Thursday, September 19, 2013

Steve Allan - drive to atheism

It is not hardness of heart or evil passions that drive certain individuals to atheism, but rather a scrupulous intellectual honesty.

2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with the Courage to Doubt



Steve Allan - drive to atheism

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Rowan Atkinson

To criticize a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous, but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticize ideas, any ideas – even if they are sincerely held beliefs – is one of the fundamental freedoms of society. A law which attempts to say you can criticize and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed.



Rowan Atkinson

Monday, September 16, 2013

Albert Einstein

Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions, and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seem to me to be empty and devoid of meaning.



Albert Einstein

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Bertrand Russell

“Science can teach us, and I think our hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supporters, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make the world a fit place to live”


― Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects



Bertrand Russell

Friday, August 30, 2013

Bill Maher

An election is a job interview, and if you hire a plumber who tells you he can’t fix your toilet, but he’ll pray for the water to recede


- the six inches of shit in your bedroom is what you deserve.


Bill Maher



Bill Maher

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Hypatia of Alexandria

“Fable should be taught as fable, myth as myth, and miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truth is horrifying. The mind of a child accepts them and only through great pain, perhaps tragedy, can the child be relieved of them. Men will fight for superstition as quickly as for the living truth — even more so, since a superstition is intangible, you can’t get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, as so is changeable.”


Hypatia of Alexandria (370 – 415 BC)



Hypatia of Alexandria

Monday, August 12, 2013

Lindsey Brown


“When Inventing a god, The most Important thing is to claim it is invisible, inaudible and imperceptible in every way. Otherwise people will become skeptical when it appears to no one, is silent and does nothing.”

- Lindsey Brown



Lindsey Brown

ReligiON or ReligiOFF

Science or Religion



ReligiON or ReligiOFF

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Epicurus

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



Epicurus

The more I study religions - Sir Richard Francis Burton

The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.

- Sir Richard Francis Burton



The more I study religions - Sir Richard Francis Burton

Rowan Atkinson

To criticize a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous, but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticize ideas, any ideas – even if they are sincerely held beliefs – is one of the fundamental freedoms of society. A law which attempts to say you can criticize and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed.


Rowan Atkinson



Rowan Atkinson

Christopher Hitchens

“God is in the details”? He isn’t in ours, unless his yokel creationist fans wish to take credit for his clumsiness, failure, and incompetence


- Christopher Hitchens



Christopher Hitchens

“Died for your sins"

I don’t even understand the connection. “Died for your sins” What is… how… “He died for your sins” Well, how does one affect the other?

I fuckin’ hit myself in the foot with a shovel for your mortgage.



“Died for your sins"

I"m not scared of dying - Jim Jefferies

” I’m not scared of dying, because I’m an atheist. I won’t even know I’m dead. You know why? Because I’ll be fùckin’ dead. ”


Jim Jefferies.



I"m not scared of dying - Jim Jefferies





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Your God is too small for my Universe

Your God is too small for my Universe



Your God is too small for my Universe

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Rowan Atkinson

What is wrong with inciting intense dislike of a religion if the activities or teachings of that religion are so outrageous, irrational or abusive of human rights that they deserve to be intensely disliked?



Rowan Atkinson

Stephen Fry

If I had a large amount of money I should certainly found a hospital for those whose grip upon the world is so tenuous that they can be severely offended by words and phrases and yet remain all unoffended by the injustice, violence and oppression that howls daily about our ears.



Stephen Fry

Hate the Sin not the Sinner ?


Hate the Sin not the Sinner ?

Monday, June 3, 2013

George H. Smith

It is my firm conviction that man has nothing to gain, emotionally or otherwise, by adhering to a falsehood, regardless of how comfortable or sacred that falsehood may appear. Anyone who claims, on the one hand, that he is concerned with human welfare, and who demands, on the other hand, that man must suspend or renounce the use of his reason, is contradicting himself.


There can be no knowledge of what is good for man apart from knowledge of reality and human nature, and there is no manner in which this knowledge can be acquired except through reason. To advocate irrationality is to advocate that which is destructive to human life.


George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God



George H. Smith

I"d still be an Atheist


I"d still be an Atheist

Lawrence M Krauss

The lack of understanding of something is not evidence for God. It’s evidence of a lack of understanding. And what we should do, if we’re scientists, or anyone, is try and say, “Let’s try and understand it before we go the intellectually lazy route of saying, ‘I don’t understand it, so let me assign it to an entity that I can’t understand, a divine entity beyond my comprehension.’”



Lawrence M Krauss

Matt Dillahunty

“The idea that the Christian god is just, is directly contradicted by the idea that the Christian god is merciful. Perfect justice and any mercy are necessarily directly in contradiction, because mercy is a suspension of justice.”



Matt Dillahunty

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Dan Barker

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



Dan Barker

Keira Knightley

If only I wasn’t an atheist, I could get away with anything. You’d just ask for forgiveness and then you’d be forgiven. It sounds much better than having to live with guilt.



Keira Knightley

Chris Addison

I say Creationists absolutely should be able to open their own schools. But only if they can build them in six days.



