Best religious & atheism Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 3

“I despise those shallow religious comics. Dennis the Menace, for instance, is the most shallow. When they show him praying - I just can't stand that sort of thing, talking to God about some cutesy thing that he'd done during the day. I don't think Hank Ketcham has any deep knowledge of things like that.”

Thinking Done Shows Religious Talking Atheism Praying Positive Atheism Instance Despise Shallow Menace Talking To God

Author:Charles M. Schulz

“I believe strongly in the Constitutional principle of separating church and state. Our founders were right in fearing that religious freedom would be threatened in the long run by a departure from governmental neutrality in spiritual matters.”

“I believe in the support of the public school as one of the cornerstones of American liberty. I believe in the right of every parent to choose whether his child shall be educated in the public school or in a religious school supported by those of his own faith.”

Believe Children School I Believe Parent Religious Liberty Support Atheism I Believe In Positive Atheism Educated Public School Cornerstones American Liberty

Author:Al Smith

“I can think of no greater disaster to this country than to have the voters of it divide upon religious lines.”

Thinking I Can Country Religious Lines Greater Atheism Positive Atheism Disaster Voters Divides

Author:Al Smith

“Theism, as a way of conceiving God, has become demonstrably inadequate, and the God of theism not only is dying but is probably not revivable. If the religion of the future depends on keeping alive the definitions of theism, then the human phenomenon that we call religion will have come to an end. If Christianity depends on a theistic definition of God, then we must face the fact that we are watching this noble religious system enter the rigor mortis of its own death throes.”

Ifs Way Humans Ends Facts Faces Religious Christianity Alive Atheism Dying Depends Definitions Positive Atheism Noble Phenomenon Inadequate Theism Rigor Conceiving Rigor Mortis

Author:John Shelby Spong

“I have endeavoured to dissipate these religious superstitions from the minds of women, and base their faith on science and reason, where I found for myself at last that peace and comfort I could never find in the Bible and the church.”

Mind Reason Lasts Found Church Religious Atheism Comfort Superstitions

Author:Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“That's true that I'm "not religious as that term is conventionally understood," though I've never been an atheist. Atheism is an active faith; it says, "I believe there is no God." But I don't know what I believe. I was brought up a Lutheran in Jamestown, North Dakota. I have trouble with faith. I'm not proud of this. I don't think it makes me an intellectual. I would believe if I could, and I may be able to before it's over. I would welcome that.”

“The graphic emphasis placed on those first lines is rather hard to square with the proposition that the monument expresses no particular religious preference.”

Firsts Hard Religious Lines Atheism Particular Positive Atheism Squares Propositions Emphasis Preference Monument Graphic

Author:John Paul Stevens

“What chiefly concerns and alarms many of us are the problems arising from religious fanaticism. As long as large numbers of militant enthusiasts are persuaded that they alone have access to the truth, and that the rest of us are infidels, we remain under threat. Lord Acton's famous phrase about power can be used of another danger. Dogma tends to corrupt, and absolute dogma corrupts absolutely.”

Long Problem Used Religious Numbers Lord Atheism Danger Concern Absolutes Threat Positive Atheism Access Phrases Dogma Fanaticism Alarms Large Numbers Militant Infidel

Author:Anthony Storr

“I am without religious feeling.”

Feelings Religious Atheism Positive Atheism

Book:The selected letters of Charles Sumner

Source: The selected letters of Charles Sumner

“Hmmm, completely a-religious - atheist. I find that people seem to think religion brings morals and appreciation of nature. I actually think it detracts from both.”

People Thinking Seems Religious Moral Atheism Atheist Appreciation Positive Atheism Hmmm

Author:Linus Torvalds

“By the cold and religious we were taken in hand - shown how to feel good; and told to feel bad.”

Feels Hands Religious Taken Atheism Cold Positive Atheism Feel Good

Author:Roger Waters

“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

“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.”

