Following our list of quotes from St Thomas Aquinas, this is the second in our series of famous quotes from great atheists and great religious minds. Here are 15 quotes from some of the greatest atheist minds in history.
Quotes 1 – 5
1. Creationists make it sound like a ‘theory’ is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night — Isaac Asimov
2. I don’t believe in God. My god is patriotism. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life. — Andrew Carnegie
3. All thinking men are atheists. — Ernest Hemingway
4. Lighthouses are more helpful then churches. — Benjamin Franklin
5. Faith means not wanting to know what is true. — Friedrich Nietzsche
Quotes 6 – 10
6. The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. — George Bernard Shaw
7. Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile. — Kurt Vonnegut
8. I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. — Frank Lloyd Wright
9. Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. — Denis Diderot
10. A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows. — Samuel Clemens
Quotes 11 – 15
11. The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life. — Sigmund Freud
12. Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. — Edward Gibbon
13. The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church. — Ferdinand Magellan
14. Not only is there no god, but try getting a plumber on weekends. — Woody Allen
15. It’s an incredible con job when you think about it, to believe something now in exchange for something after death. Even corporations with their reward systems don’t try to make it posthumous. — Gloria Steinem
Jfrater:
No, I didn’t leave anything off- I guess it makes more sense when it’s said out loud…
Person 1: “Something awesome.”
Person 2: “Right?”
Got lots of folks coming to my house for 2 days of revelry, gluttony and loot!
Whoohoo!!!
How about you?
Yarr: sounds good to me! I am having a family Christmas which will also involve lots of revelry, gluttony, and loot! I am really looking forward to it. Luckily it starts in a few hours!
sddgrant:
All I’m saying is that so many people sure spend a lot of time and energy NOT believing in something, and even more being mad about it.
I don’t believe in unicorns.
If I met someone who did, I’d probably just shrug and walk away.
I surely wouldn’t be *****ed about it.
That’s what I don’t get, and so that’s why I asked.
I have to get to sleep.
Merry Chrismas to all, and to all a good night!
Yarr: I completely agree with you, sorry if I didn’t make it clear before. Most the people who get angry about it on the internet though, are usually teenager. Nothing against teenagers seeing as how im barely out of my teens, but when I was in high school I was the same way, but you just learn that it accomplishes nothing after awhile.
Don’t forget Marx; “Religion is the opium of the people”
The author of number 9 is not Diderot (who was a fond admirer of Catherine of Russia), at least at the beginning)but by Jean Meslier (1664-1729) : “Je voudrais, et ce sera le dernier et le plus ardent de mes souhaits, je voudrais que le dernier des rois fût étranglé avec les boyaux du dernier prêtre.” “I wish, and it will be my last and dearest wish, I wish the last king were strangled with the last priest’s bowels”.
Meslier knew what he was talking about : he was a priest himself.
An interviewer once asked Bertrand Russell what he would say if he died and found himself confronted by an angry God who demanded to know why he had not believed. Russell said his reply would be “Not enough evidence, God, not enough evidence”.
In response to what jonnie wrote (#90) Kurt Vonnegutt didnt go insane. His son Mark Vonnegutt is a schizo and wrote the book The Eden Express decribing his insanity.
(Mark is by no means the writter his father was, but it is still a fairly good book.)
