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

Source: Equitable Commerce: a New Development of Principles, as Substitutes for Laws and Governments ...: Proposed as Elements of New Society

“But the solution to the riddle of life and space and time lies outside space and time. For, as it should be abundantly clear by now, nothing inside a frame can state, or even ask, anything about that frame. The solution, then, is not the finding of an answer to the riddle of existence, but the realization that there is no riddle. This is the essence of the beautiful, almost Zen Buddhist closing sentences of the Tracticus: "For an answer which cannot be expressed the question too cannot be expressed. The riddle does not exist."”

Source: Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes

“The United States is not a Christian nation. It is a great nation with Christians, among others, in it. But our greatness is based on the fact that there is no official religion.”

States Facts Christian Nations United United States Atheism Greatness Positive Atheism Officials Great Nations Christian Nation

Author:Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.

“Two hundred years ago the forces of freedom challenged this idea. The children of the new enlightenment rose up to defy the tyranny of arrogant clergy and the censorship of pious bureaucrats. They boldly proclaimed that the state must be free from religious coercion and that religion must be free from state control. All individuals have the right to pursue the dictates of their own conscience. All citizens even have the right not to be religious at all.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Let them all believe whatever they want. It is pointless to go on radio shows and wrangle over mystical claims. However, such claims must not be imposed on captive children in government-owned schools. That is prohibited by the separation of church and state, a core principle in the First Amendment in America's Bill of Rights.”

“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.”

“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

“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.”

“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.”

States Joy Atheism Taught Salvation Conviction Positive Atheism Theology Doctrine Mortals Sincerity Predestined Perdition

Book:The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World

Source: The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World

“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.”

“As women are taking an active part in pressing on the consideration of Congress many narrow sectarian measures, such as more rigid Sunday laws, the stopping of travel, the distribution of the mail on that day, and the introduction of the name of God into the Constitution; and as this action on the part of some women is used as an argument for the disfranchisement of all, I hope this convention will declare that the Woman Suffrage Association is opposed to all union of Church and State, and pledges itself as far as possible to maintain the secular nature of our Government.”

“It is easy to see that the inventor of the heaven did not originate the idea, but copied it from the show-ceremonies of some sorry little sovereign State up in the back settlements of the Orient somewhere.”

Littles Ideas States Shows Heaven Easy Atheism Sorry Positive Atheism Sovereign Ceremony Inventor Settlement

Book:The Bible According to Mark Twain

Source: The Bible According to Mark Twain

“But every state, says an inquisitor, has established some religion. No two, say I, have established the same. Is this a proof of the infallibility of establishments?”

Two States Atheism Positive Atheism Proof Establishment Infallibility

Book:The portable Thomas Jefferson

Source: The portable Thomas Jefferson

“Turning, then, from this loathsome combination of church and state, and weeping over the follies of our fellow men, who yield themselves the willing dupes and drudges of these mountebanks, I consider reformation and redress as desperate, and abandon them to the Quixotism of more enthusiastic minds.”

Source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, Volume 8: 1 October 1814 to 31 August 1815: 1 October 1814 to 31 August 1815

“I am anxious to see the doctrine of one god commenced in our state. But the population of my neighborhood is too slender, and is too much divided into other sects to maintain any one preacher well. I must therefore be contented to be an Unitarian by myself, although I know there are many around me who would become so, if once they could hear the questions fairly stated.”

Ifs Knows Wells States Too Much Atheism Population Positive Atheism Doctrine Neighborhood Divided Anxious Preacher Sects Slender Unitarian

Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson

“I trust there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian.”

Men States Young Dies United United States Atheism Positive Atheism Young Man Unitarian

Book:Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States

Source: Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States

“[T]he bill exceeds the rightful authority to which governments are limited by the essential distinction between civil and religious functions, and violates in particular the article of the Constitution of the United States which declares that Congress shall make no law respecting a religious establishment.... This particular church, therefore, would so far be a religious establishment by law, a legal force and sanction being given to certain articles in its constitution and administration.”

“And may I not be allowed to ... read in the character of the American people, in their devotion to true liberty and to the Constitution which is its palladium [protection], ... a Government which watches over ... the equal interdict [prohibition] against encroachments and compacts between religion and the state.”

People May States Character Government Liberty Watches Atheism Equal Constitution Positive Atheism Protection Devotion Prohibition Encroachment

Author:James Madison

“The taboos that I have mentioned are extraordinarily harsh and numerous. They stand around nearly every subject that is genuinely important to man: they hedge in free opinion and experimentation on all sides. Consider, for example, the matter of religion. It is debated freely and furiously in almost every country in the world save the United States, but here the critic is silenced. The result is that all religions are equally safeguarded against criticism, and that all of them lose vitality. We protect the status quo, and so make steady war upon revision and improvement.”

“Figures cannot calculate the amount collected by those public and private robbers: it is more than would liberate every slave in the United States; it would pay the British debt! They say, We do not force people to give. I see no difference between forcing a man out of his money, at the mouth of a pistol, and forcing it from by trick and cunning; the crime is the same.”

