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Agaliha
August 14th, 2008, 03:42 AM
From here (http://atheistblogger.com/2008/02/15/101-atheist-quotes/).



The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality. - George Bernard Shaw
Faith means not wanting to know what is true. - Friedrich Nietzsche
I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. - Frank Lloyd Wright
We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes. - Gene Roddenberry
To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today. - Isaac Asimov
A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows. - Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. - Seneca the Younger
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. - Anonymous
Not only is there no god, but try getting a plumber on weekends. - Woody Allen
If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul. - Isaac Asimov
Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination. - Edward Abbey
With or without religion, 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
I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence. - Doug McLeod
The world holds two classes of men - intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence. - Abu’lAla al Ma’arri
Since the Bible and the church are obviously mistaken in telling us where we came from, how can we trust them to tell us where we are going? - Anonymous
I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. - Susan B. Anthony
The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike. - Delos B. McKown
Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer. - Anonymous
Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. - Francis Bacon
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. - Richard Dawkins
A God who kept tinkering with the universe was absurd; a God who interfered with human freedom and creativity was tyrant. If God is seen as a self in a world of his own, an ego that relates to a thought, a cause separate from its effect. he becomes a being, not Being itself. An omnipotent, all knowing tyrant is not so different from earthly dictators who make everything and everybody mere cogs in the machine which they controlled. An atheism that rejects such a God is amply justified. - Karen Armstrong
It is not as in the Bible, that God created man in his own image. But, on the contrary, man created God in his own image. - Ludwig Feuerbach
People ask me what I think about that woman priest thing. What, a woman priest? Women priests. Great, great. Now there’s priests of both sexes I don’t listen to. - Bill Hicks
All the biblical miracles will at last disappear with the progress of science. - Matthew Arnold
Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence. - Anonymous
Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one. - Richard Dawkins
What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof. - Christopher Hitchens
In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point. - Friedrich Nietzsche
It will yet be the proud boast of women that they never contributed a line to the Bible. - George W. Foote
On the first day, man created God. - Anonymous
I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. - Stephen Roberts
You do not need the Bible to justify love, but no better tool has been invented to justify hate. - Richard A. Weatherwax
What’s “God”? Well, you know, when you want something really bad and you close your eyes and you wish for it? God’s the guy that ignores you. - Steve Buscemi (From the movie “The Island”)
As far as I can tell from studying the scriptures, all you do in heaven is pretty much just sit around all day and praise the Lord. I don’t know about you, but I think that after the first, oh, I don’t know, 50,000,000 years of that I’d start to get a little bored. - Rick Reynolds
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish. - Anonymous
Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color. - Don Hirschberg
God should be executed for crimes against humanity. - Bryan Emmanuel Gutierrez
To say that atheism requires faith is as dim-witted as saying that disbelief in pixies or leprechauns takes faith. Even if Einstein himself told me there was an elf on my shoulder, I would still ask for proof and I wouldn’t be wrong to ask. - Geoff Mather
I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. - Mark Twain
Of all religions the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men. - Voltaire
And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence. - Bertrand Russell
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? - Epicurus
I’m a polyatheist - there are many gods I don’t believe in. - Dan Fouts
If it turns out that there is a God, I don’t think that he’s evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever. - Woody Allen
A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it. - David Stevens
Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a God superior to themselves. Most Gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. - Robert A Heinlein
I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing. - Douglas Adams
It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. - Mark Twain
He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave. - William Drummond
Remember, Jesus would rather constantly shame gays than let orphans have a family. - Steven Colbert
Which is it, is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s? - Friedrich Nietzsche
Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people. - Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney
Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every stage of human history than any other single idea. - Anonymous
When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal and wholesome life. - Sigmund Freud
They felt that science would be corrosive to religious belief and they were worried about it. Damn it, I think they were right. It is corrosive to religious belief and it’s a good thing. - Steven Weinberg
Take from the church the miraculous, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the unknowable, the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains. - Robert G. Ingersoll
History teaches us that no other cause has brought more death than the word of god. - Giulian Buzila
Atheism is a non-prophet organization. - George Carlin
We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins
A believer states everything must have a creator but fail to say how he was created. - Anonymous
“There are no atheists in foxholes” isn’t an argument against atheism, it’s an argument against foxholes. - James Morrow
People will then often say, ‘But surely it’s better to remain an Agnostic just in case?’ This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I’ve been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would choose not to worship him anyway.) - Douglas Adams
Properly read, the bible is the most potent force for Atheism ever conceived. - Isaac Asimov
If all the Christians who have called other Christians “not really a Christian” were to vanish, there’d be no Christians left. - Anonymous
An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support. - John Buchan
Gods dont kill people. People with Gods kill people. - David Viaene
If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which He has inflicted upon men, He would kill Himself. - Alexandre Dumas
Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. - Sam Harris
I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose - Clarence Darrow
No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism. - Annie Wood Besant
I refuse to believe in a god who is the primary cause of conflict in the world, preaches racism, sexism, homophobia, and ignorance, and then sends me to hell if I’m ‘bad’. - Mike Fuhrman
Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. - Frater Ravus
Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o, and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have. - Penn Jillette
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power but absolute power is corrupt only in the hands of the absolutely faithful. - Anonymous
Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense. - Chapman Cohen
The inspiration of the bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it. - Robert G. Ingersoll
When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion. - Robert Pirsig
I wonder who got the shit job of scouring the planet for the 15000 species of butterfly or the 8800 species of ant they eventually took on board Noah’s Ark. But at least we got that magical rainbow for all their trouble. - Azura Skye
I have no need for religion, I have a conscience. - Anonymous
Man has always required an explanation for all of those things in the world he did not understand. If an explanation was not available, he created one. - Jim Crawford
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. - Richard Dawkins
What has been Christianity’s fruits? Superstition, Bigotry and Persecution. - James Madison
The characters and events depicted in the damn bible are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. - Penn and Teller
If god is the alpha and the omega. The begining and the end, knows what has passed and what is to come, like it states in the bible, why do people pray and think it will make any difference. - Mark Fairclough
The finality of death is the coldest truth one must face. Religion makes the perfect distraction. - Anonymous
Religion is the opiate of the masses. - Karl Marx
If God created the world, then who created god? and who created whoever created god? So somewhere along the line something had to just be there. So why can’t we just skip the idea of god and go straight to earth? - Ryan Hanson
If we expect God to subscribe to one religion at the exclusion of all the others, then we should expect damnation as a matter of chance. This should give Christians pause when expounding their religious beliefs, but it does not. - Sam Harris
Atheists will celebrate life, while you’re in church celebrating death. - Anonymous
Animals do not have gods, they are smarter than that. - Ronnie Snow
I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever. - Daniel Boorstin
I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God. So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake… Religion is all bunk. - Thomas Edison
Fundamentalism, of any type, due to its prerequisite lack of intelligent thought, could prove to be the worst weapon of mass destruction, of all. - David J. Constable
To really be free, You need to be free in the mind. - Alexander Loutsis
Most religions prophecy the end of the world and then consistently work together to ensure that these prophecies come true. - Anonymous
Jesus hardly made the greatest sacrifice. He knew he would be resurrected anyway. - Anonymous
Religion is like a virus that affects the behaviour of its host in such a way as to propagate itself further. - Jack Pritchard
Religions are like pills, which must be swallowed whole without chewing. - Anonymous
Today’s religion will be the future’s mythology. Both believed at one time by many; but proved wrong by the clever. - Steven Crocker
The Bible - A Fairytale book of rules brainwashing millions. Obliviously used to help create war, kill, hate, judge and discriminate. - Anonymous
Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? - Douglas Adams


