Quotes from Famous Freethinkers

[It Aint Necessarily So]

"There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity. It is this which drives us to try and discover the secrets of nature, those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which man should not wish to learn." - St. Augustine

 

[ChristineM]

There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. ...
Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, that presents the difficulties.
Douglas Adams - Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

"The virtues are critical thinking, flexibility, openness, verification, and evidence. The sins are dogma, faith, tradition, revelation, superstition, and the supernatural." - anon

 

[ChristineM]

Before I was born, my father told my mother, 'If it's a boy, he's going to be a scientist.'
Richard Feynman

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

"The Ten Commandments fit the United States like $10 shoes, from the first, where we install the "almighty" dollar as an idol, to the last, when we rely on covetousness to turn the wheels of commerce. We keep the Sabbath holy by shopping for bargains and allow and excuse false witness for advertising and political spin. We have been casual about killing for a nation that believes in "Thou shall not kill." And as for adultery, we apparently couldn't have a Congress without it. Beyond all that, we revere the Ten Commandments to shreds." Tom Blackburn

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

"To most Christians, the bible is like a software license. Nobody actually reads it. They just scroll down to the bottom and click "I agree." - anon

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

"Doesn't it seem odd that the evidence for the existence of God is completely hidden from the greatest human minds who spend their professional lives exploring how the universe functions, yet it is perfectly clear to people willing to believe by faith" - anon

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

• "Advocates of religiosity extol the virtues or moral habits that religion is supposed to instill in us. But we should be equally concerned with the intellectual habits it discourages." - Wendy Kaminer

• "I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world." - Richard Dawkins

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

• "Religion calls what is rational, irrational. Calls What is reasonable, stupidity. Calls What is invisible and undetectable, absolutely obvious. Calls What is contradictory, consistent. Calls What is unjust, perfect justice. Defines modern evidence as "opinion. Calls what gives people dignity, shameful. Calls ignorance, knowledge. Calls what is true a lie and what is a lie true." - anon

 

[ChristineM]

If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them, and that custom, respect and tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve its own interests.
Baron d'Holbach

 

[ChristineM]

I recall the story of the philosopher and the theologian. The two were engaged in disputation and the theologian used the old quip about a philosopher resembling a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat—which wasn't there. "That may be," said the philosopher: "but a theologian would have found it.
Julian Huxley.

 

[ChristineM]

The Bible is a book that has been read more, and examined less, than any book that ever existed.
Thomas Paine.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

I recall the story of the philosopher and the theologian. The two were engaged in disputation and the theologian used the old quip about a philosopher resembling a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat—which wasn't there. "That may be," said the philosopher: "but a theologian would have found it.
Julian Huxley.

"Trying to find God is a good deal like looking for money one has lost in a dream.・- Lemuel K Washburn

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

• "The man who says to me, ‘Believe as I do or God will damn you' will presently say to me, ‘Believe as I do or I will kill you'." - Voltaire

 

[ChristineM]

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.
Erica Jong

 

[Jedster]

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth." - Einstein

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

"Religion calls what is rational, irrational. Calls what is reasonable, stupidity. Calls what is invisible and undetectable, absolutely obvious. Calls what is contradictory, consistent. Calls what is unjust, perfect justice. Defines modern evidence as "opinion. Calls what gives people dignity, shameful. Calls ignorance, knowledge. Calls what is true a lie and what is a lie true." - anon

[Thanks for finding this thread again, Christine. I had unsuccessfully looked for it recently.]

 

[Mister Silver]

There seem to be only two kinds of people: Those who think that metaphors are facts, and those who know that they are not facts. Those who know they are not facts are what we call "atheists," and those who think they are facts are "religious." Which group really gets the message?

Joseph Campbell

 

[Mister Silver]

What gods are there, what gods have there ever been, that were not from man's imagination?

Joseph Campbell

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

“This is why American Atheists openly criticizes religion, as opposed to accommodating it. We see the harm religion does to the human mind, and we recognize that feigning respect for religion merely legitimizes and strengthens it in the eyes and minds of believer. After all, if ‘even the atheists respect their religion,’ then it must be respectable. By criticizing religion openly, fervently, and honestly, we chip away at the pedestal on which religion sits.” – David Silverman