'Freedom Fox' :
"Annihilating abortuaries is our purest form of worship."
He/she is a member of the Army of God, a fundamentalist
Christian group which supports the principle of abortion
clinic violence, but does not engage in direct action.
'Neo' of The Skeptic Arena:
"If life begins at conception, then every year God murders about 50 million innocent fetuses through miscarriage."
Art:
Laura Schmidt, "To remind people of myths is to remind people of
truth, and art is very capable of that."
"The difference between a Christian and a strong Atheist is
that a Christian rejects the existence of a few thousand Gods and Goddesses
who have been devoutly worshipped and sacrificed to down through the ages.
The Atheist merely rejects one more deity: the God of Christianity.
"Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby."
Isaac Asimov: "Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived."
Francis Bacon: "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."
Annie Besant, in "The Gospel of Atheism:" "[N]o
philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world
as this good news of Atheism."
G.K. Chesterton (1922): "If there were no God, there would
be no atheists." From: Where All Roads Lead.
Albert Einstein: "I cannot conceive of a god who rewards and
punishes his creatures or has a will of the kind we experience in ourselves.
Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives
his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egotism, cherish
such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and a
glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the
devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason
that manifests itself in Nature."
Katharine Hepburn: "I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe
there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and
do what we can for other people."
Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach, (1723-1789): "If we look back
at the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods;
that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness
worships them; that credulity preserves them; and that custom, respect and
tyranny support them, in order to make the blindness of man serve their own
interest. If the ignorance of nature gave birth to Gods, the knowledge of
nature is calculated to destroy them."
Darrell Lambert, an ex-Boy scout, who was expelled as being
unfit for scouting because he is not a theist. "I think the only power
higher than myself is the power of all of us combined. The interactions we
do affect each others' lives. We're all in symbiosis with each other. But
other than that, there's no higher power governing what I do."
James Morrow: "There are no atheists in foxholes' isn't an
argument against atheism, it's an argument against foxholes."
Pope John Paul II: "An effective proclamation of the
Gospel in contemporary Western society will need to confront directly
the widespread spirit of agnosticism and relativism which has cast doubt
on reason's ability to know the truth, which alone satisfies the human
heart's restless quest for meaning."
Pat Robertson: The 700 Club, 1981-DEC-30
"The Constitution of the United States, for instance, is a marvelous
document for self-government by the Christian people. But the minute you
turn the document into the hands of non-Christian people and Atheistic
people they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society. And
that's what's been happening."
George Santayana: "My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests."
Harun Yahya, Turkish philosopher, "Atheism,
which people have tried to for hundreds of years as 'the ways of reason and science,' is proving to be mere irrationality and ignorance."
Quotations by Atheists -- some humorous, others rather nasty, all believed to be genuine:
Anger:
Mahatma Gandhi: "I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson: to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmitted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmitted into a power that can move the world."
Bertrand Russell: "If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "The supreme task is to organize and unite people so that their anger becomes a transforming force.
This is often referred to as the central tenet of Christianity: that sin and its punishment can be transferred from the guilty (all humanity) to the one person beleived by many Christians to be the only individual completely innocent of sin (Jesus). This central tenet is considered profoundly immoral by some skeptics.
Julie M. Hopkins: "It is morally abhorrent to claim that God
the Father demanded the self-sacrifice of his only Son to balance the scales
of justice...A god who punished through pain, despair and violent death is
not a god of love, but a sadist and despot."
Robert Lowry: "What
can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus; What can make me
whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus." From a late 19th
century hymn: "Nothing but the Blood" that is still popular today.
Michael Martin: "All of the historically important
theories of the Atonement have serious problems. In particular, they either fail
to explain why God sacrificed his son for the salvation of sinners or else make
the sacrifice seem arbitrary."
St. Paul: "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God
through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life." Romans 5:10; King James Version
Edward Santella, Amazon.com book reviewer: "...what
sort of god requires his son to die to redeem others' guilt? What sort of
son would submit? What sort of human being feels redeemed by such a death?
Does this theology twist god into being an abuser? When a woman is sent back
to her abusing husband who then kills her, how many murderers are there?"
1
William W. Sasser: "There have been several theories of the Atonement
developed; some by God-fearing upright men and others by servants of Satan
himself."
John Shelby Spong, retired Episcopal bishop:
"I don't want a God that would go around killing people's
little girls. Neither do I want a God who would kill his own son."
"Seldom did Christians pause to
recognize the ogre into which they had turned God. A human father who would
nail his son to a cross for any purpose would be arrested for child abuse.