Chris Addison

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Tim Minchin

Science adjusts its views on what’s observed …



Tim Minchin

We are unworthy


We are unworthy

Ziggy Marley

Lyrics to In The Name Of God :


in the name of god you kill in the name of your god

in the name of god you conquered in the name of your god

all religion should be wiped out

so that people may just live

what divides us is an illusion

made up by men in their confusion


in the name of god you kill in the name of your god

in the name of god you conquered in the name of your god

in the name of god you hate in the name of your god

in the name of god you boast in the name of your god


spoke of love no one would listen

seems everyoneÕs trying to prove something

starting over may be the best thing

so stop the bombs and letÕs begin


cause this war no one can win and it seems IÕll never learn

oh this war no one can win well it seems IÕll never learn


in the name of god you kill in the name of your god

in the name of god in the name of your god you conquered

in the name of god in the name of your god


all religion should be wiped out

save the people stand and live

what divides us is an illusion

made up by men in their confusion


in the name of god you kill in the name of your god

in the name of god you conquered in the name of your god

in the name of god you boast in the name of your god

in the name of god you hate in the name of your god


in the name of your god, why do you kill?, why do you hate?, in the name of god, in the name of god




Ziggy Marley

Friday, May 31, 2013

Ludwig Feuerbach

My only wish isto transform friends of God into friends of man, believers into thinkers, devotees of prayer into devotees of work, candidates for the hereafter into students of the world, Christians who, by their own procession and admission, are “half animal, half angel” into persons, into whole persons.



Ludwig Feuerbach

Robert G Ingersoll

We do not need the forgiveness of God, but of each other and of ourselves.



Robert G Ingersoll

Is that Evidence that God exists ?


Is that Evidence that God exists ?

Daily Atheist Quotes


Daily Atheist Quotes

Sexy Atheist Quotes

 












































#1: Angelina Jolie

Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), actress and director. Won an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and three Golden Globes. Known for roles in Girl, InterruptedLara Croft: Tomb Raider and Changeling, to name just a few.


In September 2000, The Onion A.V. Clubasked celebrities “Is There A God?”


Angelina Jolie: “Hmm… For some people. I hope so, for them. For the people who believe in it, I hope so. There doesn’t need to be a God for me.”



#2: Mira Sorvino 

Actress. Won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress her role in Mighty Aphrodite. She is also known for her performances in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Attack on Leningrad and Multiple Sarcasms.


In a 2007 interview with GQ magazine, Mira stated, “When you are a Christian, your law is laid out for you in codified form. You can have some kind of debate about this or that, but basically you’re supposed to accept God’s will. There is no argument about whether there is a definitive right and wrong. And once you know this law, nobody else can be right unless they agree with you. And so you wind up with, ‘You are wrong. You are mistaken. You are sinning. You are in error.’ I find that extremely restrictive and impossible.”



#3: Julianne Moore

Actress and author. She has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards. She is known for roles in Short Cuts, The Big Lebowski and Far from Heaven.


On Inside The Actors Studio:


Host: “What would you like to hear God say to you at the pearly gates?”


Moore: “Well…. I guess you were wrong, I do exist.”



#4: Janeane Garofalo

Satirist, comedian, writer, actor, political activist. She has had TV roles on News Radio, The West Wing and The Larry Sanders Show, among many others. Her films have included The Truth About Cats & Dogs, MatchMaker and The Laramie Project.


Janeane frequently discusses her atheism, including in the past on her former radio talk show and on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, and has said: “The Bible, I’ve said it before, is a beautifully written work of fiction.”



#5: Adrianne Curry

Model and actress. She was the first winner of the reality television series America’s Next Top Model.


Tweeted: “I am more agnostic. I do not believe in organized religion, nor do I think the human mind capable of the complexity of reality.”



#6: Annika Sorenstam

Professional golfer (until 2008). While playing as a professional, she won 90 international tournaments, including 10 majors.


Was quoted in an article conducted in her native Swedish as saying: “I believe in the good message that’s found in religion. But I doubt there’s someone up there above the clouds running the show.”



#7: Kari Byron 

Co-host of the TV program MythBustersand host of Head Rush.


Said in an interview with Suicide Girls: “I am an atheist, but I don’t begrudge anyone for whatever belief systems they hold.”



#8: Nigella Lawson

Journalist, food writer and broadcaster. She has written the books How to Eatand How to be a Domestic Goddess and has had successful cooking shows on the UK’s BBC Two and Channel 4, as well as Food Network’s Nigella Feasts.


Told The Times (UK) (and quoted onWikipedia): “I was brought up an atheist and have always remained so. But at no time was I led to believe that morality was unimportant or that good and bad did not exist. I believe passionately in the need to distinguish between right and wrong and am somewhat confounded by being told I need God, Jesus or a clergyman to help me to do so.”



#9: Asia Argento 

Italian actress, director, singer, writer and model. She won awards for her roles in Perdiamoci di vista! and Compagna di viaggio, as well as an award for directing. She has written novels and magazine articles, and appeared in online outlets and music videos.


In an audience Q+A session, Argento answered a question about her religious beliefs by saying: “God is a concept by which we can measure our pain. I just believe in me. Yoko and me. And that`s reality. The dream is over. What can I say?”



#10: Eva Green 

Actress and model. Her films include The Dreamers, Kingdom of Heaven and Casino Royale.


She told Total Film magazine: “I have no religion. I wasn’t raised that way, and I have no




Sexy Atheist Quotes

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Arthur C Clarke

“One of the greatest tragedies in mankind’s entire history may be that morality was hijacked by religion.”



Arthur C Clarke

What do you teach your children


What do you teach your children

Inception Meme


Inception Meme

Kurt Vonnegut

Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile



Kurt Vonnegut

On free will

 


Regardless if you hold a hard or a soft (i.e. compatibalist) determinist stance on free will, or regardless if we presuppose that the universe is/isn’t deterministic at all, something exists that we, for simplicity’s sake, can call “X”.