Any favorites or thoughts on any?
Any more quotes to add?

Infinite Grey
August 14th, 2008, 03:54 AM
I know most of those quotes and have used them... but one of my all time favourites is the Steven Wienberg one.




With or without religion, 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

David19
August 14th, 2008, 04:18 PM
From here (http://atheistblogger.com/2008/02/15/101-atheist-quotes/).[LIST=1]
The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality. - George Bernard Shaw

Thanks for the list, that one is my favourite.

David19
August 14th, 2008, 04:19 PM
I know most of those quotes and have used them... but one of my all time favourites is the Steven Wienberg one.

That one is quite cool too.

Serendipity
August 14th, 2008, 04:31 PM
Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o, and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have. - Penn Jillette

I had this on my myspace for quite some time.


Remember, Jesus would rather constantly shame gays than let orphans have a family. - Steven Colbert

Colbert FTW!! :giggle:

MoonBreath
August 14th, 2008, 04:38 PM
i've seen some of those quotes in my boyfriend's copy of The Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for non-believers, political junkies, gadflies, and those Generally Hell-bound.I haven't actually read the whole book, just flipped through the pages. Some of the quotes i read made me laugh out loud! :lol:

David19
August 15th, 2008, 09:54 AM
i've seen some of those quotes in my boyfriend's copy of The Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for non-believers, political junkies, gadflies, and those Generally Hell-bound.I haven't actually read the whole book, just flipped through the pages. Some of the quotes i read made me laugh out loud! :lol:

I might check that out one day.

