Best atheism & belief Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“It is difficult, none the less, for the ordinary man to cast off orthodox beliefs, for he is seldom allowed to hear the other side... Whereas the Christian view is pressed on him day in and day out.”

Men Christian Belief Difficult Sides Views Atheism Ordinary Casts Positive Atheism Orthodox Ordinary Man

Author:Margaret E. Knight

“It is a mistake to try to impose Christian beliefs on children and to make them the basis of moral training. The moral education of children is much too important a matter to be built on such foundations.”

Trying Children Important Matter Christian Belief Mistake Moral Atheism Training Built Bases Foundation Positive Atheism Moral Education

Author:Margaret E. Knight

“The inner defenses are unconscious. They consist of a kind of magic aura which the mind builds around cherished belief. Arguments which penetrate into the magic aura are not dealt with rationally but by a specific type of pseudo-reasoning. Absurdities and contradictions are made acceptable by specious rationalizations.”

Mind Kind Made Belief Magic Atheism Type Argument Positive Atheism Defense Reasoning Unconscious Contradiction Acceptable Absurdity Penetrate Auras Pseudo

Author:Arthur Koestler

“Homo religiosus invents religious symbols, which he venerates and worships to save him from facing the finality of his death and dissolution. He devises paradise fictions to provide succor and support... In acts of supreme self-deception, at various times and in various places he has been willing to profess belief in the most incredible myths because of what they have promised him.”

Has Beens Self Belief Religious Fiction Support Atheism Willing Worship Incredibles Various Positive Atheism Myth Supreme Symbols Deception Paradise Self Deception Dissolution Finality

Author:Paul Kurtz

“Human life has no meaning independent of itself. There is no cosmic force or deity to give it meaning or significance. There is no ultimate destiny for man. Such a belief is an illusion of humankind's infancy. The meaning of life is what we choose to give it. Meaning grows out of human purposes alone. Nature provides us with an infinite range of opportunities, but it is only our vision and our action that select and realize those that we desire.”

“The skeptic has no illusions about life, nor a vain belief in the promise of immortality. Since this life here and now is all we can know, our most reasonable option is to live it fully.”

Knows Belief Atheism Promise Illusion Positive Atheism This Life Vain Immortality Reasonable Here And Now Skeptic

Book:The Transcendental Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal

Source: The Transcendental Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal

“God, once imagined to be an omnipresent force throughout the whole world of nature and man. has been increasingly tending to seem omniabsent. Everywhere, intelligent and educated people rely more and more on purely secular and scientific techniques for the solution of their problems. As science advances, belief in divine miracles and the efficacy of prayer becomes fainter and fainter.”

“An ideology can be defined as a group of beliefs that individuals borrow; most people borrow an ideology by identifying with a social group ... with a body of sacred documents and heroes.”

People Body Individual Belief Social Groups Atheism Hero Sacred Positive Atheism Ideology Defined Documents Identifying Social Groups

Author:Robert E Lane

“It seems to me that the bane of our country is a profession of faith either with no basis of real belief, or with no proper examination of the grounds on which the creed is supposed to rest.”

Real Country Seems Belief Atheism Bases Positive Atheism Profession Our Country Creeds Examination Bane

Book:The Complete Writings of James Russell Lowell: Letters

Source: The Complete Writings of James Russell Lowell: Letters

“The absence of theistic belief...”

Belief Atheism Absence

Author:Joseph McCabe

“To abdicate from the rule of reason and substitute for it an authentication of belief by the intentness and degree of conviction with which we hold it can be perilous and destructive. Religious beliefs give a spurious spiritual dimension to tribal enmities.”

Giving Reason Spiritual Belief Religious Atheism Degrees Conviction Dimensions Destructive Substitutes Religious Belief Enmity Spiritual Dimensions

Author:Peter Medawar

“It goes with the passionate intensity and deep conviction of the truth of a religious belief, and of course of the importance of the superstitious observances that go with it, that we should want others to share it - and the only certain way to cause a religious belief to be held by everyone is to liquidate nonbelievers. The price in blood and tears that mankind generally has had to pay for the comfort and spiritual refreshment that religion has brought to a few has been too great to justify our entrusting moral accountancy to religious belief.”

Source: The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science

“Whatever his private beliefs and religious practice, a president must be the guardian of the laws which ensure America's religious diversity.”