“X” is an action performed by an agent in accordance with the agents thoughts, beliefs and intentions. For example: Jen desires a glass of water, so she gets herself a glass, fills it with water and drinks it. She acted according to her desires, thoughts, beliefs and intentions, and she did so regardless if you believe her thoughts were themselves causally determined or not (and, by extension, that her action was as well).


My point with this is that I feel* as though the debate between soft and hard determinism lies in whether or not “X” is the same thing as free will (or “liberty”). And I honestly don’t know what stance to hold. On the one hand, the compatibalist account of free will doesn’t seem to be what normal people think of when they imagine free will. But on the other hand it seems like the Humean account of liberty is the only coherent one (compared to a libertarian account) – or rather that in a deterministic universe, this is the only type of free will that it makes sense to talk about (and that it indeed makes sense to talk about it).


Perhaps it’s as the late Christopher Hitchens said, “…yes, I think we have free will. When asked why I think so, I’d have to take refuge in philosophical irony and say, because I don’t think we have any choice but to have free will.


*yes, this is what I feel the debate is about. I haven’t studied the literature on hard vs. soft determinism especially extensively, so perhaps (probably) it’s far more difficult (and ontologically different) than that.



On free will

Frank Sinatra

There are things about organized religion which I resent. Christ is revered as the Prince of Peace, but more blood has been shed in His name than any other figure in history. You show me one step forward in the name of religion and I’ll show you a hundred retrogressions  Remember, they were men of God who destroyed the educational treasures at Alexandria, who perpetrated the Inquisition in Spain, who burned the witches at Salem. Over 25,000 organized religions flourish on this planet, but the followers of each think all the others are miserably misguided and probably evil as well.



Frank Sinatra

Eric Idle - Separation of Church and Planet

I believe in separation of church and planet



Eric Idle - Separation of Church and Planet

Nigella Lawson


Nigella Lawson

What Does Religion Mean to Me ?

What Does Religion Mean to Me ?


Never Reaching Your Full Potential As A Human Being.



What Does Religion Mean to Me ?

Thursday, May 16, 2013

9 Questions That Atheists Might Find Insulting And the Answers



Some questions make atheists feel second-class — and make you look like a jerk for asking them.





May 14, 2013  |












Asked of Hispanic-Americans: “Are you in this country legally?” Asked of gays and lesbians and bisexuals: “How do you have sex?” Asked of transgender people: “Have you had the surgery?” Asked of African Americans: “Can I touch your hair?”


Every marginalized group has some question, or questions, that are routinely asked of them — and that drive them up a tree; questions that have insult or bigotry or dehumanization woven into the very asking. Sometimes the questions are asked sincerely, with sincere ignorance of the offensive assumptions behind them. And sometimes they are asked in a hostile, passive-aggressive, “I’m just asking questions” manner. But it’s still not okay to ask them. They’re not questions that open up genuine inquiry and discourse, they’re questions that close minds, much more than they open them. Even if that’s not the intention. And most people who care about bigotry and marginalization and social justice — or who just care about good manners — don’t ask them.


Here are nine questions you shouldn’t ask atheists. I’m going to answer them, just this once, and then I’ll explain why you shouldn’t be asking them, and why so many atheists will get ticked off if you do.


1: “How can you be moral without believing in God?”


The answer: Atheists are moral for the same reasons believers are moral: because we have compassion, and a sense of justice. Humans are social animals, and like other social animals, we evolved with some core moral values wired into our brains: caring about fairness, caring about loyalty, caring when others are harmed.


If you’re a religious believer, and you don’t believe these are the same reasons that believers are moral, ask yourself this: If I could persuade you today, with 100% certainty, that there were no gods and no afterlife… would you suddenly start stealing and murdering and setting fire to buildings? And if not — why not? If you wouldn’t… whatever it is that would keep you from doing those things, that’s the same thing keeping atheists from doing them. (And if you would — remind me not to move in next door to you.)


And ask yourself this as well: If you accept some parts of your holy book and reject others — on what basis are you doing that? Whatever part of you says thatstoning adulterers is wrong but helping poor people is good; that planting different crops in the same field is a non-issue but bearing false witness actually is pretty messed-up; that slavery is terrible but it’s a great idea to love your neighbor as yourself… that’s the same thing telling atheists what’s right and wrong. People are good — even if we don’t articulate it this way — because we have an innate grasp of the fundamental underpinnings of morality: the understanding that other people matter to themselves as much as we matter to ourselves, and that there is no objective reason to act as if any of us matters more than any other. And that’s true of atheists and believers alike.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: This is an unbelievably insulting question. Being moral, caring about others and having compassion for them, is a fundamental part of being human. To question whether atheists can be moral, to express bafflement at how we could possibly manage to care about others without believing in a supernatural creator, is to question whether we’re even fully human.


And you know what? This question is also hugely insulting to religious believers. It’s basically saying that the only reason believers are moral is fear of punishment and desire for reward. It’s saying that believers don’t act out of compassion, or a sense of justice. It’s saying that believers’ morality is childish at best, self-serving at worst. I wouldn’t say that about religious believers… and you shouldn’t, either.


 


2: “How do you have any meaning in your life?” Sometimes asked as, “Don’t you feel sad or hopeless?” Or even, “If you don’t believe in God or heaven, why don’t you just kill yourself?”


The answer: Atheists find meaning and joy in the same things everyone does. We find it in the big things: family, friendship, work, nature, art, learning, love. We find it in the small things: cookies, World of Warcraft, playing with kittens. The only difference is that (a) believers add “making my god or gods happy and getting a good deal in the afterlife” to those lists (often putting them at the top), and (b) believers think meaning is given to them by their god or gods, while atheists create our own meaning, and are willing and indeed happy to accept that responsibility.


