Quotessence
Home / Authors / Steve Allen Books
Steve Allen

Steve Allen Books

Television Personality

Reflections

A source page for quotes linked to Steve Allen.

0 quotes

Funny people

A source page for quotes linked to Steve Allen.

0 quotes

Related Quotes

“There are hundreds of millions who believe the Messiah has come. If he did, then it is unfortunately the case that his heroic sacrifice and death have had no effect whatsoever on the very problem his coming might have been expected to address, for history demonstrates, beyond question, that we Christians have been just as dangerous, singly and en masse, as non-Christians.”

IfsBelieveHas BeensProblemMightChristianReligionMillionsCasesSacrificeEffectsDangerousExpectedAddressesHeroicMight Have BeenMessiah
Author:Steve Allen
Create image

“There are few pages of history which do not demonstrate that public prayer and ritual never inoculated people against mass-madness and cruelty. What is needed is emphasis on morality and manners.”

PeopleReligionPrayerNeededMoralityMassPagesMadnessCrueltyMannersRitualEmphasis
Book:Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio : Raising the Standards of Popular Culture
Create image

“Religious believers of the world, you are free to continue to debate the simple, narrow question that divides you from atheists, but you have no right, in so doing, to treat the Humanists of the world with contempt. You owe them a deep debt of gratitude, for not only have they shed much light on a naturally dark world but they have very probably helped civilize your own specific religion.”

WorldLightReligionReligiousDarkSimpleGratitudeTreatsAtheistDebtBelieverDebateDividesContemptShedDebt Of GratitudeDark WorldContempt You
Book:Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio : Raising the Standards of Popular Culture
Create image

“Impartial observers from other planets would consider ours an utterly bizarre enclave if it were populated by birds, defined as flying animals, that nevertheless rarely or never actually flew. They would also be perplexed if they encountered in our seas, lakes, rivers, and ponds, creatures defined as swimmers that never did any swimming. But they would be even more surprised to encounter a species defined as a thinking animal if, in fact, the creature very rarely indulged in actual thinking.”

IfsThinkingFactsWould BeAnimalSeaPlanetsCreaturesBirdRiversSpeciesFlyingDefinedEncountersLakesSwimmingNeverthelessBizarreObserversFlewPondsSwimmerPerplexed
Book:Dumbth: The Lost Art of Thinking : with 101 Ways to Reason Better & Improve Your Mind
Create image

“Without laughter life on our planet would be intolerable. So important is laughter to us that humanity highly rewards members of one of the most unusual professions on earth, those who make a living by inducing laughter in others. This is very strange if you stop to think of it: that otherwise sane and responsible citizens should devote their professional energies to causing others to make sharp, explosive barking-like exhalations.”

IfsThinkingShouldImportantWould BeEarthHumanityEnergyStrangePlanetsCitizensMembersLaughterResponsibleRewardsProfessionUnusualSaneOur PlanetExplosives
Book:Funny people
Create image

“The Bible is unfortunately unclear on a long list of moral and social questions and sex is one of them. On the one hand, there are expressions of admiration for the reportedly virgin mother of Jesus, but other portions of scripture speak quite accommodatingly of polygamy.”

LongHandsMotherJesusSpeakSocialSexMoralExpressionListsScriptureAdmirationPortionsVirginsPolygamyUnclear
Book:Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio : Raising the Standards of Popular Culture
Create image

“The fundamentalist believer is mostly a weird intellectual who often lacks real faith altogether. As a self-appointed attorney for God, who is in no need of attorneys, he very easily turns out to be more godless than the agnostic and the unbeliever. At all events, he seems deaf to poetry.”

NeedsRealSelfSeemsTurnsAtheismEventsIntellectualPositive AtheismBelieverAgnosticDeafAttorneyFundamentalistUnbelievers
Book:More Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion and Morality
Create image

“Consider the wave of revulsion that floods the average person when he or she hears of the practice of human sacrifice by the Aztecs and other so-called primitive peoples. How savage and barbaric such practices seem. But when a Christian or Jew comes across human sacrifice in the Bible (see Jephthah's immolation of his daughter in Judges 11:30-40), is he or she repulsed?”

HumansPersonsSeemsChristianReligiousPracticeSacrificeJudgingDaughterBibleAverageWaveJewPrimitiveFloodSavagesAverage PersonBarbaricRevulsion
Author:Steve Allen
Create image

“I cannot see how it can be argued that one should speak in tones of reverence and awe about the alleged divine instruction-in Psalms-to grab the defenseless bodies of innocent infants and dash their brains out against the nearest rocks or walls.”

ShouldBodySpeakReligiousBrainRocksDivineWallBibleInnocentToneAweInstructionReverenceInfantPsalmsDefenseless
Book:More Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion and Morality
Create image