Quotes from Famous Freethinkers

[Bob the Unbeliever]

The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 248). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[ChristineM]

In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods. They have not forgotten this.

~ Terry Pratchett

Having 2 cats at home and a destruction of chats errant i save from starvation ... Don't i know this

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong. If this is too blind for your taste, consult some well-meaning fool (there is always one around) and ask his advice. Then vote the other way. This enables you to be a good citizen (if such is your wish) without spending the enormous amount of time on it that truly intelligent exercise of franchise requires.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 346). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

“God split himself into a myriad parts that he might have friends.” This may not be true, but it sounds good—and is no sillier than any other theology.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 347). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

This sad little lizard told me that he was a brontosaurus on his mother’s side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is always in short supply.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 348). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

The profession of shaman has many advantages. It offers high status With a safe livelihood free of work in the dreary, sweaty sense. In most societies it offers legal privileges and immunities not granted to other men. But it is hard to see how a man who has been given a mandate from on High to spread tidings of joy to all mankind can be seriously interested in taking up a collection to pay his salary; it causes one to suspect that the shaman is on the moral level of any other con man. But it’s lovely work if you can stomach it.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 349). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 350). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful —just stupid.)

Heinlein, Robert A.. Time Enough for Love (p. 352). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[ChristineM]

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Aldous Huxley/Quotes

Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.
Maybe this world is another planet's hell.

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Jules Verne/Quotes

Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.

I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.

We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.

He who is mistaken in an action which he sincerely believes to be right may be an enemy, but retains our esteem.

Man is never perfect, nor contented.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.

~ Robert Green Ingersoll

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot.

~ Robert Green Ingersoll

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Our government should be entirely and purely secular. The religious views of a candidate should be kept entirely out of sight.

~Robert Green Ingersoll

 

[ChristineM]

Strange as it may seem, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it.
- Stephen Vizinczey

 

[ChristineM]

Some random unattributed ones

Don't worry about temptation, as you grow older, it starts avoiding you.

Some minds are like concrete, thoroughly mixed and permanently set.

Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.

A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother.

Of course I talk to myself, sometimes I need expert advice.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

"What if the president declared a National Day of Cursing God because He failed us on September 11? Americans would say, "You've overstepped your authority." That's how we feel when he promotes prayer." - Dan Barker

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

“If you really believe in eternal bliss then why are you wearing a seat-belt?” ~ Doug Stanhope

"I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence" - Doug McLeod

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

“When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.”~ Emo Philips

More from Emo:

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said, "Stop! don't do it!"

"Why shouldn't I?" he said.

I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!"

He said, "Like what?"

I said, "Well...are you religious or atheist?"

He said, "Religious."

I said, "Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?"

He said, "Christian."

I said, "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?"

He said, "Protestant."

I said, "Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"

He said, "Baptist!"

I said, "Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"

He said, "Baptist church of God!"

I said, "Me too! Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you reformed Baptist Church of God?"

He said, "Reformed Baptist church of God!"

I said, "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?"

He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!"

I said, "Die, heretic scum", and pushed him off

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You can see this joke animated:

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

"If you're very, very stupid, how can you realize that you're very, very stupid? You'd have to be relatively intelligent to realize how stupid you are." ~ John Cleese

"If the human brain was simple enough to understand, we would be too simple to understand it" - anon