Atheist quotes:

All thinking men are atheists. Earnest Hemingway

In fact, very little is known in social science about the economic operation of religious institutions. The entire subject has been largely cloaked in secrecy by the religious groups themselves and avoided by polite journalists and researchers. Authors John Heinerman and Anson Shupe

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful. Seneca the Younger

A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets. Arthur Clarke

“Agnostic”is but “Atheist” writ respectable and “Atheist” is only “Agnostic” writ aggressive. Edward Aveling

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize Winning Physicist

Only a bogus prophet translates bogus plates. Mormon apostate and author, Charles Shook

There’s no surer way to make an atheist than to get someone to actually read scripture. PZ Myers

The Christian’s Bible is a drug-store. Its contents remain the same; but the medical practice changes. . . . During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church . . . gathered up its halters, thumbscrews, and firebrands, and set about its holy work in earnest. She worked hard at it night and day during nine centuries and imprisoned, tortured, hanged and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. . . . There are no witches. The witch-text remains; only the practice has changed. Hell-fire is gone, but the text remains. Infant damnation is gone, but the text remains. More than two hundred death penalties are gone from the law books, but the texts that authorized them remain. Is it not well worthy of note that of all the multitude of texts through which man has driven his annihilating pen he has never once made the mistake of obliterating a good and useful one? Mark Twain

If we are to suppose a miracle to be something so entirely out of the course of what is called nature, that she must go out of that course to accomplish it, and we see an account given of such miracle by the person who said he saw it, it raises a question in the mind very easily decided, which is, is it more probable that nature should go out of her course, or that a man should tell a lie? We have never seen, in our time, nature go out of her course; but we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in the same time; it is therefore, at least millions to one, that the reporter of a miracle tells a lie. Thomas Paine

Crutches only are hung on the walls of the miraculous grottoes [of Lourdes]; never a wooden leg. Dr. Maurice de Fleury

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. Will Rogers

The poor dog, in life the firmest friend,

The first to welcome, foremost to defend,

Whose honest heart is still the master’s own,

Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone,

Unhonour’d falls, unnoticed all his worth,

Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth,

While man, vain insect hopes to be forgiven,

And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven. Lord Byron

This crime called blasphemy was invented by priests for the purpose of defending doctrines not able to take care of themselves. Robert Ingersoll

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Voltaire

Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for Atheism ever conceived. Isaac Asimov

Faith is believing something you know ain’t true. Mark Twain

I am bewildered . . . I own that I cannot see, as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the . . . [parasitic wasps] with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars. Charles Darwin

I am a strong advocate for free thought on all subjects, yet it appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against christianity & theism produce hardly any effect on the public; & freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men’s minds, which follows from the advance of science. It has, therefore, been always my object to avoid writing on religion, & I have confined myself to science. I may, however, have been unduly biassed [sic] by the pain which it would give some members of my family, if I aided in any way direct attacks on religion. Charles Darwin

We show not only that atheists are less accepted than other marginalized groups but also that attitudes toward them have not exhibited the marked increase in acceptance that has characterized views of other racial and religious minorities over the past forty years. . . . Americans are less accepting of atheists than of any of the other groups we asked about, and by a wide margin. University of Minnesota Study of Atheists as “Other.”

Religionist quotes:

[T]he inability to believe in God and to live by faith is the greatest of evils. Catholic Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor

No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God. George Herbert Walker Bush

We live in a day when there is a great war going on in the society in which we live. There are many battlefronts and aspects to the war, but the primary war in our day is between Christianity and secular humanism. Abounding Joy Christian Website

They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America--the religion of secularism. American Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney

Atheism is the religion whose belief about God is that there is no God. . . . it must be subject to the same legal restrictions imposed by governments on all other religions. In particular, in the United States, the teaching of Atheism must be prohibited wherever the teaching of Christianity is prohibited. The Reverend Bill McGinnis