Yet that continued to be said of God as if it made God more holy and more
worthy of worship."
Vincent Taylor: "The atonement is accomplished in the work of Christ, whose suffering is vicarious,
representative and sacrificial in character; it is on behalf of men [sic], in their name, and for the purpose of their approach to God."
Ralph Wilson: "All [6 atonement theories] have elements of
truth in them but some are inadequate to stand alone."
Joseph Campbell: "The major problem of all religions has been and continues to be, to mistake the the literal or historical fact for the metaphor. Much of what is written is meant to be read and interpreted as metaphor, not fact." (Paraphrased)
Robert Green Ingersoll: "Every sect is a certificate that
God has not plainly revealed his will to man. To each reader the Bible
conveys a different meaning."
Martin Luther: "Moses' law cannot be valid simply and completely
in all respects for us. We have to take into consideration the character and
ways of our land when we want to make or apply laws or rules, because our
rules and laws are based on the character of our land and its ways and not
on those of the land of Moses, just as Moses' laws are based on the ways and
character of his people and not those of ours." Martin Luther's Works,
Volume 46, p. 291.
Vaughn Roste:
"The Bible, more often than many would like to believe, is often
just that: metaphor. This does not make it any less true ... I believe
the Bible is absolutely 100% true. Some of it even actually happened."
"If we apply 'sola scriptura' to slavery,
I'm afraid the abolitionists are on relatively weak ground. Nowhere is
slavery in the Bible lambasted as an oppressive and evil institution."
Brian Robertson: "... the Bible, taken as a whole, is not the
story of God's changing attitude, but is a story - warts and all - of the
human attempt to better understand that which we call God."
John Shelby Spong:
"The sad truth is that the scholarship present in the
Christian Academy for at least 200 years has not been shared with the people
sitting in the pews. This conspiracy of silence has been carried out quite
consciously for fear that these biblical insights might destroy the faith of
lay people and make the minister's task more difficult. I have always
believed that any god who can be destroyed ought to be destroyed. If one's
faith has to be protected from truth, it has already died." 4
I am always amazed at how the Bible, that portrays my Lord embracing
the outcasts, touching the lepers, welcoming the Samaritans, not judging
the woman taken in the act of adultery, and inviting "all of ye," not
"some of ye," to "come unto me," can, in the hands of a few distorted
people be turned into a book of hatred, violence and judgment. 5
Joe Wenke: author of "You Got to be Kidding: "... about Mosaic Law, Old Testament morality? It’s not really morality at all. It’s more like tribal code. When I think of who today best embodies the values of Old Testament morality, it’s really the Taliban." 6
Bigotry:
Anon: "Bigotry wrapped in a prayer is still bigotry." From a Congregational Church sign
Pat Robertson, in an interview with Molly Ivins in 1993: "Just
like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to
the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is
happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based
media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale
abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in
America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in
history."
Paraphrased exchange on a discussion board:
Liberal Christian: "In the U.S. persons with a
homosexual orientation are discriminated against: they cannot marry;
they have no job security; they have no protection under hate crimes
legislation. Is this bigotry?"
Conservative Christian: "No, because the country is
Christian and follows the true rules of the one true God."
Liberal Christian: "In Saudi Arabia, persons who are
female are denied admission to many professions, are not allowed to
drive cars and are discriminated against in many other ways. Is this
bigotry?"
Conservative Christian: "Yes, because the country is
Islamic and does not follow the true rules of the one true God."
Sydney Smith: "Never try to reason the prejudice out of a
man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out."
Henry David Thoreau: "It is never too late to give up your
prejudices."
George Washington, in response to a speech by Moses Seixas
(1744-1809) referring to past persecutions of the Jews and the new
nation's commitment to religious liberty: "...the government
of the United States...gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no
assistance...." George W Bush, quoted Washington's words in a speech
at the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in 2002."
2
Blasphemy:
George Bernard Shaw: "All great truths begin as
blasphemies."
Stephen G. Post, in "Works of Love," a newsletter from the
Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, 2003-OCT-21. Dr. Post is its
president.
"Bishop Spong Q and A," 2006-JUL-26.
J.S. Spong, "Dallas, Texas: A new vision," A new Christianity for a new
world, 2006-OCT-18. Bishop Spong described an event at a gay pride parade where
"... a group of Bible-wielding counter demonstrators ... with voices
screaming and faces contorted by anger promised us the fate of Sodom and
Gomorrah."
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