Hollyn's Page

"Sleep is lovely, death is better still, not to have been born, is of course the miracle." Heinrich Heine

"Christ: an anarchist who succeeded. That's all." Andre Malraux



"If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be - a Christian." Mark Twain

"People start out believing in the god but end up believing in the structure." The Great God Om - Terry Pratchett - Small Gods



"I like children. If they're properly cooked." W.C. Fields

"Children should neither been seen nor heard from - ever again." W.C. Fields



"If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew." Albert Einstein

"Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education." Bertrand Russell



"Hell is other people." Jean-Paul Sartre

"It's a scientific fact that if you stay in California you lose one point of your IQ every year." Truman Capote

"Faith - n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." Ambrose Bierce


"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." H.L. Mencken


"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face - forever." George Orwell

"The worshiper is the father of Gods." H.L. Mencken



"Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable." H.L. Mencken

"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself." Sir Richard Francis Burton

"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



"It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man." H.L. Mencken

"Chastity. The most unusual of the sexual perversions." Aldous Huxley

"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." Denis Diderot



"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, (1480–1521)

"Gods always behave like the people who created them." Zora Neale Hurston



"Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense." Chapman Cohen



"Prayer: To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy." Ambrose Bierce

"Childbirth is no more a miracle then eating food and a turd coming out of your ass." Bill Hicks

"They lie about marijuana. Tell you pot-smoking makes you unmotivated. Lie! When you're high, you can do everything you normally do, just as well. You just realize that it's not worth the fucking effort. There is a difference." Bill Hicks






"The typical American of today has lost all the love of liberty that his forefathers had. And all their disgust of emotion and pride in self-reliance. He is led no longer by Davy Crocketts, he is led by cheerleaders, press agents, word-mongers, uplifters. - Perhaps the most revolting character that the United States ever produced was the Christian business man."-H.L. Mencken

"Americans are broad-minded people. They'll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife-beater and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn't drive, there's something wrong with him."-Art Buchwald

"Archbishop: a Christian ecclesiastic of a rank superior to that attained by Christ."-H.L. Mencken

"Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage." H.L. Mencken

"No one recovers from the disease of being born, a deadly wound if there ever was one."-E.M. Cioran

"The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the probably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind." - H.L. Mencken

"The California climate makes the sick well and the well sick, the old young and the young old." - H.L. Mencken

"The world is a prison in which solitary confinement is preferable." - Karl Kraus



"I am sorry to have to introduce the subject of Christmas. It is an indecent subject; a cruel subject, gluttonous subject; a wasteful, disastrous subject; a wicked, cadging, lying, filthy, blasphemous and demoralising subject. Christmas is forced on a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press: on its own merits it would wither and shrivel in a fiery breath of universal hatred; and anyone who looked back to it would be turned into a pillar of greasy sausages." - George Bernard Shaw

“And here is the point, about myself and my co-thinkers. Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not faith. We do not rely solely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason.”
- Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything



“A consistent proof that religion is man-made and anthropomorphic can also be found in the fact that it is usually “man” made, in the sense of masculine, as well. The holy book in the longest continuous use – the Talmud – commands the observant one to thank his maker every day that he was not born a woman. (This raises again the insistent questions: Who but a slave thanks his master for what his master has decided to do without bothering to consult him?)” - Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great

“A quote from H.L. Mencken in his Treatise on the Gods:
‘The simple fact is that The New Testament as we know it, is a Helter-Skelter accumulation of more or less discordant documents, some of them probably of respectable origin but others palpably apocryphal, and that most of them, the good along with the bad, show unmistakable signs of being tampered with’ –
But this argument takes place over the heads of those to whom the “Good Book” is all that is required. (One recalls the Governor of Texas who, asked if The Bible should also be taught in Spanish replied that, ‘If English was good enough for Jesus, then it’s good enough for me.’ – Rightly are the simple so called.)” - Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great, pg. 110



“(Thus, those who say, ‘Christ died for my sins,’ when he did not really ‘die’ at all, are making a statement that is false in its own terms.) Having no reliable or consistent witnesses, in anything like the time period needed to certify such an extraordinary claim, we are finally entitled to that that we have a right, if not an obligation, to respect ourselves enough to disbelieve the whole thing. That is, unless or until superior evidence is presented, which it has not been. And exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.” - Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great



“Perhaps we would be better mammals if we were not “made” this way, but surely nothing could be sillier than having a ‘maker’ who then forbade the very same instinct he instilled.” - Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great, pg. 214

“…If ethical principle had been the guide, the Vatican would not have had to spend the next fifty years vainly trying to account for, or apologise for, its contemptible passivity and inaction. ‘Passivity’ and ‘inaction,’ in fact, may be the wrong choice of words here. To decide to do nothing is itself a policy and a decision, and it is unfortunately easy to record and explain the church’s alignment in terms of a real-politick that sought, not to the defeat of Nazism, but an accommodation with it.” - Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great



