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Permalink Reply by Undo on July 21, 2008 at 8:17am

"Few nations have been so poor as to have but one god. Gods were made so easily, and the raw material cost so little, that generally the god market was fairly glutted and heaven crammed with these phantoms." -Robert Green Ingersoll

"I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous - if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men." -Robert Green Ingersoll

Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows. -Robert Green Ingersoll

--I could post a lot of Ingersoll quotes but if you're interested go to: www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/robert_green_ingersoll.html

one of my most favorite:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." -Arthur C. Clarke
(I perfer to substitute god for magic)

Here's a whole page of good ones: www.wonderfulatheistsofcfl.org/Quotes.htm

Thanks for the new discussion LoLo!

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Permalink Reply by LoLo on July 21, 2008 at 6:55pm

I believe Arthur C. Clarke was an agnostic anyway....

I'm glad you like my discussion topics ;) I try...

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Permalink Reply by Ross van Gogh on July 21, 2008 at 9:06am

If I take a lamp and shine toward the wall, a bright spot will appear on the wall. The lamp is our search for truth, for understanding. Too often we assume the light on the wall is God, but the light is not the goal of the search, it is the result of the search. The more intense the search, the brighter the light on the wall. The brighter the light on the wall, the greater the revelation upon seeing it. Similarly, someone who does not search, who does not bring a lantern with him, sees nothing. What we perceive as God is the by-product of our search for God. It may simply be an appreciation of the light, pure and unblemished. Not understanding that it comes from us, sometimes, we stand in front of the light and assume we are the center of the universe. God looks astonishingly like we do. Or we turn to look at our shadow and assume all is darkness. If we allow ourselves to get in the way, we defeat the purpose - which is use the light of our search to illuminate the wall in all its beauty and all it flaws, and in so doing, better understand the world around us.

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Permalink Reply by Democritus on July 21, 2008 at 2:38pm

"If lightning is the anger of the gods, the the gods are concerned mostly with trees."-Lao Tse

"I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."-Mark Twain

"If there is a designer he must take credit for the flaws in his creation. Flaws in the creation directly reflect flaws in the creator. If there is a flaw in the creator then he cannot be all powerful."-David Hume

"But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it the most?"-Mark Twain

"It is a heretic that makes the fire,
not she which burns in it."-William Shakespeare

"Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is then I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?"-Epicurus

"God bless those pagans."-Homer Simpson

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Permalink Reply by Roy Roberts on July 21, 2008 at 3:19pm

Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense.
Time Enough For Love

Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
"Jubal Harshaw" Stranger in a Strange Land

The more you love, the more you can love — and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just.
~Time Enough For Love

Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.
But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please — this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!
So learn to say No — and to be rude about it when necessary.
Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.
(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)
~ Time Enough for Love

"Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often confuses one for the other, or assumes the greater the love, the greater the jealousy. In fact they are almost incompatible; both at once produce unbearable turmoil."
"Jubal Harshaw" Stranger in a Strange Land

I will accept the rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
~ The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.
~ Time Enough For Love

Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.
~ Time Enough For Love

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors — and miss.
~ Time Enough For Love

Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.
~ Time Enough For Love

Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.
~Time Enough For Love

If tempted by something that feels "altruistic," examine your motives and root out that self-deception. Then, if you still want to do it, wallow in it!
~Time Enough For Love

Never appeal to a man's "better nature." He may not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.
~Time Enough For Love

Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated out of nothing, "blasphemy"is the most amazing — with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for second and third place.
~Time Enough For Love

One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word.
~Time Enough For Love

One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.
~Time Enough For Love

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Permalink Reply by dGolden on July 30, 2008 at 9:14pm

Heinlein deserves much credit for my ability to point at something and say, "bullshit!" You hit many of my favorites!

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Permalink Reply by xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on July 21, 2008 at 7:27pm

"I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free."
- epitaph of Nikos Kazantzakis

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Permalink Reply by Chip on July 21, 2008 at 8:45pm

Woody Allen said something to the effect of, "How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in an electric typewriter."

For some reason, I always thought that to be hilarious. He also said, "To you, I'm an Atheist, to God, I'm loyal opposition." And my favorite, when he was asked what he would say if confronted by God after death, "It depends on how good his apology is."

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Permalink Reply by Az on July 31, 2008 at 2:29am

Just a couple. Far too many to go into detail.

