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Atheism Quotes

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Atheism Quotes

“Man preys on man; and you mourn for the idle tapestry that decorated a gothic pillar, and the dronish bell that summoned the fat priest to prayer. You mourn for the empty pageant of a name, when slavery flaps her wing, ... Why is our fancy to be appalled by terrific perspectives of a hell beyond the grave? - Hell stalks abroad; - the lash resounds on the slave's naked sides; and the sick wretch, who can no longer earn the sour bread of unremitting labour, steals to a ditch to bid the world a long good night.”

MenWorldLongNightNamesSidesPrayerHellAtheismPerspectiveEmptySickSlaveryWingsSlavePositive AtheismGravesStealingBreadNakedFatsFancyLabourPriestsBellsIdlePreyTerrificGothicMournPillarsStalkingSourGood NightLashesTapestryPageant
Author:Mary Wollstonecraft
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“It was in this year, 1828, that the standard of "the Christian Party in Politics" was openly unfurled... This was an evident attempt, through the influence of the clergy over the female mind - until this hour lamentably neglected in the United States - to effect a union of Church and State.”

YearsMindStatesChristianHoursChurchUnitedPartyUnited StatesAtheismInfluenceEffectsStandardsFemaleUnionsPositive AtheismEvidentNeglectedChurch And StateClergyFemale Mind
Author:Frances Wright
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“Self-righteousness and presumptive moral judgments pose a great danger in the political arena. To become convinced of the divine infallibility of one's personal predilections on a secular political issue is to play God, to assume to oneself the attributes of deity. It cultivates an arrogant intolerance of dissenting viewpoints and relegates one's political adversaries to the category of evil per se.”

SelfPlayPoliticalEvilMoralIssuesAtheismDangerDivineJudgmentAssumingOneselfPositive AtheismConvincedRighteousnessCategoriesAttributesArrogantIntoleranceSecularArenaDeitiesAdversariesViewpointsSelf RighteousnessInfallibilityPolitical IssuesMoral Judgment
Author:Jim Wright
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“Given the ambiguity of religious texts and teachings, the mixed historical record, and the empirical evidence, it would be foolhardy to assert that religious faith necessarily upholds democratic values.”

Would BeValuesGivenReligiousRecordsAtheismTeachingEvidenceHistoricalDemocraticPositive AtheismReligious FaithAmbiguityFoolhardyEmpirical EvidenceDemocratic ValuesReligious Texts
Book:Religion and Politics in the United States
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“Organizational Development: The New Christian Right of the 1980s was dominated by paper organizations that were essentially the mailing lists of a handful of politicized ministers. Such organizations were better at issuing press releases than doing the hard work of political mobilization and advocacy. By contrast, the movement of the 1990s has generated a plethora of grass-roots organizations that allocate meaningful responsibilities to individual members. The goal is to create an army of grassroots activists who know how to stimulate political change.”

KnowsHardChristianPoliticalIndividualGoalResponsibilityKnow HowAtheismMovementHard WorkDevelopmentMembersPaperRootsOrganizationArmyPressesPositive AtheismListsMeaningfulReleaseMinistersGrassActivistContrastHandfulAdvocacyOrganizationalGrassrootsChristian RightPolitical ChangeMobilizationMailingPress Release
Author:Kenneth D. Wald
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“Incrementalism: In the first generation, the goal of the movement was wholesale social and cultural transformation. Small, incremental victories were too little given the magnitude of America's moral decay. Since 1988, the new leaders have recognized that incrementalism is the surest path to success in political competition. The current movement is committed to securing small victories now, postponing for the long-term more fundamental changes in society and politics.”

