Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872)
“My only wish…is to transform friends of God into friends of man, believers into thinkers, devotees of prayer into devotees of work, candidates for the hereafter into students of the world, Christians who, by their own admission, are ‘half animal, half angel’ into persons, into whole persons.”
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
“I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them.”
( Bertrand Russell; from The Quotable Bertrand Russell, New York: Prometheus Books, 1993, p. 138. )
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
“For my own part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old baboon, who, descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs—as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.”
( Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 2nd ed., London: John Murray, 1901, p. 946. )
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
“During the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution human fantasy created gods in man's own image, who, by the operations of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate to influence, the phenomenal world. Man sought to alter the disposition of these gods in his own favor by means of magic and prayer. The idea of God in the religions taught at present is a sublimation of that old concept of the gods. Its anthropomorphic character is shown, for instance, by the fact that men appeal to the Divine Being in prayers and plead for the fulfillment of their wishes. Nobody, certainly, will deny that the idea of the existence of an omnipotent, just, and omnibeneficent personal God is able to accord man solace, help, and guidance; also, by virtue of its simplicity it is accessible to the most undeveloped mind. But, on the other hand, there are decisive weaknesses attached to this idea in itself, which have been painfully felt since the beginning of history. That is, if this being is omnipotent, then every occurrence, including every human action, every human thought, and every human feeling and aspiration is also His work; how is it possible to think of holding men responsible for their deeds and thoughts before such an almighty Being? In giving out punishment and rewards He would to a certain extent be passing judgment on Himself. How can this be combined with the goodness and righteousness ascribed to Him?”
( Albert Einstein, Science, Philosophy, and Religion, A 1934 Symposium published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941; from Einstein's Out of My Later Years, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1970, pp. 26-27. )
Edward O. Wilson
“[E]very major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.”
( Edward O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998, p. 144. )
Richard Dawkins
“Out of all of the sects in the world, we notice an uncanny coincidence: the overwhelming majority just happen to choose the one that their parents belong to. Not the sect that has the best evidence in its favour, the best miracles, the best moral code, the best cathedral, the best stained glass, the best music: when it comes to choosing from the smorgasbord of available religions, their potential virtues seem to count for nothing, compared to the matter of heredity. This is an unmistakable fact; nobody could seriously deny it. Yet people with full knowledge of the arbitrary nature of this heredity, somehow manage to go on believing in their religion, often with such fanaticism that they are prepared to murder people who follow a different one.”
( Richard Dawkins, in Nullifidian magazine, December, 1994. )
David Hume (1711-1776)
“No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to establish.”
( David Hume, Of Miracles, 1748; from The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 2nd edition, London: Oxford University Press, 1955, p. 265. )
Stephen F. Roberts
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
“I do not feel obliged to believe that same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect had intended for us to forgo their use.”
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
“I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay hands on everything they can get.”
Rev. Donald Morgan
“The biblical concepts of sin and salvation are an integral part of Christian doctrine. Christianity first creates a problem (sin) and then offers a ‘solution’ (salvation). This is not unlike the protection racket; you either buy ‘protection’—or else!”
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
“Ever since Plato most philosophers have considered it part of their business to produce ‘proofs’ of immortality and the existence of God. They have found fault with the proofs of their predecessors — Saint Thomas rejected Saint Anselm's proofs, and Kant rejected Descartes' — but they have supplied new ones of their own. In order to make their proofs seem valid, they have had to falsify logic, to make mathematics mystical, and to pretend that deepseated prejudices were heaven-sent intuitions.”
( Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1945. )
Rev. Donald Morgan
“Jesus' last words on the cross, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ hardly seem like the words of a man who planned it that way. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure there is something wrong here.”
Bishop John Shelby Spong
“A major function of fundamentalist religion is to bolster deeply insecure and fearful people. This is done by justifying a way of life with all of its defining prejudices. It thereby provides an appropriate and legitimate outlet for one's anger. The authority of an inerrant Bible that can be readily quoted to buttress this point of view becomes an essential ingredient to such a life. When that Bible is challenged, or relativized, the resulting anger proves the point categorically.”