Infinite Grey
September 7th, 2009, 04:55 PM
The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts:
Those with brains, but no religion,
And those with religion, but no brains.

* Abu'l-`Ala' al-Ma`arri poet of Ma`arra

Cunae
September 7th, 2009, 05:46 PM
Have to tell ya, I laughed at most of them. They were meant to be funny, right? :smileroll

Infinite Grey
September 7th, 2009, 05:58 PM
Have to tell ya, I laughed at most of them. They were meant to be funny, right? :smileroll



Not as funny as Numbers 22:28-30


http://gracewalk.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/donkey.jpg

Infinite Grey
September 7th, 2009, 06:02 PM
And so to those of you who may be vitalists I would make this prophecy: what everyone believed yesterday, and you believe today, only cranks will believe tomorrow.

* Francis Crick (1967)

Infinite Grey
September 7th, 2009, 06:08 PM
This one is dedicated to... well I'm sure they'll know :thumbsup:

The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.

* Albert Einstein, Gutkind Letter (3 January 1954)

Cunae
September 7th, 2009, 09:58 PM
This one is dedicated to... well I'm sure they'll know :thumbsup:

The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.

* Albert Einstein, Gutkind Letter (3 January 1954)

Just another intellectual being snarky about religion.

Curious, IG. Do you ever slip and say "Oh My God" or "Thank God" or "God damn"?

BryonMorrigan
September 8th, 2009, 01:05 AM
To be fair: A few of those quotes were by non-Atheists...

Examples: James Madison was a Deist, though obviously with some strong anti-organized religion feelings, and Epicurus was kind of a "Poly-Deist," in that he believed in the Greek Gods, but believed that they did not interfere in human affairs.

BryonMorrigan
September 8th, 2009, 01:07 AM
Do you ever slip and say "Oh My God" or "Thank God" or "God damn"?


I know it wasn't directed at me...but ever since the new Battlestar Galactica came out, I've been saying, "Gods-dammit!" (They say that on that show...)

Vampiel
September 8th, 2009, 01:19 AM
Just another intellectual being snarky about religion.

:jawdrop: Imagine that an intellectual being snarky about a primitive concept.

Infinite Grey
September 8th, 2009, 03:48 AM
Just another intellectual being snarky about religion.

Curious, IG. Do you ever slip and say "Oh My God" or "Thank God" or "God damn"?

And if I yes to using common vernaculars you'll imply in means something? Perhaps you should actually pay attention to those intellectuals, you might learn something :thumbsup:

Philosophia
September 8th, 2009, 04:07 AM
To be fair: A few of those quotes were by non-Atheists...

Examples: James Madison was a Deist, though obviously with some strong anti-organized religion feelings, and Epicurus was kind of a "Poly-Deist," in that he believed in the Greek Gods, but believed that they did not interfere in human affairs.

Albert Einstein did not class himself as a Atheist either.

spiral
September 8th, 2009, 04:30 AM
This is one of my favourite quotes in general:

I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. - Frank Lloyd Wright

Although I'm not sure whether everyone would agree that it's an atheist quote.


Albert Einstein did not class himself as a Atheist either.

Did he actually class himself as anything in particular? I've always wondered... a lot of people say he was a pantheist, and although some of the things he said sound very pantheist to me, I don't think he ever called himself one.

Infinite Grey
September 8th, 2009, 04:56 AM
Albert Einstein did not class himself as a Atheist either.

"My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment."

Albert Einstein

spiral
September 8th, 2009, 04:59 AM
Ah, thanks :thumbsup:

Infinite Grey
September 8th, 2009, 10:59 PM
"I've never understood how God could expect his creatures to pick the one true religion by faith -— it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a universe." ~ Jubal Harshaw

Philosophia
September 8th, 2009, 11:01 PM
"My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment."

Albert Einstein

Exactly, he's not an atheist.

Infinite Grey
September 8th, 2009, 11:16 PM
Exactly, he's not an atheist.

He isn't anything right now, he's dead.

Agnostics and deists are usually pretty much atheistic in a practical senses - you look at their philosophies, day to day decisions and general world perspective - the differences are negligible.