LOL it is so interesting that someone can be so far up their own ass that they can actually form a philosophy about NOT believeing in something. People seem to confuse the concept of god with the concept of organized religion. To me atheists have fallen for the biggest trick ever. They live under the conception that if the church’s conception of god is flawed then god musn’t exist at all, while all of the most enlightened people in history have known that things exist outside of the physical universe. There are forces in this universe that can be harnessed for good or evil, they are immense sources of power, and that is why religion repressed them. It takes an idiot to believe that just because a voice from the sky says that it is god, that it created the universe. It takes an even bigger idiot to preclude that that voice could never have possibly existed in the first place. i read the bible the way I read a history book 5% useful info 95% bs propganga. All of the worlds religous texts say the same thing, that a race of super-beings came from the heavens,giving us technology, and mated with the women of earth, and a race of giants was born. If organized religion is a stubborn old fool who won’t believe what is right in front of his face, then atheism is a small child having a tantrum because the world isn’t what the old man told him it would be. There is really no such thing as an atheist though, because while they may not worship a god, atheists worship their own pompous sense of intellectual superiority. Atheism serves a wonderful purpose ,just like religion, because it keeps stupid, small-minded people, away from the power that could make them gods upon this earth. If organized religion is being on your knees with your hands fixed in prayer, then atheism is being on your knees , with your head shoved so far up your own ass that that is all that one knows. To assume that because you can’t comprehend something in this amazing infinite universe that it doesnt exist is laughable. To say that after spending a few decades on this one planet in the infinity of existence, using only the 5 senses that are most readily accesible,without any exploration of consciousness or the internal universe is akin to a child saying that a solar eclipse is not real because he hasn’t seen one in his lifetime.
P.S. there is a cure for atheism, it’s called psychadelics.
P.P.S- the universe itself is the embodiment of “god”, and the life force that runs through it is the spirit of “god”. There are also hyper-terrestrial entities that exist outside of the physical realms.
Ahh yes. Like junior high and my first beer. The arrogance and ignorance is overwhelming.
hahahahahaha JONNIE GOT SERVED HAHAHAHAHA freaking christians.
hahahahahahaha, true dat
hey monkey nuts, you need to shut the ***** up and smoke a lil weed.
Monkey Nuts, if you make any more straw men, we’ll have to have a fire ban. Atheism is not – “a philosophy about NOT believeing in something”. It’s like saying science is a philosophy about not believing in something because it doesn’t accept miracles. In fact, we could call Christianity a philosophy about not believing in something because it doesn’t accept Mohammed as a prophet.
The Atheist position put simply is that there is not enough evidence to suggest that God exists. I don’t know why that makes you angry. Atheists believe that to get closest to what might be true about the world, they should examine the world closely and question generally-held assumptions, including their own. I don’t think it is helpful to categorise those who don’t share your version of reality as either “idiots” or as people who “worship their own pompous sense of intellectual superiority”.
Also the *****ogy of the child with the eclipse is not a good one. The child can see photos on the internet of other eclipses, he can learn about eclipses (what they are, how often they happen etc) from many sources, he can hear stories from people who have seen eclipses first-hand – unlike what he can learn about the truth of the resurrection. You don’t have to go to China to believe in China.
Also your comment, “because you can’t comprehend something in this amazing infinite universe that it doesnt exist is laughable” is also a straw man. I can imagine all sorts of creatures, lands and stories – but imagining them doesn’t make them true. Some people find THIS universe so “amazing and infinite” that they don’t need sky-fairies to make it interesting.
By the Funk&Wagnalls: Religions are the beliefs, attitudes, emotions, behavior, etc., constituting man’s relationship with the powers and principles of the universe”. By that statement, Atheism is a religion.
Debbyo: I’m not sure, but I don’t think Monkey Nuts is so much angry here as perhaps frustrated. A lot of the Atheist’s rebuke to Theists amount to nothing more than derogatory phrases and insults. Trying to debate with an Atheist is often like debating Al Bundy, and it can be ‘frustrating’.. I’m not type casting all Atheists that way, some are articulate and fun to banter with. However, others are just an Al Bundy, re-read some of these posts.
Also, Debbyo: “The Atheist position put simply is that there is not enough evidence to suggest that God exists”……. For such research the first thing you’ll have to do is bring out that good ole “Scientific Principle”. The exact same one you were taught in school. It looks like you haven’t considered using the scientific approach here, your remark about “not enough evidence” was very much lacking..
wapiti, Atheism is not a religion. Religion requires faith. Atheists view faith as a hindrance to understanding the world. And I’ve never met any like Al Bundy.
You’re defending a guy who recommends psychadelics” as a cure for atheism?
wapiti, what evidence is there?
