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Atheism Quotes

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Atheism Quotes

“I don't think there is a need for an entity like God in my life.”

Thinking Needs Religion Atheism Entity

Author:Salman Rushdie

“Even the Atheists... readily acknowledge it for an indubitable truth, that there must be something... which was never made or produced - and which therefore is the cause of those other things that are made, something... whose existence must needs be necessary... Wherefore all the question now is, what is this... self-existent thing, which is the cause of all other things that are made.”

Needs Made Self Causes Existence Atheism Atheist Acknowledge

Author:Ralph Cudworth

“Women need not always keep their mouths shut and their wombs open.”

Needs Atheism Mouths Positive Atheism Womb

Book:The traffic in women and other essays on feminism

Source: The traffic in women and other essays on feminism

“What can be accomplished by a few principles is not effected by many. But it seems that everything we see in the world can be accounted for by other principles, supposing God did not exist. For all natural things can be reduced to one principle, which is nature, and all voluntary things can be reduced to one principle, which is human reason, or will. Therefore there is no need to suppose God's existence.”

World Needs Humans Reason Seems Natural Existence Principles Atheism Positive Atheism Accomplished Natural Things Supposing Human Reason

Author:Thomas Aquinas

“As a Christian, a trained engineer and scientist, and a professor at Emory University, I am embarrassed by Superintendent Kathy Cox's attempt to censor and distort the education of Georgia's students.... There is no need to teach that stars can fall out of the sky and land on a flat Earth in order to defend our religious faith.”

“We don't need a constitutional amendment for kids to pray.”

Needs Kids Atheism Praying Positive Atheism Amendments Constitutional Amendments

Author:William J. Clinton

“The American people need no course in philosophy or political science or church history to know that God should not be made into a celestial party chairman. To most of us, the manipulative invoking of religion to advance a politician or a party is frightening and divisive. The American people will tolerate religious leaders taking positions for or against candidates.”

“Science may have come a long way, but as far as religion is concerned, we are first cousins to the !Kung tribesmen of the Kalahari Desert. Except for the garments, their deep religious trances might just as well be happening at a revival meeting or in the congregation of a fundamentalist TV preacher.... As we move further from the life of ignorance and superstition in which religion has its roots, we seem to need it more and more.... Why has religion become a force just when we'd have thought it would be losing ground to secularism?”

“Christianity has sufficient inner strength to survive and flourish on its own. It does not need state subsidies, nor state privileges, nor state prestige. The more it obtains state support the greater it curtails human freedom.”

Needs Humans Doe States Christianity Support Greater Atheism Privilege Positive Atheism Sufficient Inner Strength Prestige Subsidies Human Freedom

Author:William O. Douglas

“The Republicans hardly need a party and the cumbersome cadre of low-level officials that form one; they have a bankroll as large as the Pentagon's budget, dozens of fatted PACs, and the well-advertised support of the Christian deity.”

Needs Wells Christian Form Levels Party Support Atheism Republican Lows Positive Atheism Budgets Officials Dozen Deities Pentagon Low Level Pacs Cadre

Author:Barbara Ehrenreich

“When the masses become better informed about science, they will feel less need for help form supernatural Higher Powers. The need for religion will end when man becomes sensible enough to govern himself.”

Men Needs Feels Ends Enough Helping Form Atheism Higher Mass Positive Atheism Sensible Higher Power

Author:Francesc Ferrer i Guardia

“Only he is a truly ethical, a truly human being, who has the courage to see through his own religious feelings and needs.”

Needs Humans Feelings Religious Human Beings Atheism Positive Atheism Ethical

Author:Ludwig Feuerbach

“Satyagraha means insistence on what one knows to be the truth. The insistence implies the exercise of free will as the need of social obligation. If one is content to know the truth himself, he does not become a votary of Satyagraha. A Satyagrahi should not only know the truth but should insist upon it in social relations. So Satyagraha is activation of truthfulness.”

“The argument that the literal story of Genesis can qualify as science collapses on three major grounds: the creationists' need to invoke miracles in order to compress the events of the earth's history into the biblical span of a few thousand years; their unwillingness to abandon claims clearly disproved, including the assertion that all fossils are products of Noah's flood; and their reliance upon distortion, misquote, half-quote, and citation out of context to characterize the ideas of their opponents.”

