“Most thoughtful people would agree that morality in the absence of policing is somehow more truly moral than the kind of false morality that vanishes as soon as the police go on strike or the spy camera is switched off, whether the spy camera is a real one monitored in the police station or an imaginary one in heaven.” PeopleKindRealHeavenMoralGoes OnMoralityPoliceCamerasAgreeStrikesAbsenceThoughtfulStationsImaginarySpyReal Ones Book:The God Delusion Source: The God Delusion
“Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me... Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.” MindMayTwoLawHeavenWonderMoralVirtueMoralityWorthyDoctrineTwo ThingsAweMoral LawAwe And Wonder Author:Immanuel Kant
“Real morality is possible when the sanctions for morality are also tangible and real. Therefore, atheism shifts the basis of morality from faith in god to obligations of social living. Moral conduct is not a passport to heaven; it is social necessity.” RealHeavenSocialMoralAtheismMoralityBasesObligationFaith In GodTangibleSanctionsPassports Author:Goparaju Ramachandra Rao
“If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven.” IfsKnowsBelieveWellsBookMatterChristianReligionHeavenOpinionFieldsMoralityEternalFoolishKingdomsResurrectionMistakenMaintainingEternal LifeKingdom Of Heaven Book:Genesi Ad Litteram Source: Genesi Ad Litteram
“Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction.... In its horror of sensuality, it made an idol of asceticism, which has been gradually compromised away into one of legality. It holds out the hope of heaven and the threat of hell, as the appointed and appropriate motives to a virtuous life - in this falling far below the best of the ancients, and doing what lies in it to give to human morality an essentially selfish character.... It is essentially a doctrine of passive obedience; it inculcates submission to all authorities found established.” GivingHumansHas BeensMadeCharacterChristianLyingFallFoundHeavenHellAtheismMoralityHorrorAuthorityThreatPositive AtheismSelfishReactionsDoctrineSensualityObedienceMotiveAppropriateIdolsVirtuousPassiveSubmissionAsceticismLegalityChristian MoralityVirtuous Life Book:Utilitarianism, liberty, and representative government Source: Utilitarianism, liberty, and representative government
“Kant, as we all know, compared moral law to the starry heavens, and found them both sublime. On the naturalistic hypothesis we should rather compare it to the protective blotches on a beetle's back, and find them both ingenious.” KnowsShouldLawFoundHeavenMoralMoralityCompareSublimeHypothesisProtectiveIngeniousMoral LawBeetles Author:Arthur Balfour
“We believe in honesty, morality, and purity; but when they enact tyrannical laws, forbidding us the free exercise of our religion, we cannot submit. God is greater than the United States, and when the Government conflicts with heaven, we will be ranged under the banner of heaven and against the Government...Polygamy is a divine institution. It has been banded down direct from God. The United States cannot abolish it. No nation on the earth can prevent it, nor all the nations of the earth combined...I defy the United States; I will obey God.” BelieveHas BeensStatesGovernmentEarthLawHeavenNationsUnitedUnited StatesGreaterHonestyDivineMoralityExerciseConflictDirectInstitutionsPuritySubmitAbolishBannerPolygamy Author:John Taylor