America Law Belief President Religious Practice Atheism Diversity Positive Atheism Guardian Religious Diversity Religious Practices

Author:Walter F. Mondale

“He was extremely reticent in his religious sentiments, at least in all that he wrote. Allusions to his belief are rarely, if ever, to be met with in his correspondence.”

Ifs Belief Religious Atheism Mets Positive Atheism Sentiments Correspondence Allusion

Author:Daniel Coit Gilman

“I feel like I am not an American in the eyes of my government because of their religious beliefs. I think that is un-American.”

Thinking Feels Government Eye Belief Religious Atheism Positive Atheism Religious Belief

Author:Michael Newdow

“The history of all times and nations teaches us that exactly in the naïve, unshakable belief, furnished by religion in active life of believers, originate the most intense motives for the most significant creative performance, not only in the field of arts and sciences but also in politics.”

Art Belief Nations Teach Creative Atheism Fields Performances Positive Atheism Active Believer Significant Intense All Time Motive Art And Science Unshakable Active Life

Author:Max Planck

“As Stephen Jay Gould pointed out in Time, in no other Western country is the teaching of Evolution regarded as controversial. Throughout the world, one way or another, most Christian denominations have managed to reconcile belief in God with belief in the mechanisms of natural selection. A French or German or Scandinavian politician who called for students to entertain as a reasonable deduction from existing evidence the proposition that Earth is at most 10,000 years old would be bundled off to a mental hospital.”

“"Heresy," by the way, simply means "choice." It came to mean "thoughtcrime," implying it was blasphemy to presume to choose your own belief instead of swallowing what the bishops spoonfed you.”

Way Mean Choices Belief Atheism Positive Atheism Heresy Bishops Blasphemy Swallowing Implying

Author:Robert M. Price

“Heretics were most often bitterly persecuted for the their least deviation from accepted belief. It was precisely their obstinacy about trifles that irritated the righteous to madness.”

Belief Atheism Madness Positive Atheism Accepted Righteous Trifles Heretic Persecuted Irritated Obstinacy Deviation

Author:Lev Shestov

“The leap of faith is a strategic impasse that confronts every Christian in search of converts; and, as he sees the matter, there is no wrong way to become a Christian. It is the end that is importnat, not the means; it does not matter why you believe, so long as you believe. For the philosopher, in contrast, the paramount issue is the justification of belief, not the fact of belief itself.”

Way Believe Mean Long Doe Ends Matter Facts Christian Belief Issues Atheism Philosopher Positive Atheism Leap Contrast Justification Strategic Wrong Way Paramount Leap Of Faith Impasse

Author:George H. Smith

“Obviously, if theism is a belief in a God and atheism is a lack of a belief in a God, no third position or middle ground is possible. A person can either believe or not believe in a God. Therefore, our previous definition of atheism has made an impossibility out of the common usage of agnosticism to mean "neither affirming nor denying a belief in God."”

Source: An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism

“There are a large number of people who can and do manage to lead decent upright lives with no use for a belief in God as a guide. Atheists do not care whether others believe as they do. They do ask, however, for the right to believe as they wish.”

People Believe Use Care Asks Belief Wish Numbers Atheism Atheist Guides Manage Decent Large Numbers Belief In God

Author:Gordon Stein

“"You ought to be ashamed," a woman in an Easter bonnet told Stein. "Your race gave us our religion..." "From ancient polytheism, the belief in lots of gods," the woman continued a little more eruditely, "the Hebrew nation led us on to the idea that there is only one." "Which is just a step from the truth," said Stein.”

Littles Said Ideas Belief Nations Race Steps Atheism Ought Ancient Positive Atheism Ashamed Easter Hebrew Bonnets Polytheism

Book:The Blood of the Lamb: A Novel

Source: The Blood of the Lamb: A Novel

“Religions have a strong binding function and a cohesive element. They emphasize the primacy of the community as opposed to the individual, and they also help set one community apart from another that doesn't share their beliefs.”

Helping Individual Belief Strong Community Share Atheism Elements Function Positive Atheism Binding Primacy

Author:Frans de Waal

“As I have already said, the belief that one's own view of reality is the only reality is the most dangerous or all delusions. It becomes still more dangerous if it is coupled with the missionary zeal to enlighten the rest of the world, whether the rest of the world wishes to be enlightened or not. To refuse to embrace wholeheartedly a particular definition of reality, to dare to see the world differently can become a "think crime" in a truly Orwellian sense as we get steadily closer to 1984.”