Brazil has some of the most beautiful and elaborate churches and cathedrals of modern times. Brazil has one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, the Christ the Redeemer statue. Brazil also has child prostitutes living in shanty towns of cardboard boxes and scrap steel sheeting running rift with their own excrement. I think the church could have found better ways to spend money in Brazil. This goes for the rest of the world. The sight of every cathedral offends me. The cost of every stone placed, every statue carved and every tile laid is borne by starving children and disadvantaged society all over the world. Believing in a God doesn’t bother me, the hypocrisy of Organized Religion does.
Have you ever seen inside the Basillica?
Hi, jocboss: I’m not Catholic, but I’ve been inside the Basilica (been up on the roof with those huge perimeter statues as well), an awesome site….. Everything is “Organized” these days. Astronauts, to girl scouts, to Zoos. Of course, things that are DIS-organized should concern you,….. at least sometimes.
Hello jeff: “what evidence(?)”, a sane question, and without insults. I’d like to talk about that.
Debbyo: I don’t think I was defending anybody, I was just trying to add a possible motive behind someone’s statement, and I may have even been wrong. It was really just a guess, I have no complete way of knowing what’s behind anyone’s thinking.
Never met the ‘Al Bundy’s’..?? Have you actually read these posts..?? Well, if you haven’t just stand-by, with the comments I’m going to make, those Bundy’s of the world will most likely spew forth.
Atheism requires more faith than I can bring myself to muster up. Atheism requires faith in the unscientific.. Atheism is the process of shutting OFF the brain.. I can’t do that anymore. I did that for decades (including the pretense of having once been the ignorant Christian) (I carried that sorry banner for decades as well).
The origin of every problem is this. People initially accept or deny an idea within a few moments. A person faced with the question wheather God exists or not for the first time, would answer yes or not, “immediately” and without thinking, and then for the rest of his or her life will try to justify this statement. The great thinkers will *****yze the idea before they state their opinion. Unfortunately, people are faced with questions like this one, many years before they even know that phylosophy and free mind and ability to think as a complete individual even exsist.
Hello, Dragi: I must agree with your first sentence. I’ll even add a bit to it: People initially accept or deny an idea, a family position, a Class position, or even a consensus at the bar, within a few moments.
A free mind, and ability to think, is what I wish for everybody on the face of this planet.. For some reason tho, it’s difficult to find.. The evidence of a true scientist will be that he/she is never, ever, satisfied (even after they’ve written their book).
If you believe in the christian god then surely you must believe that god LOVES YOU ANYWAY. So, if you do evil *****, thats just your perspective not gods. It doesnt matter whether you believe in god or not. Your belief does not define his/her/its existence. Some or other auther said that the only way that you could know if god existed is if you were god … That makes sense to me !
I’m an atheist so I believe that the existence of God is either insignificant or useless in modern day; there are still good people with good deeds and bad people with bad deeds regardless of their religions. I’m just a bit disappointed that those atheists who solved the mysteries of the universe are not credited for their works. I am also a Pacificist so if I respect Christianity, I hope for a respect from Christians (again, 3 people tried to convert me today). By the way, I just want to share this with others:
The Paradox of Omnipotence
1. Either God can create a stone that he cannot lift, or he cannot create a stone that he cannot lift.
1. If God can create a stone that he cannot lift, then he is not omnipotent.
1. If God cannot create a stone that he cannot lift, then he is not omnipotent.
1. Therefore god is not omnipotent.
Cowen 1974, reprinted in Martin and Monnier 2003, p. 337.
Wow, Marco, none of your math adds up. The Christian God says “Jacob he loved, Esau he hated” “he loves obedience, divorce he hates”. He’s the God of love and of hate. The Christian God doesn’t always love unconditionally: God gives each of us the free will to choose what path we will follow.
Anybody that says “the only way that you could know if god existed is if you were god” is just taking the easy way out. It’s easier to say simple things like that than to actually use one’s brain, with science, and reason things out. We have the option to THINK things out logically, or to simply bypass the brain challenge and settle for cute clichés.
Marco, I suspect you’re capable of a lot more logic than you’ve shown here. Reason and think first, then make your judgments.