People who reject the idea of a God--who think that we’re just accidental protoplasm--have always been with us. What bothers me is . . . if there is no eternal standard of right and wrong, then all that matters is power. And atheism leads to brutality. All the horrific crimes of the last century were committed by atheists--Stalin and Hitler and Mao and so forth--because it flows very naturally from an idea that there is no judgment and there is nothing other than the brief time we spend on this Earth. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels

And the angel said unto me, behold, these shall dwindle in unbelief. And it came to pass that I beheld that after they had dwindled in unbelief, they became a dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations. The Book of Mormon

We are called the State Legislature [of Utah], but when the time comes, we shall be called the Kingdom of God. Our government is going to pieces, and it will be like water that is split upon the ground that cannot be gathered. For the time will come when we will give laws to the nations of the earth. Joseph Smith organized this government before, in Nauvoo, and he said if we did our duty, we shall prevail over all our enemies. Second Mormon President Brigham Young

If the People of the Book accept the true faith and keep from evil, We will pardon them their sins and admit them to the gardens of delight. If they observe the Torah and the Gospel and what is revealed to them from Allah, they shall be given abundance from above and from beneath. The Koran

I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. Jesus

The great miracle of the New Testament can be seen as a combination of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. If one is able to believe this, then all other miracles of the Gospels and Acts are easily believed. . . . The resurrection, more than any other miracle of the New Testament, is the foundation on which . . . Christian faith and hope rest. Dr. C. Matthew McMahon

Christ’s resurrection is the central event of Christianity, a fundamental truth that must be reaffirmed with vigor at all times, as to deny it in different ways, as has been attempted and continues to be attempted, or to transform it into a merely spiritual event is to make our faith vain. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. Pope Benedict XVI

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food.” The Bible

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. The Bible

A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. The Bible

And say to the believing women that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts and do not display their ornaments except what appears thereof, and let them wear their head-coverings over their bosoms, and not display their ornaments except to their husbands or their fathers . . . and let them not strike their feet so that what they hide of their ornaments may be known. The Koran

The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. Pat Robertson

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. The Bible

[W]e don’t have to debate what we think about homosexual activity. It’s written in the Bible. Ted Haggard

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. The Bible

[M]arriage is neither a matter of politics, nor is it a matter of social policy. Marriage is defined by the Lord Himself. . . . It is not an institution to be tampered with by mankind, and certainly not to be tampered with by those who are doing so simply for their own purposes. There is no such thing in the Lord’s eyes as something called same-gender marriage. Homosexual behavior is and will always remain before the Lord an abominable sin. Statement of the Mormon Church

Atheism has always been hostile to religion, such as in its arguments that freedom of or for religion should include freedom from religion. Atheism’s threat rises as its proponents grow in numbers and aggressiveness. . . . [A]theism’s spokesmen are aggressive [and] have developed great skills in demonizing those who disagree with them, turning their opponents into objects of fear, hatred and scorn. Mormon Elder Dallin Oaks

The Boy Scouts of America maintains that no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation to God. . . . The recognition of God as the ruling and leading power in the universe and the grateful acknowledgment of His favors and blessings are necessary to the best type of citizenship and are wholesome precepts in the education of the growing members. No matter what the religious faith of the members may be, this fundamental need of good citizenship should be kept before them. The Boy Scouts of America . . . is absolutely nonsectarian in its attitude toward that religious training. Declaration of Religious Principle, Bylaws of Boy Scouts of America

We believe that homosexual conduct is inconsistent with the requirements in the Scout Oath that a Scout be morally straight and in the Scout Law that a Scout be clean in word and deed, and that homosexuals do not provide a desirable role model for Scouts. Because of these beliefs, the Boy Scouts of America does not accept homosexuals as members or as leaders, whether in volunteer or professional capacities. Boy Scouts of America Position Statement: Homosexuality and the BSA.

Quotes from Born Atheist:

Everyone is born atheist. Religion is learned.

Religion requires faith because it has no facts.

Religion is the world’s most powerful institution.

Atheists should feel no obligation to prove that they are good without religion. The question “can you be good without god,” should be as offensive and out of place as the question, “can a slave be good without his master?