In fact, for many atheists, the fact that life is finite invests it with more meaning — not less. When we drop “pleasing a god we have no good reason to think exists” from our “meaning” list, we have that much more attention to give the rest of it. When we accept that life will really end, we become that much more motivated to make every moment of it matter.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: What was it that we were just saying about “dehumanization”? Experiencing meaning and value in life is deeply ingrained in being human. When you treat atheists as if we were dead inside simply because we don’t believe in a supernatural creator or our own immortality… you’re treating us as if we weren’t fully human. Please don’t.


3: “Doesn’t it take just as much/even more faith to be an atheist as it does to be a believer?”


The answer: No.


The somewhat longer answer: This question assumes that “atheism” means “100% certainty that God does not exist, with no willingness to question and no room for doubt.” For the overwhelming majority of people who call ourselves atheists, this is not what “atheism” means. For most atheists, “atheism” means something along the lines of “being reasonably certain that there are no gods,” or, “having reached the provisional conclusion, based on the evidence we’ve seen and the arguments we’ve considered, that there are no gods.” No, we can’t be 100% certain that there are no gods. We can’t be 100% certain that there are no unicorns, either. But we’re certain enough. Not believing in unicorns doesn’t take “faith.” And neither does not believing in God.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: The assumption behind this question is that atheists haven’t actually bothered to think about our atheism. And this assumption is both ignorant and insulting. Most atheists have considered the question of God’s existence or non-existence very carefully. Most of us were brought up religious, and letting go of that religion took a great deal of searching of our hearts and our minds. Even those of us brought up as non-believers were (mostly) brought up in a society that’s steeped in religion. It takes a fair amount of questioning and thought to reject an idea that almost everyone else around you believes.


And when you ask this question, you’re also revealing the narrowness of your own mind. You’re showing that you can’t conceive of the possibility that someone might come to a conclusion about religion based on evidence, reason, and which ideas seem most likely to be true, instead of on “faith.”


4: “Isn’t atheism just a religion?”


The answer: No.


The somewhat longer answer: Unless you’re defining “religion” as “any conclusion people come to about the world,” or as “any community organized around a shared idea,” then no. If your definition of “religion” includes atheism, it also has to include: Amnesty International, the Audubon Society, heliocentrism, the acceptance of the theory of evolution, the Justin Bieber Fan Club, and the Democratic Party. By any useful definition of the word “religion,” atheism is not a religion.


 


Why you shouldn’t ask it: Pretty much the same reason as the one for #3. Calling atheism a religion assumes that it’s an axiom accepted on faith, not a conclusion based on thinking and evidence. And it shows that you’re not willing or able to consider the possibility that someone not only has a different opinion about religion than you do, but has come to that opinion in a different way.


5: “What’s the point of atheist groups? How can you have a community and a movement for something you don’t believe in?”


The answer: Atheists have groups and communities and movements for the same reasons anyone does. Remember what I said about atheists being human? Humans are social animals. We like to spend time with other people who share our interests and values. We like to work with other people on goals we have in common. What’s more, when atheists come out about our atheism, many of us lose our friends and families and communities, or have strained and painful relationships with them. Atheists create communities so we can be honest about who we are and what we think, and still not be alone.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: This is a total “damned if we do, damned if we don’t” conundrum. Atheists get told all the time that people need religion for the community it provides: that persuading people out of religion is cruel or futile or both, since so much social support happens in religious institutions. Then, when atheists do create communities to replace the ones people so often lose when they leave religion, we get told how ridiculous this is. (Or else we’re told, “See? Atheism is just another religion!” See #4 above.)


6: “Why do you hate God?” Or, “Aren’t you just angry at God?”


The answer: Atheists aren’t angry at God. We don’t think God exists. We aren’t angry at God, any more than we’re angry at Santa Claus.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: This question doesn’t just deny our humanity. It denies our very existence. It assumes that atheists don’t really exist: that our non-belief isn’t sincere, that it’s some sort of emotional trauma or immature teenage rebellion, that it’s not even really non-belief.


And honestly? This question reveals how narrow your own mind is. It shows that you can’t even consider the possibility that you might be mistaken: that you can’t even conceive of somebody seeing the world differently from the way you do. This question doesn’t just make atheists mad. It makes you look like a dolt.


7: “But have you [read the Bible or some other holy book; heard about some supposed miracle; heard my story about my personal religious experience]?”


The answer: Probably. Or else we’ve read/heard about something pretty darned similar. Atheists are actually better-informed about religion than most religious believers. In fact, we’re better-informed about the tenets of most specific religionsthan the believers in those religions. For many atheists, sitting down and reading the Bible (or the holy text of whatever religion they were brought up in) is exactly what set them on the path to atheism — or what put the final nail in the coffin.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: As my friend and colleague Heina put it: “‘Have you heard of Jesus?’ No, actually, I was born under a fucking rock.”


Are you really not aware of how dominating a force religion is in society? In most of the world, and certainly in the United States, religion is impossible to ignore. It permeates the social life, the economic life, the cultural life, the political life. We’re soaking in it. The idea that atheists might somehow have come to adulthood without being aware of the Bible, of stories about supposed miracles, of stories about personal religious experiences… it’s laughable. Or it would be laughable if it weren’t so annoying. Religious privilege is all over this question like a cheap suit.


8: “What if you’re wrong?” Sometimes asked as, “Doesn’t it make logical sense to believe in God? If you believe and you’re wrong, nothing terrible happens, but if you don’t believe and you’re wrong, you could go to Hell!”