Source: How real is real?: Confusion, disinformation, communication

“Even though their arguments did not invoke religion, I think we all know what's behind these arguments. They're trying to protect religious beliefs from contradiction by science. They used to do it by prohibiting teachers from teaching evolution at all; then they wanted to teach intelligent design as an alternative theory; now they want the supposed "weaknesses" in evolution pointed out. But it's all the same program - it's all an attempt to let religious ideas determine what is taught in science courses.”

“Character is in turn the enduring source of virtue. It stands by itself and excites admiration in others. It is not obedience to authority, and while it is often consistent with and reinforced by religious belief, it is not piety.”

Character Turns Belief Religious Virtue Atheism Source Authority Endure Obedience Consistent Admiration Piety Religious Belief Obedience To Authority

Book:Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

Source: Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

“At no time have I ever said that people should be stripped of their right to the insanity of belief in God. If they want to practice this kind of irrationality, that's their business. It won't get them anywhere; it certainly won't make them happier or more compassionate human beings; but if they want to chew that particular cud. they're welcome to it.”

People Ifs Want Should Humans Kind Said Belief Human Beings Practice Atheism Particular Welcome Insanity Compassionate Belief In God Irrationality

Author:Madalyn Murray O'Hair

“Atheism is the lack of belief in a god (or gods). It makes no claim. It merely rejects the claim that a god (or gods) exists. Nothing more.”

Belief Atheism Claims Rejects God Exists

Author:Ricky Gervais

“A comely female inhabiting the Mohammedan Paradise to make things cheery for the good Mussulman, whose belief in her existence marks a noble discontent with his earthly spouse, whom he denies a soul.”

Soul Belief Existence Atheism Female Mark Deny Positive Atheism Noble Paradise Spouse Discontent

Book:The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“There are, however, exceptions to this reliance on feelings as evidence of truth: if, for instance, your feelings lead to disbelief instead of belief, they're apt to be dismissed as some form of denial. This is not a common problem. Usually intellectualism, not feeling reality, is blamed for disbelief. But, some angel experts suggest, there may be emotional as well as intellectual barriers to belief: unwillingness to believe in angels can reflect low self-esteem.”

“I believe in absolute freedom of conscience for all men and equality of all churches, all sects and all beliefs before the law as a matter of right and not as a matter of favor. I believe in the absolute separation of church and state and in the strict enforcement of the Constitution that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof I believe that no tribunal of any church has any power to make any decree of any force in the law of the land, other than to establish the status of its own communicants within its own church.”

“The beliefs which we have most warrant for, have no safeguard to rest on, but a standing invitation to the whole world to prove them unfounded.”

World Whole Belief Atheism Prove Standing Positive Atheism Whole World Invitations Warrants

Book:John Stuart Mill's Social and Political Thought: Freedom

Source: John Stuart Mill's Social and Political Thought: Freedom

“Belief, thus, in the supernatural, great as are the services which it rendered in the early stages of human development, cannot be considered to be any longer required, either for enabling us to know what is right and wrong in social morality, or for supplying us with motives to do right and to abstain from wrong.”

Knows Humans Belief Social Atheism Stage Development Morality Positive Atheism Motive Human Development Enabling

Book:Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism. Being three Essays on Religion. With introductory notice by Helen Taylor

Source: Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism. Being three Essays on Religion. With introductory notice by Helen Taylor

“What makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but the way in which he holds them. If he holds them because his elders told him they were true when he was young, or if he holds them because if he did not he would be unhappy, his thought is not free; but if he holds them because, after careful thought, he finds a balance in their favor, then his thought is free, however odd his conclusions may seem.”

Ifs Way May Seems Would Be Young Belief Atheism Balance Careful Positive Atheism Favors Unhappy Conclusion Odd Thinker Elders Free Thinkers

Book:The Value of Free Thought: How to Become a Truth-seeker and Break the Chains of Mental Slavery

Source: The Value of Free Thought: How to Become a Truth-seeker and Break the Chains of Mental Slavery

“Are science and religion converging? No. There are modern scientists whose words sound religious but whose beliefs, on close examination, turn out to be identical to those of other scientists who straightforwardly call themselves atheists.”

Turns Belief Sound Religious Atheism Modern Scientist Atheist Positive Atheism Science And Religion Examination Identical

Book:A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love

Source: A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love

“How to raise this dead level of theistic belief is really a matter of life and death for all denominations. Therefore their tolerance; but it is a tolerance not of understanding; but of weakness.”

