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Quote by Thomas Paine

“Ah, reader, put thy trust in thy creator, and thou wilt be safe; but if thou trustest to the book called the scriptures thou trustest to the rotten staff of fable and falsehood.”

Quote by Thomas Paine

Author

Thomas Paine, born on February 9, 1737, and died on June 8, 1809, was a prominent American writer, political figure, and philosopher during the American Revolutionary War. He is renowned for his radical democratic ideas and his contributions to the American independence movement. more

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“If a man really believes that God once upheld slavery; that he commanded soldiers to kill women and babes; that he believed in polygamy; that he persecuted for opinion's sake; that he will punish forever, and that he hates an unbeliever, the effect in my judgment will be bad. It always has been bad. This belief built the dungeons of the Inquisition. This belief made the Puritan murder the Quaker.”

Source: Interviews

“No other work has more often been blamed for more heinous crimes by the perpetrators of such crimes. The Bible has been named as the instigating or justifying factor for many individual and mass crimes, ranging from the religious wars, inquisitions, witch burnings, and pogroms of earlier eras to systematic child abuse and ritual murders today.”

“The obscurity, incredibility and obscenity, so conspicuous in many parts of it, would justly condemn the works of a modern writer. It contains a mixture of inconsistency and contradiction; to call which the word of God, is the highest pitch of extravagance: it is to attribute to the deity that which any person of common sense would blush to confess himself the author of.”

Persons Religion Common Modern Highest Common Sense Contradiction Word Of God Attributes Mixtures Deities Obscurity Extravagance Inconsistency Obscenity

Author:Elihu Palmer

“It is like most other ancient books - a mingling of falsehood and truth, of philosophy and folly - all written by men, and most of the men only partially civilized. Some of its laws are good - some infinitely barbarous. None of the miracles related were performed. . . . Take out the absurdities, the miracles, all that pertains to the supernatural - all the cruel and barbaric laws - and to the remainder I have no objection. Neither would I have for it any great admiration.”

Men Book Philosophy Law Religion Written He Man Miracle Ancient Related Folly Admiration Civilized Falsehood Absurdity Objections Barbaric Mingling

Book:Life and letters

Source: Life and letters

“The Bible, taken as a whole, can be used to praise or condemn practically any human activity, thought, belief, or practice.”

Humans Whole Used Religion Belief Practice Taken Activity Praise Human Activity

Book:Ain't nobody's business if you do: the absurdity of consensual crimes in a free society

Source: Ain't nobody's business if you do: the absurdity of consensual crimes in a free society

“The endeavor to change universal power by selfish supplication I do not believe in.”

Believe Religion Universal Selfish Endeavor Supplication

Author:Thomas A. Edison

“Prayer is of no avail. The lightning falls on the just and the unjust in accordance with natural laws.”

Law Religion Fall Natural Prayer Lightning Unjust Natural Law Religion In Society

Author:Robert Green Ingersoll

“I do not pray. . . . I do not expect God to single me out and grant me advantages over my fellow men. . . . Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility.”

Men Seems Religion Games Challenges Prayer Responsibility Accepting Cry Praying Weakness Advantage Fellows Grants Fellow Man Trickery Rules Of The Game

Author:Zora Neale Hurston

“To say grace, knowing that people on this globe are starving, indicates a highly selfish acquiescence in the arrogantly supposed favoritism of the almighty. A really decent god-believer, far from giving thanks for the food and good health and fortune enjoyed by himself and his family and close friends, would surely curse God for his neglect of the hungry, the sick and the tormented, throughout the world.”

“[Children] are taught that it is a virtue to accept statements without adequate evidence, which leaves them a prey to quacks of every kind in later life, and makes it very difficult for them to accept the methods of thought which are successful in science.”

Kind Children Religion Difficult Accepting Virtue Successful Taught Evidence Method Statements Adequate Prey Quacks

Author:John B. S. Haldane