The answer: What if you’re wrong about Allah? Or Vishnu? Or Zeus? What if you’re wrong about whether God is the wrathful jerk who hates gay people, or the loving god who hates homophobes? What if you’re wrong about whether God wants you to celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday or Sunday? What if you’re wrong about whether God really does care about whether you eat bacon? As Homer Simpson put it, “What if we picked the wrong religion? Every week we’re just making God madder and madder!”


Why you shouldn’t ask it: There are so very many things wrong with this question. It even has a name — Pascal’s Wager — and I’ve actually written anentire piece on the many things that are wrong with it. But I’ll stick with two for today, the ones that aren’t just logically absurd but that insult the intelligence and integrity of both atheists and believers:


a) Are you really that ignorant of the existence of religions other than your own? Has it really never occurred to you that when you “bet” on the existence of your god, there are thousands upon thousands of other gods whose existence you’re “betting” against? Are you really that steeped, not only in the generic privilege of all religion, but in the particular privilege of your own?


b) Do you really think atheists have so little integrity? Do you really think we’re going to fake belief in God… not just to our families or communities in order to not be ostracized, but in our own hearts and minds? Do you really think we’re going to deliberately con ourselves into believing — or pretending to believe — something that we don’t actually think is true? Not just something trivial, but something this important? Do you really think we would pick what to think is true and not true about the world, based solely on which idea would be most convenient? How does that even constitute “belief”? (And anyway, do you really think that God would be taken in by this con game? Do you really think that what God wants from his followers is an insincere, self-serving, “wink wink, I’m covering my bases” version of “belief”?)


9: “Why are you atheists so angry?”


The answer: I’ve actually written an entire book answering this question ( Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless). The short answer: Not all atheists are angry about religion — and those of us who are angry aren’t in a constant state of rage. But yes, many atheists are angry about religion — and we’re angry because we see terrible harm being done by religion. We’re angry about harm being done to atheists… and we’re angry about harm done to other believers. We don’t just think religion is mistaken — we think it does significantly more harm than good. And it pisses us off.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: This question assumes that atheists are angry because there’s something wrong with us. It assumes that atheists are angry because we’re bitter, selfish, whiny, unhappy, because we lack joy and meaning in our lives, because we have a God-shaped hole in our hearts. The people asking it seem to have never even considered the possibility that atheists are angry because we have legitimate things to be angry about.


This reflexive dismissal of our anger’s legitimacy does two things. It treats atheists as flawed, broken, incomplete. And it defangs the power of our anger. (Or it tries to, anyway.) Anger is a hugely powerful motivating force — it has been a major motivating force for every social change movement in history — and when people try to dismiss or trivialize atheists’ anger, they are, essentially, trying to take that power away.


And finally: The people asking this question never seem to notice just how much atheist anger is directed, not at harm done to atheists, but at harm done to believers. A huge amount of our anger about religion is aimed at the oppression and brutality and misery created by religion, not in the lives of atheists, but in the lives of believers. Our anger about religion comes from compassion, from a sense of justice, from a vivid awareness of terrible damage being done in the world and a driving motivation to do something about it. Atheists aren’t angry because there’s something wrong with us. Atheists are angry because there’s something right with us. And it is messed-up beyond recognition to treat one of our greatest strengths, one of our most powerful motivating forces and one of the clearest signs of our decency, as a sign that we’re flawed or broken.


*****


The list of questions you shouldn’t ask atheists doesn’t end here. It goes on, at length. “How can you believe in nothing?” “Doesn’t atheism take the mystery out of life?” “Even though you don’t believe, shouldn’t you bring up your children with religion?” “Can you prove there isn’t a god?” “Did something terrible happen to you to turn you away from religion?” “Are you just doing this to rebel?” “Are you just doing this so you don’t have to obey God’s rules?” “If you’re atheist, why do you celebrate Christmas/ say ‘Bless you’ when people sneeze/ spend money with ‘In God We Trust’ on it/ etc.?” “Have you sincerely tried to believe?” “Can’t you see God everywhere around you?” “Do you worship Satan?” “Isn’t atheism awfully arrogant?” “Can you really not conceive of anything bigger than yourself?” “Why do you care what other people believe?”


But for now, I’ll leave these questions as an exercise for the reader. If you understand why all the questions I answered today are offensive and dehumanizing, I hope you’ll understand why these are as well.


If you want to understand more about atheists and atheism — that is awesome. Many of us are more than happy to talk about our atheism with you: that’s how we change people’s minds about us, and overcome the widespread myths and misinformation about us. But maybe you could do a little Googling before you start asking us questions that we’ve not only fielded a hundred times before, but that have bigotry and dehumanization and religious privilege embedded in the very asking. And if you do want to know more about atheism, please stop and think about the questions you’re asking — and the assumptions behind them — before you do. Thanks.