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. - Andre Gide

It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt. - Mark Twain

In science, "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withold provisional assent". I suppose that apples may start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms. - Stephen J. Gould

A walk down the path of history is crunchy with the crispy corpses of those who pooh-poohed or ignored the clown car of ridicule when it pulled-up to the curb. Who would have thought such a tiny car could contain so many infectious and revolutionary guffaws? Satires, parodies, blue humor, pants to the ground ass-wavings, tea-dumping, Modest Proposal submiting, 7 dirty word spewing, flag burning, frankly impolite, just plain rude and improper expressions of ridicule have either ignited reform, fanned the flames or kicked the corpse to make sure it was dead. - Stephen Jones taken from the net

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Permalink Reply by Undo on July 31, 2008 at 7:41am

"You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough."
-Aldous Huxley

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Permalink Reply by Undo on July 31, 2008 at 1:07pm

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis

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Permalink Reply by Feshy on July 31, 2008 at 8:49pm

Great quotes, I've added a few to my collection. Here's some in return (It turned out a bit longer than I thought, sorry. I do love quotes though.):

If the King's English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for the children of Texas! -- Miriam Amanda "Ma" Ferguson (1875-1961), governor of Texas

Give a man a fish and you can feed him for a day, give him a religion and he'll starve to death praying for a fish.

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. -- Albert Einstein

All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field. -- Albert Einstein

One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community. -- Albert Einstein

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. -- Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

It is [the] belief in absolutes, I would hazard, that is the great enemy today of the life of the mind. This may seem a rash proposition. The fashion of the time is to denounce relativism as the root of all evil. But history suggests that the damage done to humanity by the relativist is far less than the damage done by the absolutist - by the fellow who, as Mr. Dooley once put it, "does what he thinks th' Lord wud do if He only knew th' facts in th' case." -- Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

"People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant." -- Hellen Keller

The fundamental defect in the present state of democracy is the assumption that political and economic freedom can be achieved without first freeing the mind. Freedom of mind is not something that spontaneously happens. It is not achieved by the mere absence of obvious restraints. It is a product of constant, unremitting nurture of right habits of observation and reflection.

I often get letters, quite frequently, from people who say how they like the programs a lot, but I never give credit to the almighty power that created nature, to which I reply and say, "Well, it's funny that the people, when they say that this is evidence of the almighty, always quote beautiful things, they always quote orchids and hummingbirds and butterflies and roses." But I always have to think too of a little boy sitting on the banks of a river in west Africa who has a worm boring through his eyeball, turning him blind before he's five years old, and I reply and say, "Well presumably the god you speak about created the worm as well," and now, I find that baffling to credit a merciful god with that action, and therefore it seems to me safer to show things that I know to be truth, truthful and factual, and allow people to make up their own minds about the moralities of this thing, or indeed the theology of this thing. -- Sir David Attenborrough

'Truth' never set anyone free. It is only *doubt* which will bring mental emancipation. -- Anton Lavey

People fare best when they look not to moral rules and principles, not to priests and churches, and not to creeds, but to the actual results of what they do. -- Richard Taylor

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. -- Stephen F Roberts (Note: Personally, I have found this to be untrue. It turns out most religious people really don't have very good reasons for dismissing other Gods. I still like the quote though.)

Once upon a time two explorers came upon a clearing in the jungle. In the clearing were growing many flowers and many weeds. One explorer says, 'Some gardener must tend this plot.' The other disagrees, 'There is no gardener.' So they pitch their tents and set a watch. No gardener is ever seen. 'But perhaps he is an invisible gardener.' So they set up a barbed-wire fence. They electrify it. They patrol with bloodhounds. But no shrieks ever suggest that some intruder has received a shock. No movements of the wire ever betray an invisible climber. The bloodhounds never give cry. Yet still the Believer is not convinced. 'But there is a gardener, invisible, intangible, insensible to electric shocks, a gardener who has no scent and makes no sound, a gardener who comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves.' At last the Sceptic despairs, 'But what remains of your original assertion? Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all?' -- Antony Flew

The divorce between church and state ought to be absolute. It ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no church property anywhere, in any state, or in any nation, should be exempt from taxation, for if you exempt the church property of any church organization, to that extent you impose tax upon the whole community. -- President James Garfield (imagine a president today saying that!)

You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. -- Anne Lamott

It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry. -- H. L. Mencken

Don't worry what people think. They don't do it very often.

Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence.

If the Bible is mistaken in telling us where we came from, how can we trust it to tell us where we're going? -- Justin Brown

Name me if you can a noble action performed, or a noble though uttered by a believer in god that could not be uttered by a non-believer. [...] There's another question that goes with it, a corollary question: name a wicked action performed, or a wicked thing said, by someone purely because of their religious faith. You don't even have to blink before you've thought of one. -- Hitchens

Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion, several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven. ~ Mark Twain

To use the term blind faith, is to use an adjective needlessly.

Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls, when we all ought to be worried abut our own souls, and other people's bellies -- Rabbi Israel Salanter

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