“There are two visions of America. One precedes our founding fathers and finds its roots in the harshness of our Puritan past. It is very suspicious of freedom, uncomfortable with diversity hostile to science, unfriendly to reason, contemptuous of personal autonomy. It sees America as a religious nation. It views patriotism as allegiance to God. It secretly adores coercion and conformity. Despite our constitution, despite the legacy of the Enlightenment, it appeals to millions of Americans and threatens our freedom.”

“Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.”

“To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.”

“Tolerance is thin gruel compared to the rapture of absolute truths. It's not surprising that religious people are often better protected by atheists and agnostics than each other.”

People Religion Religious Atheism Absolutes Atheist Tolerance Surprising Protected Rapture Absolute Truth

Author:Wendy Kaminer

“Under the rubric of religious freedom, we respect the right to worship differently much more than the right to worship not at all.”

Religion Religious Atheism Worship Religious Freedom Rubrics

Author:Wendy Kaminer

“An atheist is as religious as a theist.”

Religious Atheism Atheist Theist

Author:Kedar Joshi

“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 Be Values Given Religious Records Atheism Teaching Evidence Historical Democratic Positive Atheism Religious Faith Ambiguity Foolhardy Empirical Evidence Democratic Values Religious Texts

Book:Religion and Politics in the United States

Source: Religion and Politics in the United States

“Dewey repudiated what he called militant atheism. He felt that people have innate religious qualities, such as compassion for sufferers, an urge to improve life, and a sense of awe before the mysteries of existence. However, by the standards of conventional religion, Dewey was an atheist.”

People Felt Religious Existence Quality Compassion Mystery Atheism Standards Atheist Positive Atheism Awe Urges Conventional Innate Militant Sufferers

Author:James A. Haught

“I am atheist in a very religious mould. I'm always asking myself the big questions. Where did we come from? Is there a meaning to all of this? I read the King James Bible, as all English writers should. And when I find myself in church, I edit the hymns as I sing them.”

Bigs Literature Church Religious Atheism Asking Atheist Edits Hymns Mould Big Questions

Author:Mark Haddon

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Nothing is more logical than persecution. Religious tolerance is a kind of infidelity.”

Kind Religious Atheism Positive Atheism Tolerance Logical Infidelity Persecution Religious Tolerance

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)

“The new advocates of ID [Intelligent Design] ask that their ideas be judged by scientific, not religious, criteria. OK, let's see how well ID stacks up as a scientific alternative to Darwinism. To gauge how well ID is doing as a platform for scientific research, I logged into the best database of the biological literature. A search for keyword ''evolution'' yielded 24,000 hits in the last decade. A search for ''intelligent design'' yielded not a single piece of research. Evolution by natural selection remains the basis of every successful biological research program.”

“It is through the perversion of the religious element in woman, playing upon her hopes and fears of the future, holding this life with all its high duties in abeyance to that which is to come, that she and the children she has trained have been so completely subjugated by priestcraft and superstition.”

Children Has Beens Religious Atheism Duty Elements Positive Atheism This Life Superstitions Perversion Hopes And Fears Fear Of The Future

Book:The Woman's Bible

Source: The Woman's Bible

“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

“[C]reationists [and] other religious enthusiasts [are], in many parts of the world ..., the most dangerous adversaries of science.”

World Religious Atheism Dangerous Positive Atheism Adversaries

Author:Steven Weinberg

“The whole history of the last thousands of years has been a history of religious persecutions and wars, pogroms, jihads, crusades. I find it all very regrettable, to say the least.”

Years Has Beens War Whole Lasts Religious Atheism Positive Atheism Persecution Crusades Jihad Religious Persecution

Author:Steven Weinberg

“In reviewing the history of the times through which we have passed, no portion of it gives greater satisfaction or reflection, than that which represents the efforts of the friends of religious freedom and the success with which they are crowned.”

Giving Religious Effort Greater Atheism Reflection Satisfaction Positive Atheism Portions Religious Freedom

Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson

“The proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right.”

Natural Religious Common Opinion Atheism Citizens Office Advantage Fellows Privilege Positive Atheism Unworthy Renounce Incapacity Depriving

Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson

“Of publishing a book on religion, my dear sir, I never had an idea. I should as soon think of writing for the reformation of Bedlam, as of the world of religious sects. Of these there must be, at least, ten thousand, every individual of every one of which believes all wrong but his own.”