“Pope Pius XI had always harbored the most profound misgivings about the Hitler system and its evident capacity for radical evil. (During Hitler’s first visit to Rome, for example, the Holy Father rather ostentatiously took himself out of town to the papal retreat at Castelgandolfo.)
However, this ailing and weak pope was continually outpointed, throughout the 1930s, by his secretary of state, Eugenio Pacelli. We have good reason to think that at least one papal encyclical, expressing at least a modicum of concern about the maltreatment of Europe’s Jews, was readied by His Holiness but suppressed by Pacelli, who had another strategy in mind. We now know Pacelli as Pope Pius XII, who succeeded to the office after the death of his former superior in February 1939. Four days after his election by the College of Cardinals, His Holiness composed the following letter to Berlin:
‘To the Illustrious Herr Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer and Chancellor of the German Reich! Here at the beginning of Our Pontificate We wish to assure you that We remain devoted to the spiritual welfare of the German people entrusted to your leadership….
During the many years We spent in Germany, We did all in Our power to establish harmonious relations between Church and State. Now that the responsibilities of Our pastoral function have increased Our opportunities, how much more ardently do We pray to reach that goal. May the prosperity of the German people and their progress in every domain come, with God’s help, to fruition.” - from God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens



“Believers are supposed to hold that the pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth, and the keeper of the keys of Saint Peter. They are of course free to believe this, and to believe that god decides when to end the tenure of one pope or (more important) to inaugurate the tenure of another. This would involve believing the death of an anti-Nazi pope, and the accession of a pro-Nazi one, as a matter of divine will.” - Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great, pg. 240

“There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this Supreme Being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of god’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force Government leaders into following their position one hundred percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with loss of money, votes, or both. I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some god granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of Conservatism.” - Senator Barry Goldwater, 1981 from The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

“Are humans a part of nature or not? Or, if they chance to be homosexual, are they created in god’s image or not? Leave aside the well-attested facts that numberless kinds of birds and mammals and primates do engage in homosexual play. Who are the clerics to interpret nature?” - Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great

“In The Future of an Illusion, Freud made the obvious point that religion suffered from one incurable deficiency: it was too clearly derived from our own desire to escape from or survive death.” Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great.



“Which is more likely – that a man should be used as a transmitter by god to deliver some already existing revelations, or that he should utter some already existing revelations and believe him to be, or claim to be, ordered by god to do so? As for the pains and noises in the head, or the sweat, one can only regret that the seeming fact that direct communication with god is not an experience of calm, beauty and lucidity.” - Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great

“The religious views of the Founding Fathers are of great interest to propagandists of today’s American right, anxious to push their version of history – Contrary to their view, the fact that the United States was NOT founded as a Christian nation was early stated in the terms of a treaty with Tripoli, drafted in 1796 under George Washington and signed by John Adams in 1797:
‘As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.” The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, pg. 39



“To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise… without plunging into the fathomless abyss of dreams and phantasms. I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence.” - Thomas Jefferson

“…Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.” - Thomas Jefferson



“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

“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.” – John Adams



“Lighthouses are more useful than churches.” Benjamin Franklin



“I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?” - John Adams

“Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of skeptics to disprove received dogmas rather than dogmatists to prove them. This is of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the earth and mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on part of human reason to doubt it. I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.” - Bertrand Russell







Australian Philosopher Douglas Gasking’s ‘ironic “proof” that God does not exist’
1. The creation of the world is the most marvelous achievement imaginable.
2. The merit of an achievement is the product of (a) its intrinsic quality and (b) the ability of its creator.
3. The greater the disability (or handicap) of the creator, the more impressive the achievement.
4. The most formidable handicap for a creator would be non-existence.
5. Therefore if we suppose that the universe is the product of an existent creator we can conceive a greater being – namely, one who created everything while not existing.
6. An existing god therefore would not be a being greater than which a great cannot be conceived because an even more formidable and incredible creator would be a god which did not exist.

Ergo:
7. God does not exist.



Thomas Jefferson writing to predecessor, John Adams,
“The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being has his father, in the womb of a virgin; will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”



“If god is omniscient, he must already know how he is going to intervene to change the course of history using his omnipotence. But that means he can’t change his mind about his intervention, which means he is not omnipotent.” - from The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins



“…the Greek demigod Perseus was born when the god Jupiter visited the virgin Danaë as a shower of gold and got her with child, the god Buddha was born through an opening in his mother’s flank. Catlicus the serpent-skirted caught a little ball of feathers from the sky and hid it in her bosom, and the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli was thus conceived. The virgin Nana took a pomegranate from the tree watered by the blood of the slain Agdestris and laid it in her bosom and gave birth to the god Attis. The virgin daughter of a Mongol king awoke one night and found herself bathed in a great light, which caused her to give birth to Genghis Khan. Krishna was born of the virgin Devaka. Horus was born of the virgin Isis. Mercury was born of the virgin Maia. Romulus was born to the virgin Rhea Sylvia. For some reason, many religions force themselves to think of the birth canal as a one way street.” Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great



Can omniscient god, who
Knows the future, find
The omnipotence to
Change his future mind?

Karen Owens



“The order to ‘love thy neighbor’ is mild but stern: a reminder of one’s own duty to others. The order to ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’ is too extreme and too strenuous to be obeyed, as is hard-to-interpret instruction to love others as much as themselves: the thing simply cannot be done. (As any intelligent ‘creator’ would well understand from studying his own design.” - Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great



"Why is God considered an explanation for anything? It's not - it's failure to explain, a shurg of the shoulder, an 'I dunno' dressed up in spirituality and ritual. If someone credits something to god, generally what it means is that they haven't a clue, so they're attributing it to an unreachable, unknown, sky-fairy. Ask for an explanation of where that bloke came from, and odds are you'll get a vague, pseudo-philosophical reply about having always existed, or being outside nature. Which, of course, explains nothing." - Blogger reply to Guardian article.

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" --Douglas Adams

"If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated."
--Voltaire

"No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says; he is always convinced that it says what he means."
--George Bernard Shaw