9 Questions That Atheists Might Find Insulting And the Answers

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Christopher Hitchens


Christopher Hitchens

Words that christians Misuse


Words that christians Misuse

Marcus Cicero


Marcus Cicero

Both are full of BS


Both are full of BS

Albert Einstein


Albert Einstein

God is not an explanation


God is not an explanation

HL Mencken


HL Mencken

God is not an explanation


God is not an explanation

Marlon Brando


Marlon Brando

Dave Matthews


Dave Matthews

Thomas Jefferson


Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson


Thomas Jefferson

John Adams


John Adams

Winston Churchill


Winston Churchill

Bill Maher


Bill Maher

Demosthenes


Demosthenes

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Gregory House


Gregory House

Gregory House


Gregory House

Thomas Paine


Thomas Paine

Bertrand Russel


Bertrand Russel

Think outside the Book


Think outside the Book

Ludwig Feuer


Ludwig Feuer

Religions get Lost like People Do


Religions get Lost like People Do

John Adams


John Adams

Martin Luther


Martin Luther

Joseph Heller


Joseph Heller

Peter Walker


Peter Walker

Stephen Hawking


Stephen Hawking

Lanning K.V


Lanning K.V

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Carl Sagan


Carl Sagan

Christopher Hitchens


Christopher Hitchens

Madalyn Murray O’Hair - I’ll tell you what you did with Atheists for 1500 years

“I’ll tell you what you did with Atheists for 1500 years. You outlawed them from the universities, or any teaching careers, besmirched their reputations, banned or burned their books or their writings of any kind. Drove them into exile, humiliated them, seized their properties, arrested them for blasphemy. You dehumanized them with beatings and exquisite torture, gouged out their eyes, slit their tongues, stretched, crushed or broke their limbs, tore off their breasts if they were women, crushed their scrotums if they were men, imprisoned them, stabbed them, disemboweled them, hung them, burnt them alive. And you have nerve enough to complain to me that I laugh at you.”


—Madalyn Murray O’Hair



Madalyn Murray O’Hair - I’ll tell you what you did with Atheists for 1500 years

H.L. Mencken

“It is often argued that religion is valuable because it makes men good, but even if this were true it would not be a proof that religion is true. That would be an extension of pragmatism beyond endurance. Santa Claus makes children good in precisely the same way, and yet no one would argue seriously that the fact proves his existence. The defense of religion is full of such logical imbecilities.”–H.L. Mencken



H.L. Mencken

Mark Twain


Mark Twain

Not one follower questions the silliness of it

“The only miracle I can find in religion is that not one follower questions the silliness of it”–Baron Von Knifty



Not one follower questions the silliness of it

Bill Nye


Bill Nye

Athiesm

“Atheists teach people in the developing world to dig wells instead of praying for rain. They provide reliable contraception to the mother at her wits’ end trying to raise 8 children rather than telling her to thank god for the ninth.


Only the inadequate still believe in god. They lack the ability to make the leap from faith to evidence based intellectual thought and evidence based conclusions. Faith actively prevents you from seeking real answers. None of gods exist outside the realm of the human imagination. To believe in something that is not true is a lack of self respect.


Atheists find the coincidences that led to our existence amazing, and the way the natural world around us has evolved utterly incredible. There is awe and wonder in the material world which when described lucidly exceeds that previously described by religion- and it is obviously a place in your heads you go to draw strength, inspiration and find intrinsic meaning.”– Imtiaz Hussain Mahmood.



Athiesm

Chrales Bukowski


Chrales Bukowski

Edomnd de Goncourt


Edomnd de Goncourt

Thomas Paine


Thomas Paine

Monday, April 29, 2013

Russian army introduces the flying Orthodox - Not a Joke

Church-in-a-box … A Russian military Orthodox chapel. Photographs: Russian Airborne Force


The Russian military unveiled an unlikely new weapon in its arsenal this month – an army of parachuting priests. The unit of chaplains, who have joined the Russian Airborne Force to train in parachute jumping and vehicle assembly, will operate out of flatpack churches that can be airlifted in to wherever soldiers may be stationed.


The church could be mistaken for a standard-issue army cabin, taking the form of a khaki-coloured shed on wheels, were it not for the cladding of gilded icons and the majestic onion dome spire sprouting from its rooftop. The mobile prayer room has also been fitted with a “life-sustaining module”, which includes a diesel power source, an air-conditioning unit and a fridge, reported Russia Today.


The chapel is flown in as a kit of parts, delivered via the kind of airborne platform usually used to carry armoured vehicles and other heavy military equipment, and is then assembled on the ground. Within, the gilded interior incorporates crucifixes, bells and icons, as well as a mini theatre – which can be extended sideways with additional wings, thus forming the cross-shaped plan of an Orthodox church.


The initiative has not gone without controversy in the Russian government, where debate rages over the cost of rearmament and rising military spending.


Church-in-a-box … A Russian military Orthodox chapelWhile the Russian army insists this is the first ever flying chapel in the world, Orthodox Christianity is not the first to bring mobile worship to the battlefield. The Israeli Defense Force launched a mobile synagogue initiative in 2011 to allow troops to pray more comfortably as they operate the Iron Dome anti-missile system in southern Israel. The UK Friends of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers (UKAWIS)has provided such mobile synagogues – which contain an ark, reader’s platform and washbasin – as “a source of spiritual sustenance [for the soldiers] as they carry the weight of Israel’s security on their shoulders”.


In the US, religious spaces have been mobile for some time, with organisations such as Transport for Christ spreading the gospel through the medium of the truck. Its mobile chapels, which are housed in articulated lorries clad in bright decals, are parked at “strategic truck stops” to “lead truck drivers as well as the trucking community to Jesus Christ”. They have yet to be deployed to the front line – as a lighter option, perhaps the US Army could try the inflatable church?