Personally I prefer non-theist as opposed to narrowing them down, as it is really just nick picking an insignificant difference in belief.

One doesn't believe.
One doesn't believe we can ever know one way or the other.
One believes a deity came, sparked the big bang and then buggered off.


It's like classifying people into different groups because one group likes their drinking water 13°C, another likes theirs at 14°C and another as 12°C.

Cunae
September 8th, 2009, 11:28 PM
And if I yes to using common vernaculars you'll imply in means something? Perhaps you should actually pay attention to those intellectuals, you might learn something :thumbsup:


Belittling comments don't serve your efforts. Stick to pretending you are yourself an intellectual... someone might actually believe it one day! :thumbsup:

Philosophia
September 8th, 2009, 11:33 PM
He isn't anything right now, he's dead.

Agnostics and deists are usually pretty much atheistic in a practical senses - you look at their philosophies, day to day decisions and general world perspective - the differences are negligible.

Personally I prefer non-theist as opposed to narrowing them down, as it is really just nick picking an insignificant difference in belief.

One doesn't believe.
One doesn't believe we can ever know one way or the other.
One believes a deity came, sparked the big bang and then buggered off.


It's like classifying people into different groups because one group likes their drinking water 13°C, another likes theirs at 14°C and another as 12°C.

I rather like Dawkin's scale of belief (from 1-7) (http://christophersisk.com/dawkins-belief-scale-images/). The differences may be negligible but, for an agnostic as myself, it's something that is important. Non-theist is good as an umbrella term but only if it remains as such and doesn't fall into the black/white paradigm.

Infinite Grey
September 8th, 2009, 11:38 PM
Belittling comments don't serve your efforts. Stick to pretending you are yourself an intellectual... someone might actually believe it one day! :thumbsup:

Ha! When have I ever referred to myself as an intellectual? As Stephen Hawking once said "people who brag about their IQs are losers."

The point I was alluding to MC, is you were asking a loaded question based on fallacious logic. Many religious people, particularly creationists and evangelical Christians, try this little fallacy. "You say "Oh My God" or "Thank God" or "God damn"? Yes? See you do believe in god." or some variant of it. It's up there with this nifty proof for god "how many days in the week are there? 7? God created the world in 7 days, so that's why we have a 7 day week."

Both arguments are apexes of ignorance - not the worst, believe it or not, but damn close.

So you could take me advising you to actually listen to intellectuals of the past and present, people who of contributed to world, who are indirectly and directly responsible for all the modern conveniences you take for granted... as "Belittling comments" - but that doesn't reflect the true intention of my comment, just your paranoid need to have someone prosecute you.

Infinite Grey
September 8th, 2009, 11:42 PM
I rather like Dawkin's scale of belief (from 1-7) (http://christophersisk.com/dawkins-belief-scale-images/). The differences may be negligible but, for an agnostic as myself, it's something that is important. Non-theist is good as an umbrella term but only if it remains as such and doesn't fall into the black/white paradigm.

The label atheist and non-theist is kind of idiotic really - defining a group of people by what they do not believe or what they are not.

While I prefer non-theist - I would rather call myself a Materialist, a Rationalists and/or Humanists; if I must call myself anything. But I still find myself using Atheist, because that is what people know.

Cunae
September 8th, 2009, 11:47 PM
Ha! When have I ever referred to myself as an intellectual? As Stephen Hawking once said "people who brag about their IQs are losers."

The point I was alluding to MC, is you were asking a loaded question based on fallacious logic. Many religious people, particularly creationists and evangelical Christians, try this little fallacy. "You say "Oh My God" or "Thank God" or "God damn"? Yes? See you do believe in god." or some variant of it. It's up there with this nifty proof for god "how many days in the week are there? 7? God created the world in 7 days, so that's why we have a 7 day week."

Both arguments are apexes of ignorance - not the worst, believe it or not, but damn close.

So you could take me advising you to actually listen to intellectuals of the past and present, people who of contributed to world, who are indirectly and directly responsible for all the modern conveniences you take for granted... as "Belittling comments" - but that doesn't reflect the true intention of my comment, just your paranoid need to have someone prosecute you.


I wish you could break out of this tired box of yours.

