Great Atheist Quotes

Feel free to add your own atheist quotes....

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

The most ridiculous concept ever perpetrated by Homo Sapiens is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of his creations, that he can be persuaded by their prayers, and becomes petulant if he does not receive this flattery. Yet this ridiculous notion, without one real shred of evidence to bolster it, has gone on to found one of the oldest, largest and least productive industries in history. Robert Heinlein

Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth. Henry Mencken

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Napoleon Bonaparte

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Blaise Pascal

I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies. Thomas Jefferson

Religion . . . comprises a system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find in an isolated form nowhere else but in amentia, in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion. Sigmund Freud

Religious creeds encourage some of the craziest kinds of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and favor severe manifestations of neurosis, borderline personality states, and sometimes even psychosis. Albert Ellis

The man who is always worrying about whether or not his soul would be damned generally has a soul that isn’t worth a damn. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Men have never fully used the powers they possess to advance the good in life, because they have waited upon some power external to themselves and to nature to do the work they are responsible for doing. John Dewey

I do not pray. . . . I do not expect God to single me out and grant me advantages over my fellow men. . . . Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility. Zora Neale Hurston

Faith is the effort to believe what your common sense tells you is not true. Elbert Hubbard

The so-called godly man may be more likely to do serious wrong than a man who deeply questions himself. The 'godly man' often zealously follows religious precepts that, in the end, justify an unjust injury to others, while the questioning man, addressing his own conscience, may have the better chance to consider all the circumstances and come to the just decision. Gerry Spence

It makes that a virtue which is not a virtue, and that a crime which is not a crime. Religion consists in a round of observances that have no relation whatever to natural goodness, but which rather exclude it by being a substitute for it. Penances and pilgrimages take the place of justice and mercy, benevolence and charity. Such a religion, so far from being a purifier, is the great corrupter of morals. Henry M. Field

The atheist realizes that every selfish or cruel act and its consequences would remain uncomfortably remembered by himself, believing that no divine forgiveness is available to assuage the pangs of a guilty conscience. Frank Swancara

To date, despite the efforts of millions of true believers to support this myth, there is no more evidence for the Judeo-Christian god than any of the gods on Mount Olympus. Joseph Daleiden

Nahum 1:5-6 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.

From Atheist Apologist Extraordinaire, Antony Flew:

"Since the beginning of my philosophical life I have followed the policy of Plato's Socrates: We must follow the argument wherever it leads."

(I Have) "growing empathy with the insight of Einstein and other noted scientists that there had to be an Intelligence behind the integrated complexity of the physical Universe" and "my own insight that the integrated complexity of life itself – which is far more complex than the physical Universe – can only be explained in terms of an Intelligent Source."

Oh, my bad: FORMER Atheist Apologist Extraordinaire Antony Flew

Where the evidence leads indeed.

Not possessing a religious basis for morality, atheists are fundamentally incapable of having a coherent system of morality. Barna Group found that atheists and agnostics in America were more likely, than theists in America, to look upon the following behaviors as morally acceptable: illegal drug use; excessive drinking; sexual relationships outside of marriage; abortion; cohabitating with someone of opposite sex outside of marriage; obscene language; gambling; pornography and obscene sexual behavior; and engaging in homosexuality/bisexuality.[1] Given the many diseases associated with homosexuality, the biblical prohibition against homosexuality is quite arguably one of the many examples where the Bible exhibited knowledge that was ahead of its time. See also: Atheism and homosexuality

The Journal of Medical Ethics declared concerning the atheist and sadist Marquis de Sade:

“ In 1795 the Marquis de Sade published his La Philosophic dans le boudoir, in which he proposed the use of induced abortion for social reasons and as a means of population control. It is from this time that medical and social acceptance of abortion can be dated, although previously the subject had not been discussed in public in modern times. It is suggested that it was largely due to de Sade's writing that induced abortion received the impetus which resulted in its subsequent spread in western society.[2]

conservapedia.com...

reply to post by TheFogHorn


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

Religion is for those who need it.