 


http://www.guardian.co.uk



Russian army introduces the flying Orthodox - Not a Joke

Kennedy


Kennedy

Jennon


Jennon

Marcelo Rubio


Marcelo Rubio

Thomas Paine


Thomas Paine

Hitchens


Hitchens

Metaphors


Metaphors

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Albert Einstein


Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein


Albert Einstein

Daniel Dennett


Daniel Dennett

George Carlin


George Carlin

Hipocrates


Hipocrates

The cure for BS


The cure for BS

Atheist Quotes - Abraham Lincoln


Atheist Quotes - Abraham Lincoln

Ricky Gervais


Ricky Gervais

Catherine Fahringer


Catherine Fahringer

They have no logic


They have no logic

Immanuel Kant


Immanuel Kant

Morality


Morality

Marlon Brandon


Marlon Brandon

Voltaire


Voltaire

John E Remsberg


John E Remsberg

Rachel Carson


Rachel Carson

No explanations in Curch


No explanations in Curch

Monday, April 22, 2013

[video] Mr Bean - Asleep in Church

Mr Bean goes to church. Unfortunately he doesn’t know the words to the hymns, sneezes loudly and falls asleep out of boredom, much to the annoyance of Mr. Sprout (Richard Briers) who is sitting next to him. From the first ever Mr Bean programme.


[/tube]bh__g-ZZ6WA[/tube]



[video] Mr Bean - Asleep in Church

Care about earth

I wish more people cared about Earth as much as they cared about who they believe created it



Care about earth

David Attenborough

They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in East Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator.


(Responding to religious viewers who criticize him for not crediting God in his nature episodes)



David Attenborough

Saturday, April 20, 2013

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Use head or Tail

Atheism and Religion are but two sides of the same coin

One prefers to use the head while the Other relies on tales



Use head or Tail

Daily Atheist Quotes


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Friday, April 19, 2013

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Thursday, April 18, 2013

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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

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Sunday, April 14, 2013

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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Christopher Hitchens


Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens


Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens


Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens


Christopher Hitchens

Religion or Cult


Religion or Cult

God"s Inspired Work


God"s Inspired Work

The Truth is Hate Speech


The Truth is Hate Speech

Atheism Quotes


Atheism Quotes

Christopher Hitchens


Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens


Christopher Hitchens

Friday, April 12, 2013

Jail for Catholic priest who sexually abused teenage girl

SOURCE


A Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused a 17-year-old girl in his church had damaged her faith in God and divided a community with his lies, a judge said as he jailed him.


William Finnegan, 60, known as “Father Bill” to his parishioners, was imprisoned for six months when he appeared at Bradford Crown Court yesterday afternoon.


Finnegan was parish priest at St Clare’s RC Church, Fagley, Bradford, when he told the girl he loved her, grabbed her bottom and kissed her passionately on the lips in the church on Easter Sunday last year.


He denied sexual assault, forcing the teenager and her mother to give evidence at his trial.


Finnegan also revealed in court that he had broken his vows of celibacy by secretly marrying Beverley Dawson, a former parishioner, in 1999.


Finnegan, wearing a smart dark suit and patterned tie, showed no emotion as he was led to the cells to begin his sentence yesterday.


His victim and her family were in court and extra seats had to be brought in to find room for members of the church congregation there to support Finnegan.



His barrister, Jeremy Hill-Baker, handed the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, a sheaf of letters and testimonials from past and present parishioners.


He also said Finnegan had made a determined attempt to kill himself with liquid morphine and whisky.


“After decades of exemplary ministry, materially helping the community in which he lived and worked, his ministry is over and his reputation is in ruins,” Mr Hill-Baker said.


Judge Thomas said Finnegan, who was ordained in 1977, had given real and beneficial religious and pastoral support to many parishioners over the years.





Afterwards, Finnegan had also tried to buy the girl’s silence by promising her “a good birthday present”, the jury had heard at his trial.


In a victim impact statement to the court considered by Judge Thomas, the girl said of Finnegan: “He put me through a trial and I had to give evidence. Why did he do that when he is supposed to be a man of God?”


Judge Thomas said Finnegan had committed an enormous breach of trust, undermining not only his victim’s physical well being but also her religious faith and that of her family.


“You’ve also caused real damage to the wider church community, particularly perhaps the Catholic Church, and at a time when such churches can ill afford such damage,” he told him.


Because Finnegan would still not admit his guilt, many people believed he was innocent. His denials meant the girl had faced animosity and felt demoralised by the actions of some parishioners, the court heard.


“You clearly cannot face up to your wrongdoing here, perhaps because of the shame and loss of face,” Judge Thomas told him.


And in criticising parishioners who stood by their shamed former priest, Judge Thomas said: “Maybe some of them would believe the sun would rise in the west tomorrow if he said it.”


Jailing him Judge Thomas accepted that Finnegan had lost his high reputation, his vocation and his livelihood but the only appropriate sentence was one of immediate imprisonment.


A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds yesterday expressed its ‘sorrow and regret’ to Mr Finnegan’s 17-year-old victim after the former priest was jailed.

Monsignor John Wilson, Diocesan administrator, said: “Following the sentence of William Finnegan for the sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl while parish priest at St Clare’s Church in Bradford, I would once again like to express my sorrow and regret to his victim.

“I realise that this has been a very difficult and distressing time for you and your family and I hope that this sentence will help in the healing process. My thoughts and prayers are with you and my door is always open.

“The Diocese is committed to ensuring the safety and protection of every child and vulnerable person in our parishes and there are robust safeguarding policies and procedures in operation throughout this Diocese – and indeed the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

“As with this case, any abuse reported to the Diocese is referred to the police and other relevant authorities and the Diocese of Leeds cooperated fully with police throughout this case.

“If anyone has any concerns at all relating to this matter, please contact the Diocesan safeguarding coordinator.”