Infinite Grey
September 8th, 2009, 11:47 PM
"I have been called arrogant myself in my time, and hope to earn the title again, but to claim that I am privy to the secrets of the universe and its creator — that's beyond my conceit. I therefore have no choice but to find something suspect even in the humblest believer. Even the most humane and compassionate of the monotheisms and polytheisms are complicit in this quiet and irrational authoritarianism: they proclaim us, in Fulke Greville's unforgettable line, "Created sick — Commanded to be well." And there are totalitarian insinuations to back this up if its appeal should fail. Christians, for example, declare me redeemed by a human sacrifice that occurred thousands of years before I was born. I didn't ask for it, and would willingly have foregone it, but there it is: I'm claimed and saved whether I wish it or not. And if I refuse the unsolicited gift? Well, there are still some vague mutterings about an eternity of torment for my ingratitude. That is somewhat worse than a Big Brother state, because there could be no hope of its eventually passing away."

Christopher Hitchens

Infinite Grey
September 8th, 2009, 11:49 PM
I wish you could break out of this tired box of yours.

I wish you could take off that blindfold you call faith, it blinds you to the true beauty of the universe.

Philosophia
September 8th, 2009, 11:49 PM
The label atheist and non-theist is kind of idiotic really - defining a group of people by what they do not believe or what they are not.

While I prefer non-theist - I would rather call myself a Materialist, a Rationalists and/or Humanists; if I must call myself anything. But I still find myself using Atheist, because that is what people know.

I don't get the labeling either. It's like called myself non-Blonde instead of Brunette. Maybe the term Atheist was meant to have been derogatory label because it does seem to be as such, like negative atheism (http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/smithdef.htm).

I always thought you were a Rationalist and/or Humanist, not just an Atheist.

Nicholas
September 8th, 2009, 11:50 PM
I do think Atheists are grouped together in a rather assumed conformity. Although the essence of the term fits me I personally feel that the term Pearlist does suit me quite well especially in my work with fossils and the gathering of evidence around them.

People are ignorant that most Atheists believe in different things some are persons of science while others can be completely ignorant in science and believe that the cookie monster is real. The spectrum is large.

Cunae
September 8th, 2009, 11:54 PM
I wish you could take off that blindfold you call faith, it blinds you to the true beauty of the universe.


I absolutely appreciate the true beauty of the universe... and the astounding creativity of God. It is quite breath-taking... to both of us.

Anyway, looks like you have people willing to engage you in the intellectual efforts of your thread. I leave it to you. *Peace*

Infinite Grey
September 8th, 2009, 11:56 PM
I don't get the labeling either. It's like called myself non-Blonde instead of Brunette. Maybe the term Atheist was meant to have been derogatory label because it does seem to be as such, like negative atheism (http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/smithdef.htm).

I always thought you were a Rationalist and/or Humanist, not just an Atheist.

Thanks :thumbsup: As I said, I use Atheist because that's what people know - I would use PEARList like Nicholas, but how many people know what PEARL is?

Infinite Grey
September 8th, 2009, 11:59 PM
[COLOR=purple]I absolutely appreciate the true beauty of the universe... and the astounding creativity of God. It is quite breath-taking... to both of us.


Not quite - you believe the world with wished into existence and ignore a continents of reality to maintain that belief - you do not see the beauty of the universe in any significant sense.



Anyway, looks like you have people willing to engage you in the intellectual efforts of your thread. I leave it to you. *Peace*


Mmm it's great.

BryonMorrigan
September 9th, 2009, 01:00 AM
Agnostics and deists are usually pretty much atheistic in a practical senses - you look at their philosophies, day to day decisions and general world perspective - the differences are negligible.

The difference is mainly that Atheists reject anything supernatural out of hand, whereas an Agnostic or Deist might believe in other non-Theistic things like an afterlife, souls, and ghosts.

IMNSHO, Atheists claiming Agnostics and Deists as their "own" is like Wiccans claiming Thoreau was a Pagan because he liked nature.



It's up there with this nifty proof for god "how many days in the week are there? 7? God created the world in 7 days, so that's why we have a 7 day week."

And they're all named after Pagan gods and goddesses! So that proves...er....what? Stupid argument is stupid.




Maybe the term Atheist was meant to have been derogatory label because it does seem to be as such, like negative atheism (http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/smithdef.htm).


The term "Atheist" was originally coined to define Christians by Roman Polytheists. As the Romans believed that all gods and goddesses exist, the Christians' denial of the existence of any other deities besides their precious Yahweh was considered very bad form, at the least.

Infinite Grey
September 9th, 2009, 01:08 AM
The difference is mainly that Atheists reject anything supernatural out of hand, whereas an Agnostic or Deist might believe in other non-Theistic things like an afterlife, souls, and ghosts.


