Quotes from Famous Freethinkers

[Hedonist]

"It is straightforward—and never mind, for now, about plagues and famines: if God existed, and if he cared for humankind, he would never have given us religion." ~ Martin Amis

[Hedonist]

"Man had created God in his own image, not the other way around. He had done it through sheer terror, and who could blame him? Unfortunately he had made too good a job. The god he had invented was just as cruel and careless as man himself. Not a deity to whom one should seriously address a prayer." ~ Richard Herley

[Hedonist]

"The three monotheism share a series of identical forms of aversion: hatred of reason and intelligence; hatred of freedom; hatred of all books in the name of one book alone; hatred of sexuality, women,and pleasure; hatred of feminine; hatred of body, of desires, of drives. Instead Judaism, Christianity, and Islam extol faith and belief, obedience and submission, taste for death and longing for the beyond, the asexual angel and chastity, virginity and monogamous love, wife and mother, soul and spirit. In other words, life crucified and nothingness exalted." ~ Michel Onfray

[Hedonist]

"We all ought to understand we're on our own. Believing in Santa Claus doesn't do kids any harm for a few years but it isn't smart for them to continue waiting all their lives for him to come down the chimney with something wonderful. Santa Claus and God are cousins." ~ Andy Rooney

[Hedonist]

"Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence what so ever." ~ Sam Harris

[Hedonist]

"It is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your thoughts while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom window." ~ Sam Harris

[Hedonist]

"The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation." ~ Sam Harris

[Hedonist]

"120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer." ~ Sam Harris

[justagi]

Hedonist wrote:

"You don’t have to be brave or a saint, a martyr, or even very smart to be an atheist. All you have to be able to say is 'I don’t know'." ~ Penn Jillette

Very true, you don't know. "Ignorance is bliss".

[Hedonist]

justagi wrote:

<quoted text>Very true, you don't know. "Ignorance is bliss".

Neither do you. The difference is that I don't feel a need to make stuff up.

[Hedonist]

"The moment you shift the conversation to God ... you can pretend to know things you absolutely and obviously cannot know." ~ Sam Harris

[Hedonist]

"A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows." ~ Samuel Clemens

[justagi]

Hedonist wrote:

<quoted text>
Neither do you. The difference is that I don't feel a need to make stuff up.

I make nothing up, noe do I feel the need to use the thoughts of others to make me sound wise. I can be the dullest knife in the drawer and still be happy in accepting Christ as my Savior. You have nothing to look forward to but a dirt nap.

[Givemeliberty]

I rest my case.

justagi wrote:

<quoted text>I make nothing up, I can be the dullest knife in the drawer and still be happy in accepting Christ as my savior.

[justagi]

Givemeliberty wrote:

I rest my case.
<quoted text>

Only nonbelievers such as yourself would have the slightest inclination as to what that means, but please, don't alter posts- that is a violation.

[Hedonist]

justagi wrote:

<quoted text>I make nothing up, noe do I feel the need to use the thoughts of others to make me sound wise. I can be the dullest knife in the drawer and still be happy in accepting Christ as my Savior. You have nothing to look forward to but a dirt nap.

"You can say 'Gee, your life must be pretty bleak if you don't think there's a purpose' but I'm anticipating a good lunch." ~ James Watson

[Hedonist]

justagi wrote:

<quoted text>...nor do I feel the need to use the thoughts of others to make me sound wise ...

Did you not understand the title of this thread -- "Quotes from Famous Freethinkers" or the subtitle -- "quotes that speak to non-theism, Humanism, freethought, etc.".

I think you just proved you are "not the sharpest knife in the drawer."

[Hedonist]

"The longer I have been an atheist, the more amazed I am that I ever believed Christian notions." ~ Dan Barker

[Hedonist]

"To think that the ruler of the universe will run to my assistance and bend the laws of nature for me is the height of arrogance." ~ Dan Barker

And the corollary --

"Atheism: The arrogant belief that the entire billions-of-galaxies universe was not made just for us." ~ anonymous

[Hedonist]

"You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?" ~ Dan Barker