( John S. Spong, Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism, San Fransisco: Harper Collins, 1991, p. 5. )
Dan Barker
“The next time believers tell you that ‘separation of church and state’ does not appear in our founding document, tell them to stop using the word ‘trinity.’ The word ‘trinity’ appears nowhere in the bible. Neither does Rapture, or Second Coming, or Original Sin. If they are still unfazed (or unphrased), by this, then add Omniscience, Omnipresence, Supernatural, Transcendence, Afterlife, Deity, Divinity, Theology, Monotheism, Missionary, Immaculate Conception, Christmas, Christianity, Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Methodist, Catholic, Pope, Cardinal, Catechism, Purgatory, Penance, Transubstantiation, Excommunication, Dogma, Chastity, Unpardonable Sin, Infallibility, Inerrancy, Incarnation, Epiphany, Sermon, Eucharist, the Lord's Prayer, Good Friday, Doubting Thomas, Advent, Sunday School, Dead Sea, Golden Rule, Moral, Morality, Ethics, Patriotism, Education, Atheism, Apostasy, Conservative (Liberal is in), Capital Punishment, Monogamy, Abortion, Pornography, Homosexual, Lesbian, Fairness, Logic, Republic, Democracy, Capitalism, Funeral, Decalogue, or Bible.”
( Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist, Madison: FFRF, Inc., 1992, pp. 304-305. )
David Hume (1711-1776)
“The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one. Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity: and whoever is moved by faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.”
( David Hume, Of Miracles, 1748; from The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 2nd edition, London: Oxford University Press, 1955, p. 265. )
Steven Weinberg
“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.”
( Steven Weinberg; as quoted from Carey Goldberg, "Cosmology and Theology Tangle in a Rousing Match," The New York Times, April 20, 1999. )
Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872)
“Wherever morality is based on theology, wherever right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established.”
( Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity, 1841; from The Great Thoughts, George Seldes, ed., New York: Ballantine Books, 1996, p. 151. )
Richard Dawkins
“The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored.
“In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”
( Richard Dawkins, "God's Utility Function," Scientific American, November 1995, p. 85. )
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
“‘Free thought’ means thinking freely.…To be worthy of the name (freethinker) he must be free of two things: the force of tradition, and the tyranny of his own passions. No one is completely free from either, and in the measure of man's emancipation he deserves to be called a free thinker.”
( Bertrand Russell, Understanding Human History; from The Great Thoughts, George Seldes, ed., New York: Ballantine Books, 1996, p. 399. )
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)
“Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)
“Suppose, however, that God did give this law to the Jews, and did tell them that whenever a man preached a heresy, or proposed to worship any other God that they should kill him; and suppose that afterward this same God took upon himself flesh, and came to this very chosen people and taught a different religion, and that thereupon the Jews crucified him; I ask you, did he not reap exactly what he had sown? What right would this god have to complain of a crucifixion suffered in accordance with his own command?”
( Robert Green Ingersoll, "Some Mistakes Of Moses," 1879; from The Works of Robert Ingersoll, vol. II, New York: The Ingersoll League, 1933, p. 259. )
Steve Allen (1921-2000)
“I do not understand those who take little or no interest in the subject of religion. If religion embodies a truth, it is certainly the most important truth of human existence. If it is largely error, then it is one of monumentally tragic proportions—and should be vigorously opposed.”
Dan Barker
“I do understand what love is, and that is one of the reasons I can never again be a Christian. Love is not self denial. Love is not blood and suffering. Love is not murdering your son to appease your own vanity. Love is not hatred or wrath, consigning billions of people to eternal torture because they have offended your ego or disobeyed your rules. Love is not obedience, conformity, or submission. It is a counterfeit love that is contingent upon authority, punishment, or reward. True love is respect and admiration, compassion and kindness, freely given by a healthy, unafraid human being.”
( Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist, Madison: FFRF, Inc., 1992, p. 88. )
Frank Sinatra (1915-1998)
“There are things about organized religion which I resent. Christ is revered as the Prince of Peace, but more blood has been shed in His name than any other figure in history. You show me one step forward in the name of religion, and I'll show you a hundred retrogressions…I'm for decency—period. I'm for anything and everything that bodes love and consideration for my fellow man. But when lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday—count me out.”
( Frank Sinatra, Playboy interview, February 1963 )
Rev. Donald Morgan
“If the Bible is telling the truth, then God is either untruthful or incompetent. If God is truthful, then the Bible is either untruthful or erroneous.”
Celsus (150 C.E.)
“First, however, I must deal with the matter of Jesus, the so-called savior, who not long ago taught new doctrines and was thought to be a son of God. This savior, I shall attempt to show, deceived many and caused them to accept a form of belief harmful to the well-being of mankind. Taking its root in the lower classes, the religion continues to spread among the vulgar: nay, one can even say it spreads because of its vulgarity and the illiteracy of its adherents. And while there are a few moderate, reasonable, and intelligent people who interpret its beliefs allegorically, yet it thrives in its purer form among the ignorant.”
( Celsus, "True Discourse," Celsus, on the True Doctrine: A Discourse Against the Christians, R. Joseph Hoffmann, ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 1987, p. 57. )
Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso)
“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”
Chapman Cohen (1868-1954)
“Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense.”
Georg Lichtenberg (1742-1799)
“After all, is our idea of God anything more than personified incomprehensibility?”
( Georg Lichtenberg, in a letter to Voltaire; from Brian L. Silver, The Ascent of Science, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 25. )
Dan Barker
“Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits.”
( Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist, Madison: FFRF, Inc., 1992, p. 102. )
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
“I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I, which is my life, the power to create.”
( Vincent Van Gogh, letter to his brother; from The Great Thoughts, George Seldes, ed., New York: Ballantine Books, 1996, p. 472. )
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
“I believe the spreading of Catholicism to be the most horrible means of political and social degradation left in the world.”
Supreme Court of Wisconsin
“There is no such source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state, as religion. Let it once enter into our civil affairs, our government soon would be destroyed. Let it once enter our common schools, they would be destroyed. Those who made our Constitution saw this, and used the most apt and comprehensive language in it to prevent such a catastrophe.”
( Supreme Court of Wisconsin, Weiss v. District Board, March 18, 1890. )
Voltaire ( François Marie Arouet, 1694-1778)
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)
“The hands that help are better far than the lips that pray.”
Clarence Darrow (1857-1938)
“I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure—that is all that Agnosticism means.”
( Clarence Darrow, the Scopes trial, July 13, 1925; from George Seldes, ed., The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey: The Citadel Press, 1983, p. 191. )
Buddha ( Siddhartha Gautama, 563-483, B.C.E.)
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
Stephen Jay Gould
“Objectivity cannot be equated with mental blankness; rather, objectivity resides in recognizing your preferences and then subjecting them to especially harsh scrutiny — and also in a willingness to revise or abandon your theories when the tests fail (as they usually do).”
( Stephen J. Gould, from The Lying Stones of Marrakech, New York: Harmony Books, 2000, pp. 104-105. )
Carl Sagan (1934-1996)
“It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You never learn anything new. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish useful ideas from worthless ones. If all ideas have equal validity then you are lost, because then, it seems to me, no ideas have any validity at all.”
( Carl Sagan, "The Burden of Skepticism," Pasadena lecture, 1987. )
Richard Feynmann
“If someone were to propose that the planets go around the sun because all planet matter has a kind of tendency for movement, a kind of motility, let us call it an ‘oomph,’ this theory could explain a number of other phenomena as well. So this is a good theory, is it not? No. It is nowhere near as good as the proposition that the planets move around the sun under the influence of a central force which varies exactly inversely as the square of the distance from the center. The second theory is better because it is so specific; it is so obviously unlikely to be the result of chance. It is so definite that the barest error in the movement can show that it is wrong; but the planets could wobble al over the place, and, according to the first theory, you could say, ‘Well, that is the funny behavior of the ‘oomph.’’”