FirstsLittlesLongAmericaPoliticalGivenSocialGoalTermLeaderMoralPathGenerationsAtheismMovementVictoryTransformationFundamentalsCompetitionCurrentsCommittedPositive AtheismLong TermDecayMagnitudeWholesalePostponingPath To SuccessSmall VictoriesChanges In SocietyMoral DecayIncrementalism
Author:Kenneth D. Wald
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“Myth was regarded as primary; it was concerned with what was thought to be timeless and constant in our existence. Myth looked back to the origins of life, to the foundations of culture, and to the deepest levels of the human mind. Myth was not concerned with practical matters, but with meaning. Unless we find some significance in our lives, we mortal men and women fall very easily into despair. The mythos of a society provided people with a context that made sense of their day-to-day lives; it directed their attention to the eternal and the universal.”

PeopleMenMindHumansMadeMatterFallCultureLevelsExistenceAttentionOur LivesAtheismDespairEternalMen And WomenConcernedUniversalFoundationConstantPositive AtheismMythPracticalsMortalsPrimariesSignificanceHuman MindTimelessDay To DayDay LifeOrigin Of LifeDay To Day Life
Book:The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism
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“A ground frequently taken by Christian theologians is that the progress and civilization of the world are due to Christianity; and the discussion is complicated by the fact that many eminent servants of humanity have been nominal Christians, of one or other of the sects. My allegation will be that the special services rendered to human progress by these exceptional men have not been in consequence of their adhesion to Christianity, but in spite of it, and that the specific points of advantage to human kind have been in ratio of their direct opposition to precise Biblical enactments.”

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Book:Has Humanity Gained from Unbelief?: Two Nights Debate Between Marsden Gibson and Charles Bradlaugh at Newcastle-on-Tyne
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“Since the primary motive of the evil is disguise, one of the places evil people are most likely to be found is within the church. What better way to conceal one's evil from oneself, as well as from others, than to be a deacon or some other highly visible form of Christian within our culture? ... I do not mean to imply that the evil are anything other than a small minority among the religious or that the religious motives of most people are in any way spurious. I mean only that evil people tend to gravitate toward piety for the disguise and concealment it can offer them.”

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Author:Martin Buber
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“Here is the infallible test. Imagine yourself in a situation where you are alone, wholly alone on earth, and you are offered one of the two, books or men. I often hear men prizing their solitude but that is only because there are still men somewhere on earth even though in the far distance. I knew nothing of books when I came forth from the womb of my mother, and I shall die without books, with another human hand in my own. I do, indeed, close my door at times and surrender myself to a book, but only because I can open the door again and see a human being looking at me.”

MenHumansStillsI CanTwoBookHandsEarthMotherDiesMy OwnHuman BeingsSituationImagineDoorsAtheismSolitudeTestsDistancePositive AtheismSurrenderWhere You AreWombBecause I CanInfallibleHuman HandsFar Distance
Book:Pointing the way: collected essays. Edited and translated with an introd. by Maurice S. Friedman
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“I have hitherto followed the lines marked out by the Theist in his attempt to prove that there exists a mind behind natural phenomena, and that the universe as we have it is, at least generally, an evidence of a plan designed by this mind. I have also pointed out that the only datum for such a conclusion is the universe we know. We must take that as a starting point. We can get neither behind it nor beyond it. We cannot start with God and deduce the universe from his existence; we must start with the world as we know it, and deduce God from the world.”

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Author:Chapman Cohen
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“We are a people of many races, many faiths, creeds, and religions. I do not think that the men who made the Constitution forbade the establishment of a State church because they were opposed to religion. They knew that the introduction of religious differences into American life would undermine the democratic foundations of this country. What holds for adults holds even more for children, sensitive and conscious of differences. I certainly hope that the Board of Education will think very, very seriously before it introduces this division and antagonism in our public schools.”

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Author:John Dewey
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“There comes a moment during which almost every girl or boy falls into melancholy; they are tormented by a vague inquietude which rests on everything and finds nothing to calm it. They seek solitude; they weep; the silence to be found in cloister attracts them: the image of peace that seems to reign in religious houses seduces them. They mistake the first manifestations of a developing sexual nature for the voice of God calling them to Himself; and it is precisely when nature is inciting them that they embrace a fashion of life contrary to nature's wish.”

