Quotes from Famous Freethinkers

[It Aint Necessarily So]

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

(Lyrics for "Carefully Taught" from the musical "South Pacific")

It ain't necessarily so
It ain't necessarily so
The things that you're liable
To read in the Bible,
It ain't necessarily so.

(It Ain't Necessarily So from the musical Porgy and Bess)

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Saying atheism is a belief system is like saying not going skiing is a hobby. I've never been skiing. It's my biggest hobby. I literally do it all the time." ~ Ricky Gervais

"Suggesting I hate people with religion because I hate religion is like suggesting I hate people with cancer because I hate cancer." - Ricky Gervais

 

[Thumper]

"You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do." ~ Anne Lamott

 

[Thumper]

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." ~ Charles Darwin

You can educate ignorance, you can medicate crazy, but you can't fix stupid. ~ anon

 

[Thumper]

In supporting argument for segregation, Paul [the apostle] addresses the people in his epistle to the Colossians, and he tells them how to treat their slaves. "Slaves, obey your masters. Masters, be kind to your slaves." Paul was in favor of a kinder and gentler slavery; it never occurred to him to raise the question about whether slavery itself was immoral.
~ Bishop John Shelby Spong

I look at American Christianity and I'm almost in despair. I don't want to be identified with it. The Christian vote in America is an anti-abortion, anti-homosexual vote. I consider that to be anti-female and anti-gay, and I don't want to be identified with a God who is anti-anything.
~ Bishop John Shelby Spong

 

[Thumper]

"I'm not in favor of the government mandating a prayer in school because our country was founded on the fact that no particular religious faith would have ascendance over or preferential treatment over any other." -- Jimmy Carter

"I do not believe that any type of religion should ever be introduced into the public schools of the United States." -- Thomas Edison

 

[Thumper]

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." - Albert Einstein

 

[Thumper]

"The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also." - Mark Twain

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

"You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do." ~ Anne Lamott

"They worship a God with the same views, ideals, even personality traits as themselves - the God in the mirror." - Rosa Williams

"When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself." - Peter O'Toole

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

"If you heard a marketer brag that he targets people who've been diagnosed with terminal illnesses because they're easier targets, or a guy say he likes to cruise funerals because grieving women are easier to pick up, you'd think that person had no morals at all. But targeting people in moments of weakness to sell them religion is regarded as a normal and even virtuous strategy for proselytizing." - Amanda Marcotte

 

[Thumper]

"I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is." ~ Sister Joan Chittister

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Here's a prophetic one:


"Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication, and courage. But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us --- and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along." - Carl Sagan

 

[Thumper]

Here's a prophetic one:


"Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication, and courage. But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us --- and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along." - Carl Sagan

A little too prophetic!

Between this quote and the one by Sister Joan Chittister, what else needs to be said about the current U.S. government.

 

[Thumper]

"There have been nearly 3,000 Gods so far but only yours actually exists. The others are silly made up nonsense. But not yours. Yours is real." ~ Ricky Gervais

 

[Revoltingest]

 

[Lorgar-Aurelian]

"We never hold religion up to standards of reasonableness. If we did, what religion could pass? Christian Scientists won't go to the doctor. Jehovah's Witnesses forbid singing the national anthem and buying Girl Scout cookies. Radical Islamists blow themselves up to meet virgins in heaven. The Hindus have their cow. People believe in all kinds of things. It is their right to do so under the First Amendment.

"And I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little tired of this freedom of religion thing ... When did religion get such a good name, anyway? Be it the Crusades, the Reformation genocides, the troubles in Northern Ireland, the Middle East, mass slaughters supposedly in the name of Allah, and then, of course, the obligatory reciprocal retribution.

"Hundreds of millions of people have died in religious conflicts. Hitler did his business in the name of his Creator. 9/11 was an act of religious extremism. It's our greatest threat today - a Holy Jihad.

"If we're not ready to strip religion of its sacred cow status, how 'bout we at least scale back a little on the constitutional dogma exalting it as all get-out?...

"Everybody should get to believe in God. Pray to his God, worship his God - of course. But to impose him on others, to victimize others in His Name, the Founding Fathers of this country set out to prevent persecution, not to license it.

"At a certain point, we have to say,'Enough with this freedom of religion crap.' Yuck. Yuck, yuck." ~ Alan Shore, partner, Law Offices of Crane, Poole, & Schmidt (Boston Legal)

I rather like the crusades actually.

 

[Thumper]

"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." -- Isaac Asimov

 

[Thumper]

"What we do in every other area of our lives (other than religion), is, rather than respect somebody's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons." -- Sam Harris

 

[Thumper]

"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart." -- H. L. Mencken

 

[Thumper]

"Your beliefs don't make you a better person, your behavior does." -- Lynn Matthews