Not at all - A good portion of Buddhists are atheists, there are sects of Jews and Hindus (and even an emerging sect of Christianity) that are atheistic.

The only uniting factor that unites Atheists at all, is that they lack a belief in god(s)... the label says nothing about their beliefs on every or anything supernatural beyond that point.

BryonMorrigan
September 9th, 2009, 01:45 AM
Not at all - A good portion of Buddhists are atheists, there are sects of Jews and Hindus (and even an emerging sect of Christianity) that are atheistic.

The only uniting factor that unites Atheists at all, is that they lack a belief in god(s)... the label says nothing about their beliefs on every or anything supernatural beyond that point.

Every person that I've ever met that used the label "Atheist" to define him/herself has had that "Dawkin-esque" condescension towards anything supernatural. This could become a very semantic debate here, but if some Atheists allow for the possibility of supernatural elements, then they should probably come up with a specific term for that to separate themselves from the "If-it-ain't-scientific-it's-stupid" crowd.

Infinite Grey
September 9th, 2009, 01:55 AM
Every person that I've ever met that used the label "Atheist" to define him/herself has had that "Dawkin-esque" condescension towards anything supernatural. This could become a very semantic debate here, but if some Atheists allow for the possibility of supernatural elements, then they should probably come up with a specific term for that to separate themselves from the "If-it-ain't-scientific-it's-stupid" crowd.

So what if every Atheist you've met has been Dawkin-esque? I could say that in my experience Hindu I've met has been Bat-shit crazy, but that does not necessarily reflect true on all Hindu's does it? Hell Shanti, on this site alone, is an Atheist, but not a Dawkin-esque.

How about this; All Baptists are Christian, but not all Christians are Baptists. Or All Geocentricists are Idiots, but not all Idiots are Geocentricists .

Me - I'm closer to the Atheist you describe :thumbsup:

BryonMorrigan
September 9th, 2009, 02:07 AM
Me - I'm closer to the Atheist you describe :thumbsup:


I can respect that.

Infinite Grey
September 9th, 2009, 02:08 AM
I can respect that.

Damn right you can :crown:

BryonMorrigan
September 9th, 2009, 02:23 AM
Damn right you can :crown:


Nope. I take it back now, you f---ing f---!







:boing:

Infinite Grey
September 9th, 2009, 02:55 AM
Nope. I take it back now, you f---ing f---!







:boing:

Now that's not very nice! :wah:

Infinite Grey
September 9th, 2009, 02:58 AM
Religion ends and philosophy begins, just as alchemy ends and chemistry begins and astrology ends, and astronomy begins.

Christopher Hitchens

BryonMorrigan
September 9th, 2009, 03:07 AM
Now that's not very nice! :wah:



Every time an Atheist cries, an "angel" loses his wings...

spiral
September 9th, 2009, 04:39 AM
Before I came to MW, I didn't really understand that there were atheists who believed in supernatural beings other than a god. I find it tricky to get my head around sometimes.


Thanks :thumbsup: As I said, I use Atheist because that's what people know - I would use PEARList like Nicholas, but how many people know what PEARL is?

A type of knitting stitch? :smile:

*oonagh*
September 9th, 2009, 09:24 AM
meh, atheism is just chaste pantheism :smoochypo

Infinite Grey
September 9th, 2009, 09:49 AM
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks.

* Douglas Adams

Fireheart
September 9th, 2009, 10:28 AM
"I have been called arrogant myself in my time, and hope to earn the title again, but to claim that I am privy to the secrets of the universe and its creator — that's beyond my conceit. I therefore have no choice but to find something suspect even in the humblest believer. Even the most humane and compassionate of the monotheisms and polytheisms are complicit in this quiet and irrational authoritarianism: they proclaim us, in Fulke Greville's unforgettable line, "Created sick — Commanded to be well." And there are totalitarian insinuations to back this up if its appeal should fail. Christians, for example, declare me redeemed by a human sacrifice that occurred thousands of years before I was born. I didn't ask for it, and would willingly have foregone it, but there it is: I'm claimed and saved whether I wish it or not. And if I refuse the unsolicited gift? Well, there are still some vague mutterings about an eternity of torment for my ingratitude. That is somewhat worse than a Big Brother state, because there could be no hope of its eventually passing away."

Christopher Hitchens


Oh this ^ one's just awesome.

Here's another I use a lot:

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. -Voltaire