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Quotes from Famous Freethinkers

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
"When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said,'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land." - Desmond Tutu
 

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
An Inuit hunter asked the local missionary priest: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" "No," said the priest, "not if you did not know." "Then why," asked the Inuit earnestly, "did you tell me?" - Annie Dillard
 

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
“If the man doesn't believe as we do, we say he is a crank, and that settles it. I mean, it does nowadays, because now we can't burn him.”~ Mark Twain
 

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right.
~ anon


(notebook to self: this was post #84)
 

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
"Religious apologists complain bitterly that atheists and secularists are aggressive and hostile in their criticism of them. I always say: look, when you guys were in charge, you didn't argue with us, you just burnt us at the stake. Now what we're doing is, we're presenting you with some arguments and some challenging questions, and you complain." ~ A.C. Grayling
 

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
-- George Carlin
 

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyone's teeth get cleaner?-- Frank Zappa, Senate Hearing on "Porn Rock", 1985, in response to Tipper Gore's allegations that music incites people towards deviant behavior, or influences their behavior in general.
 

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.--Thomas Jefferson
 

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
"The essence of Christianity is told to us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the Tree of Knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just kept your f****ing mouth shut and hadn't asked any questions."

~ Frank Zappa
 

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
"The whole foundation of Christianity is based on the idea that intellectualism is the work of the Devil. Remember the apple on the tree? Okay, it was the Tree of Knowledge. "You eat this apple, you're going to be as smart as God. We can't have that." ~ Frank Zappa
 

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
"I give your religion as much respect as your religion gives me. There’s nothing complicated about it, and I have every right to insult a religion that goes out of its way to insult, to judge, and to condemn me as an inadequate human being, which your religion does with self righteous gusto ... given the enormous harm that your religion has done in this world. I’d say that not only do I have a right, but a duty to insult it, as does every rationale thinking person on this planet.”

– Pat Condell
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
United States spends more on pet grooming than it does on fusion research.
- Brian Cox
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
You dig deeper and it gets more and more complicated, and you get confused, and it's tricky and it's hard, but... It is beautiful.
- Brian Cox
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
For me, I think the greatest achievements of science is to allow humanity to realize that our world is comprehensible. Through science, rational thinking, we can understand how the universe works.
- Jim Al- Khalili
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
I shall mention in passing just one example of a gift from the Arabs that I for one am rather grateful for: coffee -- especially as it was originally banned in Europe as a Muslim drink.
- Jim Al-Khalili
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
The difference between my beliefs and having a religious faith is that I am prepared to change my views in light of new evidence, but someone of a religious faith will just stick their fingers in the ears and say: 'I'm not listening, there's nothing you can say that will make me change my mind.
- Jim Al-Khalili
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
"I was not raised in a religious household.

"For my mother, organized religion too often dressed up closed-mindedness in the garb of piety, cruelty and oppression in the cloak of righteousness. However, in her mind, a working knowledge of the world's great religions was a necessary part of any well-rounded education. In our household the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology. On Easter or Christmas Day my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites.

"In sum, my mother viewed religion through the eyes of the anthropologist; it was a phenomenon to be treated with a suitable respect, but with a suitable detachment as well.

"This spirit of hers guided me on the path I would ultimately take."

~ Barack Obama
 
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