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Quote by Madalyn Murray O'Hair

“I'm atheist because religion is a crutch, and only the crippled need crutches. I can get around perfectly well on my own two feet, and so can everyone else with a backbone and a grain of common sense.”

Quote by Madalyn Murray O'Hair

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Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Madalyn Murray O'Hair

Madalyn Murray O'Hair was an American activist and lawyer, known for her pivotal role in the Supreme Court case Murray v. Curlett (1963), which resulted in the elimination of Bible reading and prayer from public schools. She founded American Atheists and was a significant figure in the secular movement in the United States. more

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“One of the things I did during my 17 years as a psychiatric social worker was go around and find people with mental crutches, and every time I found one, I kicked those goddamn crutches until they flew. You know what happened? Every single one of those people has been able to walk without the crutches better, in fact. Were they giving up anything intrinsically valuable? Just their irrational reliance upon superstitions and supernatural nonsense. Perhaps this sort of claptrap was good for the Stone Age, when people actually believed that if they prayed for rain they would get it.”

PeopleIfsKnowsGivingYearsHas BeensFactsAgeAbleFoundSocialWalksHappenedGiving UpRainStonesWorkersValuableNonsenseSuperstitionsIrrationalRelianceFlewSocial WorkerCrutchesPsychiatricStone Age
Author:Madalyn Murray O'Hair
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“I was about 12 or 13 years old. I picked up the Bible and read it from cover to cover one weekend ,just as if it were a novel, very rapidly, and I've never gotten over the shock of it. The miracles, the inconsistencies, the improbabilities, the impossibilities, the wretched history, the sordid sex, the sadism in it - the whole thing shocked me profoundly.”

IfsYearsWholeSexNovelMiracleShockWeekendShockedImpossibilityWretchedInconsistencySadismImprobability
Author:Madalyn Murray O'Hair
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“When I started going to church, my first memories are of the minister getting up and accusing us of being full of sin, though he didn't say why; then they would pass the collection plate, and I got it in my mind that this had to do with purification of the soul, that we were being invited to buy expiation from our sins. So I gave it all up. It was too nonsensical.”

MindFirstsSoulChurchMemoriesSinMinistersCollectionsPlatesInvitedPurificationAccusingNonsensicalGoing To Church
Author:Madalyn Murray O'Hair
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“I went off to college, a good, middle-class, very proper college, a Brethren institution, where two years of Bible study are required for graduation. It was a good, sound, thorough, but completely biased evaluation of the Bible, and I was delighted with it, because it helped to document my doubts; it gave me a framework within which I could be critical.My independent study continued for 20 years after this. So I do know the Bible very well from a Protestant point of view.”

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Author:Madalyn Murray O'Hair
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“I can't deny that I was an intellectual prostitute along the way many, many times in college. I can remember one examination where they said. "Describe the Devil," and in order to get 12 points on that question one had to say that the Devil was red and had a forked tail and cloven hoofs and fangs and horns on his head. So I merrily wrote this answer down and got my 12 points. I always got straight hundreds in Bible study.”

WaySaidI CanRememberOrderAnswersStudyCollegeIntellectualDevilRedDown AndDenyTailsThey SaidHornsExaminationFangsBible Study
Author:Madalyn Murray O'Hair
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“I recall that I had a terrible struggle finding anything antireligious in the school libraries.But many years later my family moved into a house where a woman had left a box of books containing 20 volumes on the history of the Inquisition. I found out there was a word for people like me: "heretic." I was kind of delighted to find I had an identity.”

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Author:Madalyn Murray O'Hair
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