Wisdom Quotes

Quotations to challenge and inspire

Authors Topics Credits Home

Search This Site

Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes

As to the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or do not exist.
Protagoras
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Religion Quotes

When men destroy their old gods they will find new ones to take their place.
Pearl S. Buck
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Belief Quotes, Faith Quotes, Pearl S. Buck Quotes, Religion Quotes

Believing in gods always causes confusion.
Pearl S. Buck
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Pearl S. Buck Quotes

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
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Francis Bacon Quotes, Religion Quotes

How do I define God? I don't. Divinities have been understood in various ways in the cultural traditions that we know. Take, say, the core of the established religions today: the Bible. It is basically polytheistic, with the warrior God demanding of his chosen people that they not worship the other Gods and destroy those who do -- in an extremely brutal way, in fact. It would be hard to find a more genocidal text in the literary canon, or a more violent and destructive character than the God who was to be worshipped. So that's one definition.

In the Prophets, one finds (sometimes) a different conception, much more humane. That's why the Prophets (the 'dissident intellectuals' of their day) were persecuted, imprisoned, driven into the desert, etc. -- other reasons included their geopolitical analysis, unwelcome to power. The intellectuals who were honored and privileged were those who centuries later were called 'false prophets.' More or less a cultural universal. There were different conceptions of divinity associated with these tendencies, and Greek and Zoroastrian influences are probable causes for later monotheistic tendencies (how one evaluates these are a different matter).

Looking beyond, we find other conceptions, of many kinds. But I have nothing to propose. People who find such conceptions important for themselves have every right to frame them as they like. Personally, I don't. That's why you haven't found my 'thoughts on this [for you] criticaI question.' I have none, because I see no need for them (apart from the -- often extremely interesting and revealing -- inquiry into human culture an history).
Noam Chomsky
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Noam Chomsky Quotes

The next time believers tell you that 'separation of church and state' does not appear in our founding document, tell them to stop using the word 'trinity.' The word 'trinity' appears nowhere in the bible. Neither does Rapture, or Second Coming, or Original Sin. If they are still unfazed (or unphrased), by this, then add Omniscience, Omnipresence, Supernatural,Transcendence, Afterlife, Deity, Divinity, Theology, Monotheism, Missionary, Immaculate Conception, Christmas, Christianity, Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Methodist, Catholic, Pope, Cardinal, Catechism, Purgatory, Penance, Transubstantiation, Excommunication, Dogma, Chastity, Unpardonable Sin, Infallibility, Inerrancy, Incarnation, Epiphany, Sermon, Eucharist, the Lord's Prayer, Good Friday, Doubting Thomas, Advent, Sunday School, Dead Sea, Golden Rule, Moral, Morality, Ethics, Patriotism, Education, Atheism, Apostasy, Conservative (Liberal is in), Capital Punishment, Monogamy, Abortion, Pornography, Homosexual, Lesbian, Fairness, Logic, Republic, Democracy, Capitalism, Funeral, Decalogue, or Bible.
Dan Barker
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Religious Freedom Quotes

I don't spend much time thinking about whether God exists. I don't consider that a relevant question. It's unanswerable and irrelevant to my life, so I put it in the category of things I can't worry about.
Wendy Kaminer
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Wendy Kaminer Quotes

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.
Thomas Jefferson
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Fear Quotes, Questions Quotes, Reason Quotes, Thomas Jefferson Quotes

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.
George Santayana
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, George Santayana Quotes

An atheist is a man who watches a Notre Dame - Southern Methodist University game and doesn't care who wins.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Dwight D. Eisenhower Quotes

I tell them I have worked 40 years to make the W.S. platform broad enough for Atheists and Agnostics to stand upon, and now if need be I will fight the next 40 to keep it Catholic enough to permit the straightest Orthodox religionist to speak or pray and count her beads upon.
Susan B. Anthony   (more)
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Religious Freedom Quotes, Susan B. Anthony Quotes, Tolerance Quotes

I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure -- that is all that agnosticism means.
Clarence Darrow   (more)
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Clarence Darrow Quotes, Religion Quotes

Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color.
Don Hirschberg
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Religion Quotes

Today the god hypothesis has ceased to be scientifically tenable ... and its abandonment often brings a deep sense of relief. Many people assert that this abandonment of the god hypothesis means the abandonment of all religion and all moral sanctions. This is simply not true. But it does mean, once our relief at jettisoning an outdated piece of ideological furniture is over, that we must construct some thing to take its place.
Sir Julian Huxley   (more)
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Humanism Quotes, Religion Quotes, Sir Julian Huxley Quotes

Few nations have been so poor as to have but one god. Gods were made so easily, and the raw material cost so little, that generally the god market was fairly glutted and heaven crammed with these phantoms.
Robert G. Ingersoll
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Heaven Quotes, Religion Quotes, Robert G. Ingersoll Quotes

If God kills, lies, cheats, discriminates, and otherwise behaves in a manner that puts the Mafia to shame, that's okay, he's God. He can do whatever he wants. Anyone who adheres to this philosophy has had his sense of morality, decency, justice and humaneness warped beyond recognition by the very book that is supposedly preaching the opposite.
Dennis McKinsey   (more)
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes

In conclusion, there is a marvelous anecdote from the occasion of Russell's ninetieth birthday that best serves to summarize his attitude toward God and religion. A London lady sat next to him at this party, and over the soup she suggested to him that he was not only the world's most famous atheist but, by this time, very probably the world's oldest atheist. ‘What will you do, Bertie, if it turns out you're wrong?’ she asked. ‘I mean, what if -- uh -- when the time comes, you should meet Him? What will you say?’ Russell was delighted with the question. His bright, birdlike eyes grew even brighter as he contemplated this possible future dialogue, and then he pointed a finger upward and cried, ‘Why, I should say, God, you gave us insufficient evidence.’
Bertrand Russell   (more)
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Bertrand Russell Quotes, Religion Quotes

One thing I have no worry about is whether God exists. But it has occurred to me that God has Alzheimer's and has forgotten we exist.
Jane Wagner   (more)
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Jane Wagner Quotes

The philosophy of Atheism represents a concept of life without any metaphysical Beyond or Divine Regulator. It is the concept of an actual, real world with its liberating, expanding and beautifying possibilities, as against an unreal world, which, with its spirits, oracles, and mean contentment has kept humanity in helpless degradation.
Emma Goldman
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Emma Goldman Quotes

I'm a born-again atheist.
Gore Vidal
Share

Related Quotes: Agnosticism/Atheism Quotes, Gore Vidal Quotes



This site is available for you and others because of the generous support of users. If you appreciate the site and find it useful, please join our supporters.

One Time Tip


More Quotes

Featured Topics

More

What's Hot

Credits


This page © . All rights reserved. Some parts of this site powered by Movable Type Pro.
Read: Privacy Policy.