“Religion is but a desperate attempt to find an escape from the truly dreadful situation in which we find ourselves. Here we are in this wholly fantastic universe with scarcely a clue as to whether our existence has any real significance. No wonder then that many people feel the need for some belief that gives them a sense of security, and no wonder that they become very angry with people like me who say that this is illusory.”

People Needs Giving Feels Real Universe Belief Existence Situation Wonder Atheism Security Angry Positive Atheism Like Me Fantastic Desperate Significance Clue Illusory

Book:The nature of the universe

Source: The nature of the universe

“We want to be masters of our own destiny. We need no Gods or Emperors. We do not believe in the existence of any saviour. We want to be masters of the world and not instruments used by autocrats to carry out their wild ambitions. We want a modern lifestyle and democracy for the people. Freedom and happiness are our sole objectives in accomplishing modernisation.”

“There are those who feel an imperative need to believe, for whom the values of a belief are proportionate not to its truth, but to its definiteness. Incapable of either admitting the existence of contrary judgments or of suspending their own, they supply the place of knowledge by turning other men's conjectures into dogmas.”

Men Needs Feels Believe Values Belief Existence Atheism Judgment Positive Atheism Contrary Dogma Incapable Imperatives Admitting Conjecture

Author:C. E. M. Joad

“The atheist, agnostic, or secularist ... should insist on the need to engage in a meaningful debate on the entire issue of the truth or falsity (or probability or improbability) of religious tenets, without being subject to accusations of impiety, immorality, impoliteness, or any of the other smokescreens used by the pious to deflect attention from the central issues at hand.”

Needs Should Hands Used Religious Attention Issues Atheism Subjects Atheist Positive Atheism Debate Meaningful Agnostic Probability Pious Accusation Immorality Falsity Improbability

Author:S. T. Joshi

“Choices always were a problem for you. What you need is someone strong to guide you. Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow, what you need is someone strong to use you - like me.”

Needs Use Problem Choices Strong Born Atheism Blind Positive Atheism Guides Like Me Dumb Deaf Deaf And Blind

Author:Maynard James Keenan

“I want here to make three suggestions: first, that the doubts the ordinary man feels about religion are justified, and need not be stifled or concealed; second, that there is no ground for the view that Christianity is the only alternative to communism, or that there can be no sound character training that is not based on religion; and, third, I want to make some practical suggestions to the parents who are not believers, on what they should tell the children about God, and what sort of moral training they should give them.”

“Jesus, in fact, was typical of a certain kind of fanatical young idealist: at one moment holding forth, with tears in his eyes, about the need for universal love; at the next, furiously denouncing the morons, crooks and bigots who did not see eye to eye with him. It is very natural and very human behaviour. But it is not superhuman.”

“Humanists hold that ethical values are relative to human experience and need not be derived from theological or metaphysical foundations.”

Needs Humans Values Atheism Foundation Positive Atheism Ethical Relative Metaphysical Human Experience Theological Ethical Values

Author:Paul Kurtz

“Three key humanist virtues are courage, cognition, and caring - not dependence, ignorance, or insensitivity to the needs of others.”

Needs Three Virtue Atheism Ignorance Keys Caring Positive Atheism Humanist Dependence Cognition Needs Of Others Insensitivity

Author:Paul Kurtz

“The overriding need is "to develop a new Planetary Humanism" that will seek to preserve human rights and enhance human freedom and dignity and will emphasize our commitment "to humanity as a whole." The underlying ethical principle "is the need to respect the dignity and worth of all persons in the world community." Thinkers as diverse as Peter Singer and Hans Küng also emphasize the need for a new global ethic beyond nationalistic, racial, religious, and ethnic chauvinism.”

“We need to be skeptical of utopianists who offer unreliable totalistic visions of other worlds and strive to take us there. We need some ideals, but we also need to protect ourselves from the miscalculations and misadventures of visionaries.”

