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Which quotations from great leaders and writers might you best like to see displayed at advertising locations for the education and benefit of the world?

Which quotations from great leaders and writers might you best like to see displayed at advertising locations and in trains and buses, for the education and benefit of the world?

Among the first that come to mind as most helpful in supporting the anti-theist cause are the truths uttered or written by America’s founding fathers and other great people whose names are well-known to everyone including bible-thumping fundamentalists. Every country, every language will have its favorites.

“The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.” James Madison 1803

“Millions of fables, tales and legends have been blended with Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed.” John Adams

“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.” James Madison

“Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause. I had hoped that liberal and enlightened thought would have reconciled the Christians so that their religious fights would not endanger the peace of Society.” George Washington.

“I have recently been examining all of the known superstitions of the world and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies.” Thomas Jefferson. 1743-1826

“Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.” Abraham Lincoln

“Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear”. Thomas Jefferson

“…Freedom arises from the multiplicity of sects, which pervades America and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.” James Madison. 1778

[spoken at the June 1778 Virginia convention on ratifying the Constitution]

“Our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions more than our opinions in physics or geometry.” Thomas Jefferson

“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.” James Madison.

“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.” James Madison.

“I belong to no church.” Abraham Lincoln

“The Bible is not my book and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.” Abraham Lincoln

“Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man.” Thomas Jefferson

“And the day will come, when the [virgin birth] will rank with the fable of the generation [birth] of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.” Thomas Jefferson

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Abraham Lincoln

“Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.” John Adams 1816. [Letter to his son, John Quincy Adams, 1816 November 13].

“You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, burning bushes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?” Mark Twain

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Atheist Exile on March 6, 2010 at 3:04am

"No religion can long continue to maintain its purity when the church becomes the subservient vassal of the state." ~Felix Adler

Permalink Reply by Atheist Exile on March 6, 2010 at 3:10am

"They [the Founders] knew that to put God in the Constitution was to put man out." ~Robert Ingersoll

Permalink Reply by Atheist Exile on March 6, 2010 at 3:12am

"Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion." ~President John Adams

Permalink Reply by Roy The Infidel on March 6, 2010 at 4:31am

All religions have been made by men.

- Napoleon Bonaparte

All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination and poetry.

- Edgar Allan Poe

Permalink Reply by Gary Huckleberry on March 6, 2010 at 6:20am

"It is impossible for a perfect being to create an imperfect one." Gary Huckleberry, writer.

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on March 6, 2010 at 7:02am

Actually, if a perfect being were goofing off or being a jerk, he/she/it could create whatever he wanted at whatever level of perfection or imperfection. One has to ask at that point just WHAT the motivation is to do so ... other than to be a manipulating prick or a sadistic bastard?

Permalink Reply by Gary Huckleberry on March 6, 2010 at 7:50am

Perfect beings cannot possess imperfect character or enjoy imperfect behavior.

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on March 6, 2010 at 8:07am

And we know this HOW? Where on the face of this planet (or elsewhere) has a perfect being (or perfect anything else, for that matter) ever been observed? We can hypothesize all we want about the nature and behavior of something which doesn't exist, but so far as I'm concerned, such debate amounts to the old saw about angels dancing on heads of pins.

If the creation of imperfection amounts to demoting a "perfect being" from "perfect" status, then maybe. It also may be that a perfect being can diddle to suit him/her/itself and still pass GO and collect $200 with no penalties attached.

There's ANOTHER old saw: "Quality is a journey, not a destination." It may be that perfection is something like that - something worth pursuing and, while it may never be achieved, still has the function of improving the pursuer during the process of pursuit. Beyond that, I see any debate about static perfection or a being reflecting such as a waste of time.

Permalink Reply by mojo5501 on March 6, 2010 at 10:01am

I have a corny little needlepoint tucked away someplace with the quote: "In small measure, life may perfect be." Or something along that line. I think we need to look for small portions to be perfect but never expect the entire MEAL to be perfect.

I look outside and see a house finch: perfect.

I slice an apple and make muffins to eat with my coffee: perfect.

My dog asleep on my couch; sunshine making her black coat glisten: perfect.

It's discovering perfection that makes the days worthwhile. (And some days you really have to dig for it!)

Permalink Reply by Gary Huckleberry on March 7, 2010 at 10:05am

Okay... I agree, ... a perfect being can repeatedly rape his own daughter, by definition, of course. You are correct.

Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on March 8, 2010 at 9:07am

Right on, Loren. The whole idea of worship always bothered me. If I were God, I'd make people and say, "Hey, it's all yours—sex, animals, the beautiful planet, art and science. Enjoy, just try to be a good person and don't hurt anybody. And don't make a pig out of yourself.

Christianity and Islam are so weird. What the heck does God get out of being worshiped? What kind of sadistic bum gets off by watching baby lambs get slaughtered?

I think God should be at least as humble as Good Prince Hal. Dress up like a human and mingle a little bit. Find out which way the wind is blowin'. Worship people a little bit. It's a two-way street.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Terence Meaden on March 6, 2010 at 10:09am

Gary. That doesn't really accord with christian thought and christian illogic.

“If God made man in his own image, as Christians claim, then he has proved he knows how to make an imperfect being--because imperfect is what humans are.
It follows that god must be an imperfect being himself--because imperfect is what humans are and god is their image.” T.M.
[i.e. with backaches, useless appendix, parasites, disposition to common maladies and diseases, 30 trillion bacteria inside the gut and body; and much else.]