People Men Giving States Force Differences United Pay United States Atheism Crime Figures Amount Mouths Slave British Positive Atheism Debt Tricks Cunning Robbers Pistols

Author:Anne Royall

“[G]et two-thirds of the states to alter the Constitution; come out with their national religion, and then let the people get their throats ready.”

People Two States Atheism Ready Thirds Constitution Positive Atheism Throat

Author:Anne Royall

“Does not Eternity appear dreadful to you. I often get to thinking of it and it seems so dark to me that I almost wish there was no Eternity. To think that we must forever live and never cease to be. It seems as if Death would be a relief to so endless a state of existence.”

Ifs Thinking Doe States Seems Would Be Wish Dark Existence Forever Atheism Eternity Positive Atheism Endless Cease Relief

Author:Emily Dickinson

“The good of the people must be the great purpose of government. By the laws of nature and of reason, the governors are invested with power to that end. And the greatest good of the people is liberty. It is to the state what health is to the individual.”

People Ends States Reason Government Law Purpose Individual Liberty Atheism Positive Atheism Governors Laws Of Nature Purpose Of Government

Author:Denis Diderot

“Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.”

States Government Religion Church Religious Liberty Atheism Founding Fathers Religion Founding Fathers Religious Founding Fathers Atheist Meddling Religion And Government Morality And Religion

Book:Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle... Series A-[B]

Source: Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle... Series A-[B]

“The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month's time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen. Or maybe one that wasn't going to happen, does.”

Doe States Done Happens Today Atheism Produce Months Periods Wings Tiny Atmosphere Butterfly Coast Devastated Tornadoes Flapping

Author:Ian Stewart

“The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature. . . . [In] the formation of the American governments . . . it will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of heaven. . . . These governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.”

“The Government of the United States possesses no power whatever over the question of religion.”

States Government United United States Atheism Positive Atheism

Book:The Works of James Buchanan: Comprising His Speeches, State Papers, and Private Correspondence

Source: The Works of James Buchanan: Comprising His Speeches, State Papers, and Private Correspondence

“A school prayer amendment would confer upon public school boards a power the First Amendment now denies to Congress and the states, that is, the power to establish religion.”

Firsts States School Prayer Atheism Congress Deny Positive Atheism Boards Amendments Public School First Amendment School Board

Author:Sam Ervin

“I believe in a wall between church and state so high that no one can climb over it. When religion controls government, political liberty dies; and when government controls religion, religious liberty perishes. Every American has the constitutional right not to be taxed or have his tax money expended for the establishment of religion. For too long the issue of government aid to church related organizations has been a divisive force in our society and in the Congress. It has erected communication barriers among our religions and fostered intolerance.”

“To speak plainly and truthfully about the state of our world - to say, for instance, that the Bible and the Koran both contain mountains of life-destroying gibberish - is antithetical to tolerance as moderates currently conceive it. But we can no longer afford the luxury of such political correctness. We must finally recognize the price we are paying to maintain the iconography of our ignorance.”

World States Political Speak Atheism Ignorance Mountain Positive Atheism Tolerance Instance Luxury Our World Destroying Moderates Political Correctness Correctness Iconography

Author:Sam Harris

“... happily the Government of the United States... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

“Resolved, That we especially protest against this present attempt to force all the people to follow the religious dictates of a part of the people, as establishing a precedent for the entrance of a most dangerous complicity between Church and State, thereby subtly undermining the foundation of liberty, so carefully laid by the wisdom of our fathers.”

People States Father Force Church Religious Liberty Atheism Dangerous Foundation Positive Atheism Protest Our Father Church And State Entrances Precedent Undermining Complicity

Author:Ellen Battelle Dietrick

“The only method of restoring the natural equality of dignity between men and women, lies in the demolishment of that elaborate theological structure which maintains that woman is made for the possession of man in a sense in which man is not made for woman, and that celibacy, per se, is a state of superior purity. Nature and common sense (not metaphysical sense) demonstrate that there is no good reason why any man or any woman should take, claim, or wield "lordship" over another.”

“Separation of church and state in Virginia, instead of weakening Christianity, as the conservatives of the Revolution had feared, really aided it in securing a power over men far greater than it had known in the past.”

Men States Past Church Known Christianity Greater Atheism Revolution Positive Atheism Separation Church And State Virginia Separation Of Church And State Weakening

Author:H. J Eckenrode

“The union of church and state put the church under a political control... The church was thoroughly subordinated to the state.”

States Political Church Atheism Unions Positive Atheism Church And State

Author:H. J Eckenrode

States Christianity Atheism Paper Argument Positive Atheism Spite Opposition Papers Assertion

Author:H. J Eckenrode

“In France, we have laïcité, which means that atheism is almost our state religion. But I think a very important part of Western culture is in the centuries when Christianism was dominant and was present in almost all works of art - not only liturgical works, but also literature and music. Yes, it's important to have that in our present. It doesn't mean that people have to adhere to a dogma or practice a religion, but it's part of our heritage, and you have to at least try to understand it. Otherwise you can't be a modern person.”

“The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.”

Source: The Writings of James Madison: 1808-1819

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