( Richard Feynmann, The Meaning of It All, New York: Perseus Press, 1999, pp. 19-20. )
Voltaire ( François M. Arouet, 1694-1778)
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”
( Voltaire, letter to Frederick the Great, April 6, 1767; from The Great Quotations, 1983, p. 713. )
René Descartes (1596-1650)
“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”
( Rene Descartes, Principles of Philosophy, 1644; from George Seldes, ed., The Great Thoughts, New York: Ballantine Books, 1996, p. 116. )
Sir. Julian Huxley (1887-1975)
“We should be agnostic about those things for which there is no evidence. We should not hold beliefs merely because they gratify our desires for afterlife, immortality, heaven, hell, etc.”
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)
“A beautiful theory, killed by a nasty, ugly, little fact.”
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“[T]o argue with a man who has renounced his reason is like giving medicine to the dead.”
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
“All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.”
( Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, 1781; from The Great Thoughts, George Seldes, ed., New York: Ballantine Books, 1996, p. 245. )
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)
“The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to himself and to his fellow-men.”
( Robert Green Ingersoll, "The Liberty Of Man, Woman, And Child," 1877; from The Works of Robert Ingersoll, vol. I, New York: The Ingersoll League, 1933, p. 331. )
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
“The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts.”
George Seaton
“Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.”
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
“I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the Scriptures, but with experiments and demonstrations.”
( Galileo Galilei, "The Authority of Scripture in Philosophical Controversies" from The Great Thoughts, George Seldes, ed., New York: Ballantine Books, 1996, p. 171. )
Magellan, Ferdinand (1480?-1521)
“The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church.”
( Ferdinand Magellan, from George Seldes, The Great Quotations, Secaucus: Citadel Press, 1983, p. 461. )
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
“To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot. But I am persuaded that such behavior on the part of the representatives of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is able to maintain itself not in clear light but only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable harm to human progress. In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast power in the hands of priests. In their labors they will have to avail themselves of those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself. This is, to be sure, a more difficult but an incomparably more worthy task.”
( Albert Einstein, Science, Philosophy, and Religion, A 1934 Symposium published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941; from Einstein's Out of My Later Years, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1970, pp. 27-29. )
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)
“We have already compared the benefits of theology and science. When the theologian governed the world, it was covered with huts and hovels for the many, palaces and cathedrals for the few. To nearly all the children of men, reading and writing were unknown arts. The poor were clad in rags and skins — they devoured crusts, and gnawed bones. The day of Science dawned, and the luxuries of a century ago are the necessities of to-day. Men in the middle ranks of life have more of the conveniences and elegancies than the princes and kings of the theological times. But above and over all this, is the development of mind. There is more of value in the brain of an average man of to-day — of a master-mechanic, of a chemist, of a naturalist, of an inventor, than there was in the brain of the world four hundred years ago.
“These blessings did not fall from the skies. These benefits did not drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in cathedrals or behind altars — neither were they searched for with holy candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did they come in answer to superstitious supplication. They are the children of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience—and for them all, man is indebted to man.”
Hippocrates (c.460-c.377 B.C.E.)
“People think that epilepsy is divine simply because they don't have any idea what causes epilepsy. But I believe that someday we will understand what causes epilepsy, and at that moment, we will cease to believe that it's divine. And so it is with everything in the universe.”
Paul Davies
“The living cell is the most complex system of its size known to mankind. Its host of specialized molecules, many found nowhere else but within living material, are themselves already enormously complex. They execute a dance of exquisite fidelity, orchestrated with breathtaking precision. Vastly more elaborate than the most complicated ballet, the dance of life encompasses countless molecular performers in synergetic coordination. Yet this is a dance with no sign of a choreographer. No intelligent supervisor, no mystic force, no conscious controlling agency swings the molecules into place at the right time, chooses the appropriate players, closes the links, uncouples the partners, moves them on. The dance of life is spontaneous, self-sustaining, and self-creating.”