Matter Belief Understanding Levels Atheism Weakness Raises Positive Atheism Tolerance Life And Death Denominations

Book:Mother Earth, a Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Social Science and Literature

Source: Mother Earth, a Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Social Science and Literature

“Atheism ... in its philosophic aspect refuses allegiance not merely to a definite concept of God, but it refuses all servitude to the God idea, and opposes the theistic principle as such. Gods in their individual function are not half as pernicious as the principle of theism which represents the belief in a supernatural, or even omnipotent, power to rule the earth and man upon it. It is the absolutism of theism, its pernicious influence upon humanity, its paralyzing effect upon thought and action, which Atheism is fighting with all its power.”

Source: Mother Earth Bulletin

“The two big mistakes were the belief in a sky god - that there's a man in the sky with 10 things he doesn't want you to do and you'll burn for a long time if you do them - and private property, which I think is at the core of our failure as a species. That's the source of my indignations, my dissatisfactions, however it comes out on the stage. I feel betrayed by the people I'm part of, these creatures, these magnificent creatures.”

“The belief in supernatural forces remains to this day a yoke on the neck of humanity, but at least Thales made it possible, for those of us who wish it, to be free of that yoke.”

Made Humanity Belief Force Wish Atheism Remains Positive Atheism Made It Necks This Day Yoke Supernatural Forces

Book:Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses

Source: Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses

“When life is so harsh that a man loses all hope in himself, then he raises his eyes to a shining rock, worshipping it, just to find hope again, rather than looking to his own acts for hope and salvation. Yes, atheism IS a redemptive belief. It is theism that denies man's own redemptive nature.”

Men Eye Life Is Belief Loses Atheism Rocks Raises Salvation Shining Deny His Eyes Harsh Theism

Author:Isaac Asimov

“Science ... warns me to be careful how I adopt a view which jumps with my preconceptions, and to require stronger evidence for such belief than for one to which I was previously hostile. My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.”

Trying Facts Science Belief Views Teach Atheism Evidence Stronger Careful Aspiration Be Careful Conform Hostile Preconceptions

Book:Life and Letters of Thomas Huxley, by His Son, Leonard Huxley

Source: Life and Letters of Thomas Huxley, by His Son, Leonard Huxley

“This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. It is widespread. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths.”

Men Belief Views Roles Atheism Equal Inferiors

Author:Jimmy Carter

“If we would destroy the Christian religion, we must first of all destroy man's belief in the Bible.”

Ifs Men Firsts Christian Belief Atheism Belief In The Bible

Author:Voltaire

“It is safe to say that almost every person living in New Orleans at the moment Hurricane Katrina struck shared your belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, and compassionate God. But what was God doing while Katrina laid waste to their city? Surely He heard the prayers of those elderly men and women who fled the rising waters for the safety of their attics, only to be slowly drowned there.”

“Belief in Some One's right to punish you is the fate of all children in Judaic-Christian culture. But nowhere else, perhaps, have the rich seed-beds of Western homes found such a growing climate for guilt as is produced in the South by the combination of a warm moist evangelism and racial segregation.”

Children Home Christian Culture Found Belief Rich Fate Growing Atheism Bed Guilt South Climate Western Warm Positive Atheism Seeds Combination Segregation Evangelism Racial Segregation

Author:Lillian Smith

“Custom, law bent my first years to the religion of the happy Muslims. I see it too clearly: the care taken of our childhood forms our feelings, our habits, our belief. By the Ganges I would have been a slave of the false gods, a Christian in Paris, a Muslim here.”

Years Firsts Has Beens Feelings Care Christian Form Law Belief Taken Atheism Childhood Habit Our Children Slave Positive Atheism Paris Customs Bent False Gods

Author:Voltaire

“A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.”

Men Mind Wisdom Religion Belief Knowledge Wise Atheism Evidence Proportion Humanist Wisest Man

Author:David Hume

“Atheism is the absence of a belief in a god, nothing more. If the theist wishes to draw monumental implications from this lack of belief, he must argue for his claims.”

Ifs Belief Wish Atheism Draws Claims Absence Arguing Implications Theist

Book:Atheism: The Case Against God

Source: Atheism: The Case Against God

“Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows.”

Religion Belief Grows Atheism Ignorance Miracle Soil

Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

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