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Quotes from Famous Freethinkers

Altfish

Veteran Member
The Pale Blue Dot

“We succeeded in taking this picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived; lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, every hopeful child, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.”

"The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe are challenged by this point of pale light.”

"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbour life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.”

“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

Carl Sagan
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
"They were allowed to stay there on one condition, and that is that they didn't eat of the tree of knowledge. That has been the condition of the Christian church from then until now. They haven't eaten as yet, as a rule they do not." - Clarence Darrow
 

Rational Agnostic

Well-Known Member
How about posting some of your favorite quotes that speak to non-theism, Humanism, freethought, etc.

I'm not looking for a lot of discussion here, just some positive quotes that you like.

"We imagined something like our own political system running the universe." - Carl Sagan
 

Jedster

Well-Known Member
  • "I choose to believe that the white light people sometimes see... they're all just chemical reactions that take place when the brain shuts down.... There's no conclusive science. My choice has no practical relevance to my life, I choose the outcome I find more comforting.... I find it more comforting to believe that this isn't simply a test." Dr Gregory House
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
"Heaven, as conventionally described, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, that nobody has ever ventured to describe a whole day in heaven, though plenty of people have described a day at the seaside." - George Bernard Shaw
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
"It is no defense of superstition and pseudoscience to say that it brings solace and comfort to people…If solace and comfort are how we judge the worth of something, then consider that tobacco brings solace and comfort to smokers; alcohol brings it to drinkers; drugs of all kinds bring it to addicts; the fall of cards and the run of horses bring it to gamblers; cruelty and violence bring it to sociopaths. Judge by solace and comfort only and there is no behavior we ought to interfere with." - Isaac Asimov
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
*** STAFF NOTICE ***

We've noticed that this thread has been used to post quotations that bash non-atheists. This isn't acceptable, per the forum rules (in particular, Rules 3 and 9). Please refrain from posting quotations that bash various groups and stick with positive quotes from non-theists.
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
“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
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
And now for some light humor ---

Did you hear about the dyslexic insomniac agnostic staying up all night wondering if there’s a dog? ~ anon

Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggert have written a new book. It's called 'Ministers Do More Than Lay People' ~ anon

How many atheists does it take to change a light bulb? Two. One to actually change the bulb, and the other to videotape the job so fundamentalists won’t claim that god did it. ~ anon

Atheism: The arrogant belief that the entire universe with its billions of galaxies was not created for us. ~ anon

A puritan is someone who is deathly afraid that someone, somewhere, is having fun. ~ anon
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
There are three religious truths:
1. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
2. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian faith.
3. Baptists do not recognize each other in the liquor store.

~ Author Unknown
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
“We must conduct research and then accept the results. If they don't stand up to experimentation, Buddha's own words must be rejected.” ~ Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, 1988
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
The number of reports of miracles (and UFOs) is inversely proportional to the number of camera phones available. ~ anon
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
"Most people confuse their right to believe what they want and the idea that those same beliefs have merit." ~ Susan Jacoby
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
"I'm an atheist and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for people." ~ Katharine Hepburn
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
My son, always respect and honor the other fellow's point of view. Unless it's different from yours, of course.---Hagar the Horrible
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
"No idea should be above ridicule. Ridicule is a very important tool. And why should religion not be subject to ridicule? If politics, if science, if sex, if everything is subject to ridicule, as a way of illuminating reality, why shouldn't religion?" ~ Prof. Lawrence Krauss
 

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
"No idea should be above ridicule. Ridicule is a very important tool. And why should religion not be subject to ridicule? If politics, if science, if sex, if everything is subject to ridicule, as a way of illuminating reality, why shouldn't religion?" ~ Prof. Lawrence Krauss

From the ridicule files:

"Religions' entire authority and real-world power are undergirded by their abilities to command reverence and deference and create the illusion that they are sacred, sacrosanct, and immune from fundamental criticism or ridicule." - Dan Fincke

"An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself without going in partnership with state legislatures. Certainly he ought not so to act that laws become necessary to keep him from being laughed at. No one thinks of protecting Shakespeare from ridicule, by the threat of fine and imprisonment." - Robert Green Ingersoll

"If religion contained any truth, it could be ridiculed, insulted, even defiled, without being diminished in any way. Its truth would shine through: undimmed, unblemished, shaming those who abused it into silence." - Pat Condell

"I am absolutely convinced that the main source of hatred in the world is religion. I think it should be treated with ridicule, hatred, and contempt, and I claim that right". - Christopher Hitchens

"Ridicule is the great equalizer against the angry, harsh judgment coming from the pulpit. It is much kinder, because it doesn't ask you to hurt the target like the angry scapegoating from the church, just laugh at it. We can
offer reasoned argument to those that can care about such things, and appeal to the consciences of those that have them. But ridicule is useful to intimidate those not amenable to either." - anon

"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus." -Thomas Jefferson
 
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