Favorite Quotes about Atheism, Agnosticism, And Religion

[Vera]

“I find this a fascinating phenomenon: the ability we have to manipulate ourselves so that the foundation of our beliefs is never shaken.”
― Muriel Barbery

[Vera]

"God, A Poem

'I didn't exist at Creation,
I didn't exist at the Flood,
And I won't be around for Salvation
To sort out the sheep from the cud-

'Or whatever the phrase is. The fact is
In soteriological terms
I'm a crude existential malpractice
And you are a diet of worms."

[jerry mcmasters]

Love the "diet of worms" line.

[Gwaithmir]

“I do not believe in any religion. I will have nothing to do with immortality. We are miserable enough in this life without speculating on another.” (Lord Byron) 

[Bucky Ball]

"The reason the tempter went to Eve first, was that the light of reason shone less brightly in her".
Saint Thomas Aquinas

[Gwaithmir]

“When I became convinced that the universe is natural, that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell. The dungeon was flooded with light and the bolts and bars and manacles became dust.” (Robert G. Ingersoll) 

[Percie]

“When I became convinced that the universe is natural, that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell. The dungeon was flooded with light and the bolts and bars and manacles became dust.” (Robert G. Ingersoll) 

[Alan V]

“When I became convinced that the universe is natural, that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell. The dungeon was flooded with light and the bolts and bars and manacles became dust.” (Robert G. Ingersoll)

Yeah, contemporary atheists are much less likely to make that mistake.

[Thingymebob]

“When I became convinced that the universe is natural, that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell. The dungeon was flooded with light and the bolts and bars and manacles became dust.” (Robert G. Ingersoll)

Yeah, contemporary atheists are much less likely to make that mistake.

Unless they have predictive text.

[Bucky Ball]

"Soul" ... definition.
"1. the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal.
2. emotional or intellectual energy or intensity, especially as revealed in a work of art or an artistic performance.
"their interpretation lacked soul"
3. The essence of a being".

Fundamentalists take literally that which everyone else understands as metaphor.
They're like literary infants and toddlers.

[Gwaithmir]

“Atheism is what happens when you read the Bible. Christianity is what happens when someone reads it for you.” (Bertrand Russell) 

[Vera]

I rather like this:

Natural Selection
BY ALAN R. SHAPIRO

proceeds by chance
and necessity

becomes nonrandom
through randomness

builds complexity
from simplicity

nurtures consciousness
unconsciously

evolves purposelessly
creatures who demand

purpose
and discover

natural selection


And I *really* love this one:

A man said to the universe:
"Sir I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
Stephen Crane (the one who wrote The Red Badge of Courage)

[Gwaithmir]

“The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.” (Thomas Jefferson) 

[Vera]

[Gwaithmir]

“Christianity is not in accordance with the cultivated mind; it can only be accepted by suppressing doubts, and by denouncing inquiry as sinful. It is therefore a superstition, and ought to be destroyed.” (W. Winwood Reade) 

[Dānu]

“Faith is belief without evidence or reason; coincidentally that’s also the definition of delusion.” (Richard Dawkins) [ty Gwaithmir]

[Gwaithmir]

“The word of god is for me nothing but the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) ever change this.” (Albert Einstein)