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Author:Denis Diderot
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“Encourage free schools and resolve that not one dollar appropriated for their support shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian schools. Resolve that neither the state nor nation, nor both combined, shall support institutions of learning other than those sufficient to afford every child growing up in the land of opportunity of a good common school education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan, or atheistical dogmas. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church and the private school supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate.”

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Author:Ulysses S. Grant
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“I am pleased as punch no longer to believe in a god who declares reason a sin, who will not choose many noble and great and wise things but has chosen the base things of the world, the foolish things, the weak things and the things which are not. A god who can choose his companions in eternity and prefers Jerry Falwell and Tammy Bakker over Albert Einstein and Marie Curie. I am no longer a fool for Christ's sake. And I have no more desire to be a sheep than to be a fool. It is possible to pull out justification for imposing your will on others, simply by calling your will God's will.”

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Author:Ruth Hurmence Green
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“Although I'm not Christian, I was raised Christian. I'm an atheist, with a slight Buddhist leaning. I've got a very strong sense of morality - it's just a different morality than the loud voices of the Christian morality.... I can't tell you how many films I've turned down because there was an absence of morality. And I don't mean that from any sort of Judeo-Christian-Muslim point of view. I'm not saying they're wrong and can't be made. But, fundamentally, I'm such a humanist that I can't bear to make films that make us feel humanity is more dark than it is light.”

FeelsMeanMadeI CanDifferentLightChristianFilmHumanityStrongVoiceDarkViewsAtheismBearsMoralityRaisedAtheistPositive AtheismPoint Of ViewAbsenceBuddhistLoudHumanistVery StrongTurned DownChristian MoralityLoud Voices
Author:Rachel Griffiths
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“The place whereon the priest formerly raveled out the small intestine of the sacrificial victim for purposes of divination and cooked its flesh for the gods. The word is now seldom used, except with reference to the sacrifice of their liberty and peace by a male and a female fool.”

UsedPurposeLibertySacrificeAtheismFoolFemaleVictimMalesPositive AtheismFleshPriestsIntestines
Book:Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs
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“In theology, the state of a luckless mortal prenatally damned. The doctrine of reprobation was taught by Calvin, whose joy in it was somewhat marred by the sad sincerity of his conviction that although some are foredoomed to perdition, others are predestined to salvation.”

StatesJoyAtheismTaughtSalvationConvictionPositive AtheismTheologyDoctrineMortalsSincerityPredestinedPerdition
Book:The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World
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“The Church demonstrated the falsity and folly of Darwin's theories by showing that they contradicted the Mosaic account of creation, and now that the theories of Darwin having been fairly established, the Church says that the Mosaic account is true because it is in harmony with Darwin. Now, if it should turn out that Darwin was mistaken, what then?”

IfsShouldTurnsChurchAtheismCreationTheoryAccountsHarmonyPositive AtheismFollyMistakenMosaicsFalsity
Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
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“Orthodox Christians have the habit of claiming all great men, all men who have held important positions, men of reputation, men of wealth. As soon as the funeral is over clergymen begin to relate imaginary conversations with the deceased, and in a very little while the great man is changed to a Christian - possibly to a saint.”

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Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
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“Our civilization is not Christian. It does not come from the skies. It is not a result of inspiration. It is the child of invention, of discovery, of applied knowledge - that is to say, of science. When man becomes great and grand enough to admit that all have equal rights; when thought is untrammeled; when worship shall consist in doing useful things; when religion means the discharge of obligations to our fellow-men, then, and not until then, will the world be civilized.”

MenWorldMeanChildrenDoeEnoughInspirationChristianResultsRightsSkyAtheismCivilizationEqualWorshipDiscoveryFellowsPositive AtheismInventionObligationCivilizedFellow ManEqual RightsDischargeUseful Things
Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
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“The mechanic, when a wheel refuses to turn, never thinks of dropping on his knees and asking the assistance of some divine power. He knows there is a reason. He knows that something is too large or too small; that there is something wrong with his machine; and he goes to work and he makes it larger or smaller, here or there, until the wheel will turn.”

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Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
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