my favorite atheist, skeptic, and science quotes (please share yours!)

I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up—many people feel small, because they’re small and the Universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson


Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson


For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson


To put it bluntly but fairly, anyone today who doubts that the variety of life on this planet was produced by a process of evolution is simply ignorant—inexcusably ignorant, in a world where three out of four people have learned to read and write.

- Daniel Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life


The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

- Thomas Paine


The more I study religions, the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself.

- Richard Burton


Only in America can you be pro-death penalty, pro-war, pro-unmanned drone bombs, pro-nuclear weapons, pro-guns, pro-torture, pro-land mines, and still call yourself 'pro-life.'

- John Fugelsang


[I]t is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions.

- Sam Harris, The End of Faith


It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.

- Carl Sagan


For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

- Carl Sagan


Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.

- Carl Sagan


That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.

- Christopher Hitchens


The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.

- Christopher Hitchens


I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.

- Douglas Adams


Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.

- Marcus Aurelius


Faith does not give you the answers, it only stops you from asking the questions.

- Frater Ravus


Fundamentalists believe the problem is eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Atheists believe the problem is cutting it down.

- Arthur Shuey

Views: 196

Tags: atheism, quote, science, skepticism

Comment by P.J. Simons on April 17, 2012 at 5:43pm

"If truth was the product of belief, we'd be living on a flat earth at the center of the universe."

P.J. Simons

Comment by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on April 17, 2012 at 7:45pm

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Carl Sagan

Comment by Alex Barnham on April 17, 2012 at 8:20pm

Even he who sits at the pinnacle of knowledge can still get a tick or two.

Alex Barnham

Comment by Alex Barnham on April 18, 2012 at 11:28am

Bigfoot, giganticus humungus, will survive despite ourselves.

Abraham Lincoln

Comment by Richard ∑wald on April 18, 2012 at 12:42pm

"You are not sheep. You, my brothers and sisters in atheism, are a fierce, coordinated hunting pack — men and women working together, and those other bastards have cause to fear us. So let’s do it: make them tremble as we demolish the city of god."

~ P.Z. Myers

Comment by matthew greenberg on April 18, 2012 at 1:20pm

Only in America can you be pro-death penalty, pro-war, pro-unmanned drone bombs, pro-nuclear weapons, pro-guns, pro-torture, pro-land mines, and still call yourself 'pro-life.'

- John Fugelsang


thanks, i just borrowed that one for my Facebook page.

Comment by Sandi on April 18, 2012 at 2:28pm

Emo Philips: "When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me."

Marie: "Man created God in his image : intolerant, sexist, homophobic and violent."

Carl Sagan: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"

Gustaf Lindborg: "The sailor does not pray for wind, he learns to sail"

Annie Dillard: "Eskimo: If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" Priest: "No, not if you did not know." Eskimo: "Then why did you tell me?"

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

Pat Condell:  "Prove God doesn’t exist......  That’s a tough one. Show me how it’s done by proving Zeus and Apollo don’t exist, and I’ll use your method.

Alan Harvey: "The Beatles might not be bigger than Jesus... but at least we know they really existed."

and lastly:

God: "Silence"

Comment by Sandi on April 18, 2012 at 2:38pm

Faith is a glass pillar, forged over thousands of years, such mastery has been put into its creation that it refracts light in beautiful ways, making it appear solid, but in reality it is paper thin, the smallest force; logic, reason, could easily destroy it.

But people fear that the glass pillar that lifts them so high, may break, so they build concrete walls of illogic, blindness (darkness may conceal, but light blinds forever) and thoughtlessness to protect this core of their existence.

They become sheep.

Logic and reason are marble pillars, beautiful, solid, and while they may be cold and hard, they will support any weight and hold up to even the strongest of forces.
Timmy - Internet.

Comment by Pastafarian Kitty on April 21, 2012 at 10:03am

"The amazing thing is that every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements - the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution - weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way they could get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today." -Lawrence M. Krauss

"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


Comment by Alex Barnham on April 22, 2012 at 6:14pm

Yes but did they suffer and die?

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