel world.”

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

“Religions vary in their degree of idiocy, but I reject them all. For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain.”

“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.”

“There is so much in the bible against which every insinct of my being rebels, so much so that I regret the necessity which has compelled me to read it through from beginning to end. I do not think that the knowledge I have gained of its history and sources compensates me for the unpleasant details it has forced upon my attention.”

“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.”

“During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.”

“I credit that eight years of grammar school with nourishing me in a direction where I could trust myself and trust my instincts. They gave me the tools to reject my faith. They taught me to question and think for myself and to believe in my instincts to such an extent that I just said, ‘This is a wonderful fairy tale they have going here, but it’s not for me.’” (New York Times, August 20, 1995)

“Faith means not wanting to know what is true.”

“So long as the priest, that professional negator, slanderer and poisoner of life, is regarded as a superior type of human being, there cannot be any answer to the question: What is truth?”

“Where do we find a precept in the Bible for Creeds, Confessions, Doctrines and Oaths, and whole carloads of other trumpery that we find religion encumbered with in these days?”

“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.”

“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.”

“To regard Christ as God, and to pray to him, are to my mind the greatest possible sacrilege.”

“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.”

“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”

“All religions have been made by men.”

“I turned to speak to God, About the world’s despair; But to make bad matters worse, I found God wasn’t there.” (Poem: “Not All There”)

“Forgive, O Lord, my little joke on Thee and I’ll forgive Thy great big one on me.”

“I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.”

“I was born a heretic. I always distrust people who know so much about what God wants them to do to their fellows.”