Hi Trung LE: It’s good to hear that you, at least, respect Christianity. It sounds like you’re the type that participates well inside a “debate class”.
NASA has been trying to “solve the mysteries of the universe” for decades, and will always continue to do so. No Atheist has solved it or ever will. Christians have been given some answers to the mysteries, but not all. Not by any means. Christianity is the most scientific of all the ‘ism’s, but we’re still learning.
Your paradox doesn’t fit any equation. Your rock could be of infinite size, but what difference would it make, and who cares.?? God’s dimension is “spiritual” NOT physical. Your “rocks” (created by God) were created for US to live on, NOT for God to dwell on. God could take our ‘physical’ dimension and make it into one big solid monolith. So what.?? God wouldn’t have to lift it, it’s not his dimension.
Hi wapiti. Thanks for your response. It kind of let me down (again), that you suggest no Atheist has solved it or ever will. I don’t have specific examples about what other Atheists have, but on the personal level, you are saying I will never contribute to the progress of answering the questions of the universe. This kind of let people down, while you’re supposed to encourage others to contribute to the world, not the opposite. That maybe also one of the reason I’m an atheist, because I know I cannot predict the future and say something never will happen. However, I do agree Christians did have achievements and continue to achieve more.
For my paradox, I just think that if God can communicate with man, and is powerful, then he is also capable of “traveling” into the physical world. Then the paradox fits into the “if” situation.
Wapiti, I want to show you this article of Steven Weinberg. (http://www.physlink.com/Education/essay_weinberg.cfm)
He is one of the great atheist, so far as I know.
“One of the great achievements of science has been, if not to make it impossible for intelligent people to be religious, then at least to make it possible for them not to be religious. We should not retreat from this accomplishment.
“, said steven in April 1999 at the Conference on Cosmic Design of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. This confirm my assumption about his religious view.
Weinberg is famous for his unification of 2 of the 4 major forces into one complete force: the electroweak force. This theory has a strong impact in what I said “solving the mysteries of the universe”, because it is one step closer to the unification of general relativity and quantumn physics. Nobody can neglect the effect of his work.
One of my favourite arguments that he made in the article is:
“I have to admit that, even when physicists will have gone as far as they can go, when we have a final theory, we will not have a completely satisfying picture of the world, because we will still be left with the question ‘why?’ Why this theory, rather than some other theory? For example, why is the world described by quantum mechanics? Quantum mechanics is the one part of our present physics that is likely to survive intact in any future theory, but there is nothing logically inevitable about quantum mechanics; I can imagine a universe governed by Newtonian mechanics instead. So there seems to be an irreducible mystery that science will not eliminate.
But religious theories of design have the same problem. Either you mean something definite by a God, a designer, or you don’t. If you don’t, then what are we talking about? If you do mean something definite by ‘God’ or ‘design,’ if for instance you believe in a God who is jealous, or loving, or intelligent, or whimsical, then you still must confront the question ‘why?’ A religion may assert that the universe is governed by that sort of God, rather than some other sort of God, and it may offer evidence for this belief, but it cannot explain why this should be so.
In this respect, it seems to me that physics is in a better position to give us a partly satisfying explanation of the world than religion can ever be, because although physicists won’t be able to explain why the laws of nature are what they are and not something completely different, at least we may be able to explain why they are not slightly different. For instance, no one has been able to think of a logically consistent alternative to quantum mechanics that is only slightly different. Once you start trying to make small changes in quantum mechanics, you get into theories with negative probabilities or other logical absurdities. When you combine quantum mechanics with relativity you increase its logical fragility. You find that unless you arrange the theory in just the right way you get nonsense, like effects preceding causes, or infinite probabilities. Religious theories, on the other hand, seem to be infinitely flexible, with nothing to prevent the invention of deities of any conceivable sort. ”
I would say I shouldn’t have bothered feel disappointed about others. Afterall, we are different individuals, and one has no right to interfere with the other’s belief. I hope the article will show you a fair view of both religion and science. Also, even if you disagree with him, I hope you will realize that there are atheists who are very well-educated and respectful. Thank you very much for your time, and I’m welcome to any non-abusive response.