World Needs Vision Atheism Offers Protect Ideals Strive Positive Atheism Skeptical Visionaries Other Worlds Unreliable Miscalculations Misadventure

Book:The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge

Source: The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge

“I am truly amazed that after all this time, religious groups still need to attack entertainment and use these tragedies as a pitiful excuse for their own self-serving publicity. In response to their protests, I will provide a show where I balance my songs with a wholesome Bible reading. This way, fans will not only hear my so-called, violent point of view, but we can also examine the virtues of wonderful 'Christian' stories of disease, murder, adultery, suicide and child sacrifice. Now that seems like 'entertainment' to me.”

“Never value anything as profitable to thyself which shall compel thee to break thy promise, to lose thy self-respect, to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything which needs walls and curtains.”

Men Needs Self Desire Values Hate Loses Break Atheism Wall Promise Thee Curse Self Respect Suspects Curtains Thyself Profitable Hypocrite

Book:沉思錄:讀了一百年還要再讀一百年的不朽鉅著

Source: 沉思錄:讀了一百年還要再讀一百年的不朽鉅著

“Through the history of the world there have always been exploiters and exploited. There always will be ... because the great mass of men are made by nature to be slaves, they are unfit to control themselves, and for their own good need masters.”

Men World Needs Made Atheism Masters Mass Slave World History Be A Slave

Book:Christmas Holiday

Source: Christmas Holiday

“To discover the true principles of morality, men have no need of theology, of revelation, or of gods. They need but common sense. They have only to look within themselves, to reflect upon their own nature, to consult their obvious interests, to consider the object of society and of each of the members who compose it, and they will easily understand that virtue is an advantage, and that vice is an injury to beings of the species.”

Men Needs Looks Interest Common Principles Virtue Atheism Objects Morality Members Advantage Species Vices Obvious Theology Common Sense Revelations Injury

Author:Jean Meslier

“For truth is strong next to the Almighty. She needs no policies or stratagems or licensings to make her victorious. These are the shifts and the defences that error uses against her power.”

Needs Use Next Strong Atheism Policy Truth Is Errors Almighty Defence Stratagem Licensing

Author:John Milton

“Today, the religion clauses of the First Amendment do not need to be fixed; they need to be followed.”

Needs Firsts Today Atheism Positive Atheism Fixed Amendments First Amendment Clauses

Author:Walter F. Mondale

“Science remains the author of our major problem, in its gift of tremendous power that has been terribly abused; but for the wise use of this power we need more, not less, of the objective dispassionate scientific spirit. For our philosophical purposes we need more of its integrity and its basic humility, its respect at once for the fact and the mystery.”

Needs Has Beens Facts Use Problem Spirit Purpose Wise Mystery Atheism Humility Integrity Majors Philosophical Remains Positive Atheism Objectives Major Problems Dispassionate

Author:Herbert J. Muller

“I don't find any difference between Islam and Islamic fundamentalists. I believe religion is the root, and from the root fundamentalism grows as a poisonous stem. If we remove fundamentalism and keep religion, then one day or another fundamentalism will grow again. I need to say that because some liberals always defend Islam and blame fundamentalists for creating problems. But Islam itself oppresses women. Islam itself doesn't permit democracy and it violates human rights.”

“Right now religion has the romantic aura of the forbidden - Christ is cool. We need to bring it into the schools, which kids already hate, and associate it firmly with boredom, regulation, condescension, makework and de facto segregation ... Prayer in the schools will rid us of the bland no-offense ecumenism that is so infuriating to us anticlericals: Oh, so now you say Jews didn't kill Christ - a little on the late side, isn't it?”

Source: Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture

“The very admission of the need to harmonize is an admission that the burden of proof is on the narratives, not on those who doubt them. What harmonizing shows is that despite appearances, the texts still might be true.”

Needs Stills Shows Might Religion Doubt Atheism Burden Appearance Proof Despite Being True Narrative Admission Burden Of Proof

Book:Beyond Born Again: Toward Evangelical Maturity

Source: Beyond Born Again: Toward Evangelical Maturity

“Surely our clergy need not be surprised at the daily increasing distrust in the public mind of the efficacy of prayer.”