( Paul Davies, The Fifth Miracle, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999, p. 29. )
Stephen Hawking
“Hubble's observations suggested that there was a time, called the big bang, when the universe was infinitesimally small and infinitely dense. Under such conditions all the laws of science, and therefore all ability to predict the future, would break down. If there were events earlier than this time, then they could not affect what happens at the present time. Their existence can be ignored because it would have no observational consequences. One may say that time had a beginning at the big bang, in the sense that earlier times simply would not be defined. . . . there is no physical necessity for a beginning. One can imagine that God created the universe at literally any time in the past. On the other hand, if the universe is expanding, there may be physical reasons why there had to be a beginning. One could still imagine that God created the universe at the instant of the big bang, or even afterwards in just such a way as to make it look as though there had been a big bang, but it would be meaningless to suppose that it was created before the big bang. An expanding universe does not preclude a creator, but it does place limits on when he might have carried out his job!”
( Stephen Hawking, The Illustrated Brief History of Time, New York: Bantam Books, 1996, pp. 14-15. )
Carl Sagan (1934-1996)
“There is something stunningly narrow about how the Anthropic Principle is phrased. Yes, only certain laws and constants of nature are consistent with our kind of life. But essentially the same laws and constants are required to make a rock. So why not talk about a Universe designed so rocks could one day come to be, and strong and weak Lithic Principles? If stones could philosophize, I imagine Lithic Principles would be at the intellectual frontiers.”
( Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, New York: Random House, 1994, p. 38. )
Edward O. Wilson
“[T]heology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God?”
( Edward O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998, p. 6. )
Timothy Ferris
“The deity has been implicated in cosmology since the dawn of human history. Every monotheistic religion credits God with having created the universe. Plato, Aristotle, and scores of other philosophers have declared God responsible for the natural order revealed in the regular motions of the planets and stars. Theologians assert that it is owing to God's grace that human reason can comprehend the laws of nature. God has even been invoked as a solution to the observer ship problem posed by the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics.
“So it seems reasonable to ask what cosmology, now that it is a science, can tell us about God. Sadly, but in all earnestness, I must report that the answer as I see it is: Nothing. Cosmology presents us neither the face of God, nor the handwriting of God, nor such thoughts as may occupy the mind of God. This does not mean that God does not exist, or that he did not create the universe, or universes. It means that cosmology offers no resolution to such questions.”
( Timothy Ferris, The Whole Shebang, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996, p. 303-304. )
Irven DeVore (Harvard Anthropologist)
“I personally cannot discern a shred of evidence for ‘[intelligent] design.’ If 97% of all creatures have gone extinct, some plan isn't working very well!”
( Irven DeVore, speaking at the "Cosmic Questions" Conference, Smithsonian Institute, April 1999. )
Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey
“If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is ‘God is crying.’ And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is ‘Probably because of something you did.’” —SNL
Simon Ewins
“Paul is a liar, he said so. (Romans 3:7.)”
Victor J. Stenger
“Selling eternal life is an unbeatable business, with no customers ever asking for their money back after the goods are not delivered.”
Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma'arri (Syrian poet, 973-1057)
“The world holds two classes of men—intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence.”
( Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma'arri, from The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey: The Citadel Press, 1983, p. 35. )
Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) – Soviet cosmonaut who, in 1961, became the first human to enter space.
“I don't see any god up here.”
( Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, speaking from orbit, 1961.)
Dr. Delos McKown
“The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike.”
Thomas Wolfe ( American novelist, 1900-1938 )
“A cult is a religion with no political power.”
Voltaire ( François M. Arouet, On his deathbed, in response to a priest asking that he renounce Satan )
“Now, now my good man. This is no time for making enemies!”
Anonymous
“It seems odd that those who scoff at sun worshippers are apt to worship a vacuum.”
Anonymous
“Why be born again, when you can just grow up.”
Anonymous
“Jesus is not my friend. I have real friends.”
Anonymous
“I think I'll believe in Gosh instead of God. If you don't believe in Gosh too, you'll be darned to heck.”
Anonymous
“Primates often have trouble imagining a universe not run by an angry alpha male.”
Home Page | Further Reading | Site Map | Send Feedback