Trung Le
argg…and sorry for my English, i may have made some mistakes.
@wapiti: “Christianity is the most scientific of all the ‘ism’s”. How can you observe, experiment, collect data, calculate, hypothesize and test God? Unless you meant “scientific” in a different way, as a study for example.
wapiti:
“Atheism requires more faith than I can bring myself to muster up. Atheism requires faith in the unscientific.. Atheism is the process of shutting OFF the brain..”
The first point I can agree with. When you spend your whole life living in fear of burning in an eternal fire for even questioning the *will* of God, it can be quite a leap of faith to accept the fact that not only will you not spend the afterlife burning in hell, but that there is no afterlife, and indeed no God. For those people who were raised religous, or believe they have “found” religion through some other means, the thought that they have spent the majority of their lives and a great deal of effort in forming their identity around a belief that fails to live up to scrutiny is intensely uncomfortable, and instead they will invest their time into inventing reasons why their belief is correct, rather than acknowledge the evidence against them.
Secondly, perhaps you could tell me why you believe that Christianity is more “scientific” than atheism? Atheism is *non*-scientific. It is a belief….a belief not necessarily grounded in science, but definately supported by it. Christianity is also non-scientific in this manner, however it does not happen to have the support of science. Thus, how can you say that atheism requires belief in the unscientific….when clearly a majority of atheists are themselves researchers and scientists? Further….what exactly is this “unscientific” factor that atheists have faith in?
Lastly, I would contend that atheism is definately *not* the process of shutting off of the brain. I don’t even know how you might have formulated this opinion. Perhaps you could explain exactly what you mean by that statement. If your argument is that atheists close their minds to the possibility of a god-like supernatural force whose primary existence is based on a book and a concept that has been readically distorted and bastardized throughout the centuries….then I would not call that shutting down the brain, I would call that not being taken in, and standing firms in one’s beliefs…something Christians and other religous fundamentalists pride themselves on.
I might also call the person who made statements like the ones quoted above someone who is frightened and threatened by change and deviation from the beliefs they have spent so much of their time, energy, and identity in formulating. They seem awful reactionary from someone who claims to have an open mind.
@wapiti: I agree with SlickWilly. Also, with the “shutting off the brain” concept, I want to provide my own experience to further support the opposition of your argument.
When I believed in God, I was not curious about the universe, I never cared to try to answer those mysteries, because what was the point when you knew who supposedly created it? When I believed in God, I’m fascinated by the beauty of nature, but I was never surprised, because it was arranged for me. When I believed in God, I also believed God had a reason for the Holocaust to happen.
However, when I questioned ‘why?’, I never satisfy. It’s along story how I become an atheist, but by being an atheist, my brain broadens. I’m more enthusiatic than ever, because now I have a lot more possibilities to investigate, a lot more theories to test, a stronger desire to answer, a stronger hope to discover and explore. My curiosity about nature never stops. I also see its beauty in a more friendly way, because now to me, nature reveals itself for its own sake, caused by its own power. Nature becomes a source of inspiration to me, and it is more friendly than God because I can walk in the woods, and swim in the river, I can ride a horse, and I can feel Nature. Being an Atheist, I never stop reasoning why unfortunate happens to all the good people. People died under Stalin because it is God’s plan? Because they had free will, so they chose to die to go to heaven? No. They died because Stalin was real, and he was acting according to his own plan. If God loves us so much, why did he let it happen? I am sorry but my life is short, I don’t want to waste my time trying to figure God’s plan. When I die I’m just dead. Therefore, I live every single day of my life to the best possible. Yes, I can tell you I never regret, and I am 97% happy (3% annoyed because sometimes I have to deal with intransigent people).
Also, keep in mind that Atheism is not one philosphy. It is not a combination neither. As in my case, I am more of a Objectivist and Humanist. Do you think I shut OFF my brain?
“Atheism requires more faith than I can bring myself to muster up. Atheism requires faith in the unscientific.. Atheism is the process of shutting OFF the brain..”