Needs Mind Prayer Atheism Positive Atheism Distrust Clergy Efficacy

Book:Letters to the Clergy on the Lord's Prayer and the Church

Source: Letters to the Clergy on the Lord's Prayer and the Church

“Towards orthodox religion, father's own attitude remained one of tolerance. He looked upon the New Testament as the noble story of a human being which, because of ignorance and the lack of printing presses, had become exaggerated. He maintained that religions served their purpose; some people depended on them all their lives to make them honest. Others did not need to be so held in line. But subjection to any church was a reflection on strength and character. You should be able to get from yourself what you had to go go church for.”

Source: The Autobiography of Margaret Sanger

“I could not believe that anyone who has read this book would be so foolish as to proclaim that the Bible in every literal word was the divinely inspired, inerrant word of God. Have these people simply not read the text? Are they hopelessly misinformed? Is there a different Bible? Are they blinded by a combination of ego needs and naïveté?”

People Needs Believe Book Different Would Be Religion Atheism Ego Inspired Positive Atheism Foolish Combination Word Of God Literal Blinded Vets

Author:John Shelby Spong

“You need not value it yourself if you do not wish to; but you ought to allow it to us who do value it.”

Ifs Needs Values Wish Atheism Ought Positive Atheism

Author:Alexis de Tocqueville

“Christ's religion needs no prop of any kind from any worldly source, and to the degree that it is thus supported is a millstone hanged about its neck.”

Needs Kind Christ Atheism Source Degrees Positive Atheism Necks Worldly Props

Author:George W Truett

“In a Jewish theological seminar there was an hours-long discussion about proofs of the existence of God. After some hours, one rabbi got up and said, "God is so great, he does not even need to exist."”

Needs Long Doe Said Hours Existence Atheism Positive Atheism Proof Discussion Theological Existence Of God Rabbi Seminars

Author:Victor Frederick Weisskopf

“Science needs the intuition and metaphorical power of the arts, and the arts need the fresh blood of science ... Interpretation is the logical channel of consilient explanation between science and the arts. The arts ... also nourish our craving for the mystical.”

Needs Art Blood Atheism Intuition Explanation Logical Interpretation Mystical Craving Metaphorical

Author:E. O. Wilson

“If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good.”

Ifs Needs Littles Religion Culture Atheism Encounters Doing Good

Author:Pope Francis

“We shouldn't even need the word 'atheism'. If people didn't invent ridiculous imaginary gods, rational people wouldn't have to deny them.”

People Ifs Needs Religion Atheism Deny Ridiculous Rational Imaginary

Author:Ricky Gervais

“I wrote The Philosophy of Disenchantment, which is, I think, the gloomiest and worst book ever published. Out of sheer laziness, I then produced a history of atheism, The Anatomy of Negation, which has been honored by international dislike. Need I state that of all my children it is the one that I prefer?”

Thinking Needs Children Has Beens Book States Philosophy Atheism Worst International My Children Dislike Laziness Sheer Honored Anatomy Negation Disenchantment

Author:Edgar Saltus

“If there be an infinite Being, he does not need our help - we need not waste our energies in his defense.”

Ifs Needs Doe Helping Energy Atheism Waste Infinite Positive Atheism Defense

Book:Miscellany

Source: Miscellany

“One thing about religious truths is that we have to take them on faith, and faith needs reassurance. What’s more reassuring than noticing that some other people, whom you admire, are so certain that it’s all true that they’re willing to go the ultimate mile?”

People Needs Certain Religious One Thing Atheism Willing Truth Is Ultimate Positive Atheism Miles Admire Noticing Reassurance Reassuring Religious Truth

Author:Rodney Stark

“The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticism of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system which might, from it's indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power and pre-eminence.”

Source: Jefferson: Political Writings

“If there is no military need for the building, leave it alone, neither putting anyone in or out of it, except on finding some one preaching or practicing treason, in which case lay hands on him, just as if he were doing the same thing in any other building.”

Ifs Needs Hands Cases Atheism Military Building Findings Lays Positive Atheism Preaching Treason

Book:Collected Works: The Abraham Lincoln Association, Springfield, Illinois. Roy P. Basler, Editor; Marion Dolores Pratt and Lloyd A. Dunlap, Assistant Editors

Source: Collected Works: The Abraham Lincoln Association, Springfield, Illinois. Roy P. Basler, Editor; Marion Dolores Pratt and Lloyd A. Dunlap, Assistant Editors

“Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate it needs them not.”

Source: Selected Writings of James Madison