Religion is the strangest fiction.

The scriptures–written by men and fixed in time.

The Torah, Bible and Koran are products of their times. Each was written by men and is fixed in time. The scriptures reflect the knowledge and values of their authors, and when they are used for modern guidance they act sort of like a time machine, inappropriately dragging outdated knowledge and values into the modern world.

A miracle is a fictitious event or fictitious explanation for a real event offered as evidence of the existence of a supernatural power.

If prayer makes an amputated limb grow back, atheists will pay attention. Until then miracles are silly myths to help believers keep faith in their silly gods.

If the “testimony” of the Bible were presented in court, the case would be dismissed for lack of reliable evidence.

WARNING: Quitting Religion Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health.

Religionists, who believe that the environment they despoil will be replaced by one pristine and new, are living a dangerous myth.

It is not enough that religionists invent a bearded man in the sky, claim to know his will and govern their lives by scriptures written by men and fixed in time. No, to validate their myths they try to force others to live like them.

Religious lies–forcing children to die when they cannot yet make the choice to live, and forcing adults to live with artificial life support when they would want to die naturally, are harmful examples of how religion negatively impacts us all. Religion is not harmless, it is bad for your health and bad for the environment.

In the brutal world of the primitive past, men succeeded in dominating women through force, but in the modern world of tools, technology and information, women can stand shoulder to shoulder with men. It is crazy to allow a primitive ethic and ancient texts to dictate sex roles in the modern world. Yet religion drags ancient roles and superstitions forward and applies them today.

Failing to educate youths about reproduction, contraception and sexually transmitted disease prevention is like putting them on the road in cars without teaching them how to drive and then blaming them when collisions inevitably occur.

The battle cry of “god, guns and gays” helped to form a coalition of the rich and stupid, where the rich got tax breaks, pro-business judges and lax enforcement of laws and regulations while the stupid got “protection” from gay marriage and a promise that one day abortion would be outlawed.

It is doubtless that religionists are hypocrites in their application of biblical rules. They do not stone adulterers. They do not stone children who curse their parents. They do not stone disobedient children. They do not stone those who work on Sunday. They do not stone those who say “god damn.” They do not avoid clothing of blended fibers and they do not avoid clipping the edges of their hair or beards. But hypocrisy aside, there is no way to read around the scriptural condemnation of gay sex. The scriptures were written by men and are fixed in time. By the terms the religionists have established, the scriptures cannot now be rewritten to incorporate a modern understanding of gays. If gays are okay, the scriptures are wrong. If the scriptures are right, then gays should be killed.

Religion, for some, is as considered as wearing socks.

Religion is almost never questioned or discussed, not by the media, not by “polite” company and not by the religionists themselves. This deference to religion helps to perpetuate it.

The Muslim merely tells the Christian that his version of god is incorrect. The atheist tells all religionists that their gods are lies. The atheist threatens the religionist’s belief system and strangely enough is more feared than a coreligionist who threatens the religionist’s life.

Rather than telling the truth about atheists, that we are a small minority, generally kind, intelligent and as a movement disorganized and largely ineffective, religionists tell the lie that atheists are powerful, dangerous and agents of the devil. That is how frightened they are of the atheist message.

Atheist celebrities currently seem more secretive about their lack of religion than they do about their sexuality.

Coming out as an atheist is the single most important step you can take.

The 9/11 attacks served as a wake up call for atheists. The attacks were religiously motivated and killed more than 3,000 people. As a direct result of 9/11, the United States initiated wars in Afghanistan and Iraq killing a million or more people. Now religion is not just a matter of creationism and the ten commandments in public places, it is a matter of life and death.

It is not enough to sit back and say, “religionists are crazy and there is no use talking to them.” They are crazy, but they are crazy and in control, with their hands on the triggers of guns and the detonators of weapons of mass destruction. The time for deference is over. The time for action is now.

The greatest majority of religious money is spent on propagating and perpetuating the religious myth. This activity is no more deserving of tax exemption than the entertaining myths created by Hollywood.