Originally posted by TheFogHorn
Feel free to add your own atheist quotes....

I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies. Thomas Jefferson

You do realize that Jefferson was not an atheist, right? The root of the Declaration of Independence (inalienable rights) hang quite resolutely on Jefferson's Deism.

Quite a number of your other "atheist" quotes, in fact, are not by atheists -- decrying some specific religion, or even some aspect of human behaviour that can be connected to religion, hardly makes one an atheist.

If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? ...Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Law, June 13, 1814

Many more Jefferson atheist leaning quotes here....www.nobeliefs.com...

Originally posted by TheFogHorn
Many more Jefferson atheist leaning quotes here....www.nobeliefs.com...

Yeah, here's a handy one:

I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false god, he did.

Looks like old Tom used "atheist" as a pejorative for people he didn't like, lol.

Jefferson was a deist, not an atheist. I don't know where people came up with the notion that being anti-Christian makes someone an atheist, or even "atheist leaning" (whatever that means,) but that's an irrational conclusion.

Originally posted by TheFogHorn
Feel free to add your own atheist quotes....

Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth. Henry Mencken

Oh, I found another great one by Mencken for your list:

I admit freely enough that, by careful breeding, supervision of environment and education, extending over many generations, it might be possible to make an appreciable improvement in the stock of the American negro, for example, but I must maintain that this enterprise would be a ridiculous waste of energy, for there is a high-caste white stock ready at hand, and it is inconceivable that the negro stock, however carefully it might be nurtured, could ever even remotely approach it. The educated negro of today is a failure, not because he meets insuperable difficulties in life, but because he is a negro.

Source

Social Darwinism at its finest, lol.

Originally posted by EvilSadamClone
atheists and agnostics in America were more likely, than theists in America, to look upon the following behaviors as morally acceptable: illegal drug use; excessive drinking; sexual relationships outside of marriage; abortion; cohabitating with someone of opposite sex outside of marriage; obscene language; gambling; pornography and obscene sexual behavior

Apart from the abortion (i always strap up), it just sounds like a good weekend to me

reply to post by adjensen


'Religious nuts can be spotted by the extent of their nit picking.' The Fog Horn.

Originally posted by TheFogHorn
reply to post by adjensen

 

'Religious nuts can be spotted by the extent of their nit picking.' The Fog Horn.

"Evangelical atheists can be spotted by the extent of their cherry-picking." - adjensen

'Religious fervour is inversely proportional to originality.' The Fog Horn

Originally posted by TheFogHorn
'Religious fervour is inversely proportional to originality.' The Fog Horn

Not sure who you are, as I've been away from ATS for a year, but I assure you that I am neither a "religious nut" nor a sufferer of "religious fervor". I'm a pragmatist, not an evangelist -- I couldn't care less what you believe or don't believe, but I do care about people misrepresenting the truth.

Someone claiming that Jefferson was an atheist and that H.L. Mencken is somehow admirable can only use cherry picking to manage it. If you would like to claim otherwise, I'd be happy to hear your evidence.

Originally posted by adjensen

Originally posted by TheFogHorn
'Religious fervour is inversely proportional to originality.' The Fog Horn

Not sure who you are, as I've been away from ATS for a year, but I assure you that I am neither a "religious nut" nor a sufferer of "religious fervor". I'm a pragmatist, not an evangelist -- I couldn't care less what you believe or don't believe, but I do care about people misrepresenting the truth.

Someone claiming that Jefferson was an atheist and that H.L. Mencken is somehow admirable can only use cherry picking to manage it. If you would like to claim otherwise, I'd be happy to hear your evidence.

Religion often goes hand-in-hand with pedantry.

Oh ok! It was only a list of quotes I found fitting with my atheism. Under closer inspection it's not award winning but the words still fit. It's a shallow thread ok?