Favorite Quotes about Atheism, Agnosticism, And Religion

[M.Linoge]

[M.Linoge]

[Free]

“Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.”
-C.S. Lewis

Trusting whether or not your thoughts are true has nothing to do with belief or non belief in the existence of a god. How would belief in a god change that?

[Alan V]

“Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.”
-C.S. Lewis

Trusting whether or not your thoughts are true has nothing to do with belief or non belief in the existence of a god. How would belief in a god change that?

C.S. Lewis believed evolution could not have designed brains for the purpose of thinking?  How in the world could he have come up with that idea, except by jumping to an unwarranted conclusion himself?  So much for "trusting your thinking."

[Phaedrus]

C.S. Lewis' mind was fully immersed in the world of fiction.

[Gwaithmir]

“Of all the animosities that have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiment in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated.” (George Washington) 

[SYZ]

C.S. Lewis' mind was fully immersed in the world of fiction.

He was also a fallen atheist. At age 31 he renounced his atheism and converted
to Christianity, admitting that "God was God, and knelt and prayed." What then
followed, until his death, was a 30-year stream of books on Christian apologetics.

[Gwaithmir]

C.S. Lewis' mind was fully immersed in the world of fiction.

He was also a fallen atheist.  At age 31 he renounced his atheism and converted
to Christianity, admitting that "God was God, and knelt and prayed."   What then
followed, until his death, was a 30-year stream of books on Christian apologetics.

I don't believe that Lewis was ever genuinely an atheist. Having read his book Surprised by Joy, it seems more likely to me that he called himself an atheist because it was fashionable among the crowd of writers and thinkers he associated himself with at the time. 

[Old Man Marsh]

"Religion is the opium of the masses."
-Jesus

[Gwaithmir]

"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." (Thomas Jefferson) 

[Gwaithmir]

"Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me—the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love—He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us—nature did it all—not the gods of the religions." (Thomas Edison)  re is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me — the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love — He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us — nature did it all — not the gods of the religions."

[Cheerful Charlie]

There isn't anything so grotesque or so incredible that the average human being can't believe it.

At this very day there are thousands upon thousands of Americans of average intelligence who fully believe in "Science and Health," although they can't understand a line of it, and who also worship the sordid and ignorant old purloiner of that gospel -- Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, who they do absolutely believe to be a member, by adoption, of the Holy Family, and on the way to push the Savior to third place and assume occupancy of His present place, and continue that occupancy during the rest of eternity.
- Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 2 (2013), p. 136. Dictated 22 June 1906.

[M.Linoge]

[Gwaithmir]

"My religious convictions and scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defined than as those of a believer in creative revolution. I desire that no public monument or work of art or inscription or sermon or ritual service commemorating me shall suggest that I accepted the tenets peculiar to any established church or denomination nor take the form of a cross or any other instrument of torture or symbol of blood sacrifice." (George Bernard Shaw)  [url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,813999,00.html][/url]

[M.Linoge]

[grympy]

C.S. Lewis' mind was fully immersed in the world of fiction.

Also recognised asa major 'lay theologian". Not quite sure what that  means. One not formally trained  in dogma and sophistry? 

He was also a bit forgetful, or hoped people wouldn't notice. 

 To  explain animal suffering ,Lewis  claimed that animals don't suffer as human do.IE less than . No learned references were cited.

Yet, In "That Hideous Strength" he discusses  the suffering of a bear. He states that when a bear experiences pleasure, that pleasure suffuses his entire being. So too when he is in pain, that  pain engulfs him . Again no references.

That is literally the only thing I remember from that book.

[grympy]

"Religion is the opium of the masses."
-Jesus

 Are you sure? I could have sworn it was Shakespeare 

[Old Man Marsh]

"Unitarian Universalism is the methadone of the masses."

-someone on patheos

[airportkid]

"Religion is the opium of the masses."
-Jesus

 Are you sure? I could have sworn it was Shakespeare 

Karl Marx

[Gwaithmir]

"As the [butterfly] chooses the fairest leaves upon which to lay her eggs, so the priest lays his curses on the fairest joys." (William Blake) 

[grympy]

"Religion is the opium of the masses."
-Jesus

 Are you sure? I could have sworn it was Shakespeare 

Karl Marx

 No Shit.


Could you explain what  it means?

[brunumb]

"Religion is the opium of the masses."
-Jesus

 Are you sure? I could have sworn it was Shakespeare 

   I don't think Jesus would have said "Shakespeare is the opium of the masses."  

[Gwaithmir]

"Religion is the opium of the masses."
-Jesus

 Are you sure? I could have sworn it was Shakespeare 

   I don't think Jesus would have said "Shakespeare is the opium of the masses."  

"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for sport!" (Shakespeare) 

[M.Linoge]

[Gwaithmir]

“Only the atheist realizes how morally objectionable it is for survivors of a catastrophe to believe themselves spared by a loving God, while this same god drowned infants in their cribs.” (Sam Harris)