What the hell does that mean? To say Atheism is a faith is like saying not collecting stamps is a hobby. Or bald is a hair color. Atheism is not a belief – it’s exactly the opposite. Atheists don’t accept the existence of God – because nothing has convinced them of his existence. No evidence. No miracles. No visions. No Belief. To say it’s shutting off the brain is such an amazing claim that I can’t even begin to interpret it. It’s like saying not believing in the Easter Bunny is shutting off your brain. It’s quite the opposite – it’s opening the brain to interpretations of the universe based on what we explore through our senses, through investigation, through knowledge.
As for science not unlocking the mysteries of the universe – well that is so amazing, I wonder if the person who stated this has the faintest notion of the universe. Everything we know about the universe is through science. What were once mysteries, like why the sun moves across the sky, is now known. Not because the Bible told us – but because scientists worked it out. Through honest and thorough investigation – not by making up stuff to make us feel good.
And finally, why do Christians expect respect for their beliefs but accord none to Atheists?
Trung LE, I agree mostly with your very thoughtful and well-reasoned response except for perhaps the following: “Afterall, we are different individuals, and one has no right to interfere with the other’s belief.”
I think it is important for human progress to challenge each other’s beliefs. Progress stood still for hundreds of years during the Dark Ages when churches ruled and scientist who challenged the flat earth theory were considered heretics. People who reject reason and logic because of a sky-fairy are choosing superstition over enlightenment. Challenging superstition is essential for open-mindedness and therefore human progress.
debbyo, Yes, I completely agree that it is important for human progress to challenge each other’s beliefs. However, in this case of God’s existence, I have had enough arguments. Maybe because I live in an environment where there is no atheist like me around, so I know that it’s best for my own safety to say that “one has no right to interfere with the other’s belief” (I have been ‘attacked’ so I’m really cautious now). Just so you know sometimes it was a social reason to keep my words sound fair for both sides.
trung lee: you were attacked? how?
nothing serious, just some very irritating discussions. that’s why i used ‘attacked’ instead of attacked.
I am god!!!! i’ve known since a day i was praying and i realized i was talking to myself
Dash (me)
a funny joke by Kinky Friedman,
“When an atheist dies his tombstone will read,
“All Dressed Up, and No Place To Go.”
I have a couple of favorites that I haven’t seen listed here. Voltaire said “if God did not exist it would be necessary for man to invent him.” My favorite, though, is written on the sign outside Homer Simpson’s church. It simply asks “is God religious enough ?
richard dawkins ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
It seems that the writer of this list has confused a belief in supernatural/preternatural/multidimensional entities with a prescription to organized religion.
An atheist is someone who thinks just enough to dispell the falsities that others have taught him, but doesn’t think enough to decipher the useful aspects of ancient knowledge from the dogmatic BS used solely to control him.
No bjork?
The only good thing about religion is the clothes and the windows.
“Nietzsche is dead.”
-God
Vonnegut was NOT an atheist. He was a Humanist. Anyone who has read any of his work and considers him an atheist needs to read it again.
Boo!
Randall sounds like a stupid winey *****.
sean sound like a winey *****.
wapiti is the queen of winey *****es.
Monkey Nuts if there were a god you would be dead by now!
God, your a *****in’ loser
get a life, you stupid jerkoff
God-
what language from a ‘god’! oh my!
stating an opinion is fine. making a legitimate comment about a list is fine. being idiotic and hateful to people is not. cool it.
A favorite of mine by Kurt Vonnegut:
“If God were alive today, he would have to be an atheist, because the excrement has hit the air-conditioning big time, big time.”
Can I ask a question? Did the title of this list get changed, because I don’t understand why people are complaining about it.
The list title suggests quotes by famous atheists. It does not automatically denote that the quotes have to be about God.
Anyways, awesome list. I like some of these quotes and I might a few in my blog (while of course giving listverse and you credit for finding them in the first place), unless you mind.
Mpw Don’t you get it I do not EXIST sort of like your balls.
god they do exist you just cant see them cause they are in your mouth!
God: Don’t sneeze.
check and mate….