Thinking World Should Writing Believe Book Ideas Individual Religious Atheism Thousand Ten Dear Positive Atheism Publishing Reformation Sects Religious Sects

Book:Jefferson: Magnificent Populist

Source: Jefferson: Magnificent Populist

“The fumes of the most disordered imaginations were recorded in their religious code, as special communications of the Deity; and as it could not but happen that, in the course of ages, events would now and then turn up to which some of these vague rhapsodies might be accommodated by the aid of allegories, figures, types, and other tricks upon words, they have not only preserved their credit with the Jews of all subsequent times, but are the foundation of much of the religions of those who have schismatised from them.”

Might Happens Age Turns Courses Imagination Religious Atheism Special Events Figures Communication Type Foundation Jew Credit Positive Atheism Aids Tricks Code Now And Then Vague Deities Allegory

Book:Letters

Source: Letters

“I believe the American people are more concerned with a man's views and abilities than with the church to which he belongs. I believe the founding fathers meant it when they provided in Article VI of the Constitution that there should be no religious test for public office. And I believe that the American people mean to adhere to those principles today.”

“[Middleton] contended that the religious leaders of the fourth century had admitted, eulogised, and habitually acted upon principles that were diametrically opposed, not simply to the aspirations of a transcendent sanctity, but to the dictates of the most common honesty. He showed that they had applauded falsehood, that they had practised the most wholesale forgery, that they had habitually and grossly falsified history, that they had adopted to the fullest extent the system of pious frauds, and that they continually employed them to stimulate the devotion of the people.”

Source: History of the rise and influence of the spirit of rationalism in Europe

“Mr. Lincoln's maxim and philosophy were: 'What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.' He never joined any Church. He was a religious man always, I think, but was not a technical Christian.”

Thinking Men Philosophy Christian Church Religious Prayer Atheism Positive Atheism Maxims Decree

Author:Mary Todd Lincoln

“[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.”

“Because the bill vests in the said incorporated church an authority to provide for the support of the poor and the education of poor children of the same, an authority which, being altogether superfluous if the provision is to be the result of pious charity, would be a precedent for giving to religious societies as such a legal agency in carrying into effect a public and civil duty.”

Source: Selected Writings of James Madison

“I have received your letter of the 6th, with the eloquent discourse delivered at the consecration of the Jewish Synagogue. Having ever regarded the freedom of religious opinions and worship as equally belonging to every sect, and the secure enjoyment of it as the best human provision for bringing all either into the same way of thinking, or into that mutual charity which is the only substitute, I observe with pleasure the view you give of the spirit in which your sect partake of the blessings offered by our Government and laws.”

Source: 1816-1828

“What little recognition the idea of obligation to the public obtains in modern morality, is derived from Greek and Roman sources, not from Christian; as, even in the morality of private life, whatever exists of magnanimity, high-mindeness, personal dignity, even the sense of honour, is derived from the purely human, not the religious part of our education, and never could have grown out of a standard of ethics in which the only worth, professedly recognized, is that of obedience.”

“Religious doctrines would do well to withdraw their pretension to be dealing with matters of fact. That pretension is not only the source of the conflicts of religion with science and the vain and bitter controversies of sects; it is also the cause of the impurity and incoherence of religion in the soul.”

Source: Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana

“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

“But if you will recall the history of our civil troubles, you will see half the nation bathe itself, out of piety, in the blood of the other half, and violate the fundamental feelings of humanity in order to sustain the cause of God: as though it were necessary to cease to be a man in order to prove oneself religious!”

Ifs Men Feelings Humanity Order Nations Causes Religious Half Trouble Blood Atheism Prove Fundamentals Oneself Positive Atheism Cease Recalls Be A Man Piety Other Half

Author:Denis Diderot

“Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God”

Source: The Essential Jefferson

“Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma.”

People Religious Atheism Atheist Noise Reasonable Dogma Agnostic There Is No God There Being No God Religious Dogma

Author:Sam Harris

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