Gene Roddenberry
“I condemn false prophets, I condemn the effort to take away the power of rational decision, to drain people of their free will–and a hell of a lot of money in the bargain. 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.”
-Gene Roddenberry, Creator of Star Trek (1921-1991).
George Bernard Shaw
“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.”
“At present there is not a single credible established religion in the world.”
- George Bernard Shaw, Irish-born English playwright (1856-1950).
Arthur Rubenstein, Polish-American pianist (1886-1982).
During a radio interview with Rubenstein the conversation took a sharp turn away from music when the interviewer suddeenly asked, “Mr. Rubenstein, do you believe in God?” Rubenstein calmly replied, “No. You see, what I believe in is something much greater.”
Gloria Steinam
“By the year 2000, we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God.”
“It’s an incredible con job when you think of it, to believe something now in exchange for life after death. Even corporations with all their reward systems don’t try to make it posthumous.”
-Gloria Steinam, women’s rights activist
Helen Keller
“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.”
-Helen Keller, American lecturer
James Madison
.. ,
American president and political theorist (1751-1836).
“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, Famous Atheist & Quotessuperstition, bigotry, and persecution.”
“In no instance have . . . the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.”
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.”
“What influence in fact have Christian ecclesiastical establishments had on civil society? In many instances they have been upholding the thrones of political tyranny. In no instance have they been seen as the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty have found in the clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy.”
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.”
-John Adams,
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U.S. President, Founding Father of the United States
“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.”
John Stuart Mill
“The time appears to me to have come when it is the duty of all to make their dissent from religion known.”
- John Stuart Mill, English philosopher and economist (1806-1873). Freethinker, if not strictly atheist.
Karl Marx
“The wretchedness of religion is at once an expression and a protest against real wretchedness. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the feeling of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of unspiritual conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
“The social principles of Christianity preach cowardice, self-contempt, abasement, submission, humility, in a word all the qualities of the canaille.”
- Karl Marx, German political philosopher and economist (1818-1883).
Leo Tolstoy
“To regard Christ as God, and to pray to him, are to my mind the greatest possible sacrilege.”
-Leo Tolstoy,
Russian revolutionary
Marilyn Manson
>“Who wants to go to Heaven with all those asshole angels?”
-Marilyn Manson, American rock musician
Kurt Vonnegut
“Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile.”
-Kurt Vonnegut, American author
Napoleon Bonaparte
“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.”
-Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor
Dr. James Watson
“I don’t think we’re here for anything, we’re just products of evolution. You can say ‘Gee, your life must be pretty bleak if you don’t think there’s a purpose’ but I’m anticipating a good lunch.”
-Dr. James Watson, American biologist, (Discoverer of DNA.)
Jawaharlal Nehru,
Indian statesman (1889-1964).
A self-professed atheist, he said of India, “No country or people who are slaves to dogma and dogmatic mentality can progress.” [Key Ideas in Human Thought]
James Joyce,
Irish author (1882-1941).
Joyce rejected Catholicism and indeed all religion when he was a young man (as portrayed in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man). He considered Catholicism to be “black magic”, and deplored its anti-individuality. “For me there is ony one alternative to scholasticism, scepticism.” He also rejected the church’s moralizing, etc. etc.
Henry Louis “H.L.” Mencken, American editor and critic (1880-1956).
“We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the same sense and to the same extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.”
Religion is “so absurd that it comes close to imbecility.” ["Treatise on the Gods"]
“Since the early days, [the church] has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was an apologist for the divine right of kings.”
“Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. . . . A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the capacity for clear and realistic thought. He is not a mere ass: he is actually ill.”
“God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos; He will set them above their betters.” [from the alt.quotations archive, found from http://www.starlingtech.com/quotes/search.html]
“Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration–courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth.” [1925]
“Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.”
“For centuries, theologians have attempted to explain the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.”
“The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.”
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John Lennon,
British musician (1940-1980).
Lennon rejected religion and dogma, but he was not really an atheist – he espoused a sort of vague spirituality.
From the song “Imagine”
“Imagine there’s no heaven, It’s easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky, imagine all the people Living for today. . .
Imagine there’s no countries, It isn’t hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, No religion too .”
From the song, “God,”
“God is a concept By which we measure Our pain
I don’t believe in magic
I don’t believe in I-Ching
I don’t believe in Bible
I don’t believe in Tarot
I don’t believe in Hitler
I don’t believe in Jesus”
And, from the song, “I Found Out”
“There ain’t no Jesus gonna come from the sky Now that I found out I know I can cry, I found out! “
August 15, 2007 at 7:09 am
Evansville, Indiana Attorneys – Kahn, Dees, Donovan & Kahn, LLP
Useful, thank you!
September 11, 2008 at 1:33 pm
The second coming of God is at hand. Take heed and make note. “God has returned”. The great Schism continues to separate his children. He has returned to put the pieces of the fallen Church back together. A number of you have been deceived by the Romans. God is going to tell you where they have deceived you.
September 11, 2008 at 1:38 pm
One comment on your site. I think you did an excellent job in putting a number of quotes together. They all have merit. God also said that Good Atheists go to Heaven. Bad Christians can go to Hell. Heaven, Hell and Death are one of the few things the Romans were right about.