Jail for Catholic priest who sexually abused teenage girl

Do I think I am going to Paradise? - Christopher Hitchens

“Do I think I am going to Paradise? Of Course Not. I wouldn’t go if I was asked. I don’t want to live in some fucking Celestial North Korea for one thing. Where all I get to do is praise the dear leader from dawn till dusk.”



Do I think I am going to Paradise? - Christopher Hitchens

Grand Theft Auto - Vatican City


Grand Theft Auto - Vatican City

Universe doesn"t care about the ignorant


Universe doesn"t care about the ignorant

Who Prays for Satan - Mark Twain

But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?



Who Prays for Satan - Mark Twain

Funny atheist quotes


Funny atheist quotes

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Tim Minchin


Tim Minchin

I believe

he most discussed moral argument for God’s existence is currently the argument concerning the ontological basis for objective moral values:


1. If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist

2. Objective moral values do exist

3. Therefore, God exists


Although consistent atheists must avoid accepting both premises of this logically valid syllogism, it’s not hard to find atheists who endorse either premise. Hence, this argument can be defended by quoting exclusively from atheists. After sketching a defence of both premises, and dealing with the frequent confusion between epistemology and ontology amongst its critics, this paper will focus upon defending the first premise against two objections from atheist Russ Shafer-Landau’s otherwise excellent book Whatever Happened to Good and Evil? (Oxford, 2004).



I believe

[video] Cult Leader Thinks He"s Jesus

 


Published on May 16, 2012



Deep in Siberia’s Taiga forest is Vissarion, a cult leader who looks like Jesus and claims to be the voice of God. He’s known as “the Teacher” to his 4,000 followers, who initially seem surprisingly normal. Over time, however, their unflinching belief in UFOs and the Earth’s imminent demise made this group start to look more and more like some sort of strange cult.


Hosted by Rocco Castoro | Originally released in 2011 athttp://vice.com


 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Cv5hZfOmk



[video] Cult Leader Thinks He"s Jesus

Alvin Toffler

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ”


- Alvin Toffler



Alvin Toffler

Islam Religion


Islam Religion

Mihail Bakunin

My dignity as a man, my human right which consists of refusing to obey any other man, and to determine my own acts in conformity with my convictions is reflected by the equally free conscience of all and confirmed by the consent of all humanity. My personal freedom, confirmed by the liberty of all, extends to infinity.

The materialistic conception of freedom is therefore a very positive, very complex thing, and above all, eminently social, because it can be realized only in society and by the strictest equality and solidarity among all men.

The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.

We must make a very precise distinction between the official and consequently dictatorial prerogatives of society organized as a state, and of the natural influence and action of the members of a non-official, non-artificial society.


- Mihail Bakunin



Mihail Bakunin

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Religion plays games


Religion plays games

How can we trust the Bible to tell us where we are going

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



How can we trust the Bible to tell us where we are going

Bertrand Russel

No One can sit at the bedside of a dying child and still believe in God


- Bertrand Russel



Bertrand Russel

Dan Savage

The shortest book in the New Testament [called Philemon] is a letter from Paul to a Christian slave owner about owning his Christian slave. And Paul doesn’t say Christians don’t own people. Paul talks about how Christians own people.” To the contrary, Philemon was one of the key biblical texts used by the abolitionists in their argument against slavery.


The letter tells the story of a man named Onesimus who had been Philemon’s slave before escaping and then meeting the apostle Paul, who was at that time a prisoner of Rome. Paul led Onesimus to faith in Christ and then wrote to Philemon urging him to receive Onesimus back, “no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother” (Philemon 16).


What a concept! This man was your slave, he ran away and has now become a Christian, so receive him back as your brother and no longer as a slave. Savage really got this one wrong.


 


http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbrown/2012/05/04/dan_savage_savages_the_bible_christianity_and_the_pope_part_ii/page/full/



Dan Savage

Carl Sagan

“The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard, who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by ‘God,’ one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying… it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity.”


Carl Sagan



Carl Sagan

Christopher Hitchens

The least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion


Christopher Hitchens



Christopher Hitchens

Atheist quotes

Fortune cookies predict the future in the same way that prayer changes it



Atheist quotes

[video] Highly Recommend - Brainwashed by the Westboro Baptist Church

Published on Jul 30, 2012


We followed the story of the Westboro Baptist Church as families split and children were brainwashed into picketing funerals and bashing homosexuals.


During that time, we interviewed more than a dozen members of the reviled group, including some of the only members not related by blood, the Drains. They welcomed us into their homes and gave us access to 17 years of home video footage. In return, we produced an unbiased look into the lives of one of America’s most despised organizations.
















[video] Highly Recommend - Brainwashed by the Westboro Baptist Church

Monday, April 8, 2013

God doesn"t exist, Jules Reynard

I don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for his reputation if he Didn’t


Jules Reynard



God doesn"t exist, Jules Reynard

Christina Applegate

I’m not saying that the religious right is wrong for condemning homosexuals and terrorizing them for thousands of years.. I’m just saying FUCK YOU !


Christina Applegate



Christina Applegate

Bible Contradictions


Bible Contradictions

Philosopher or Priest - Denis Diderot

“The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.”

― Denis Diderot



Philosopher or Priest - Denis Diderot

Discrimination against atheists

Discrimination against atheists (sometimes called atheophobia) includes the persecution and discrimination faced by atheists and those labeled as atheists in the past and in the current era. Differing definitions of atheism historically and culturally mean those discriminated against might not be considered truly atheist by modern Western standards.


In constitutional democracies, legal discrimination against atheists is uncommon, but some atheists and atheist groups, particularly those in the United States, have protested laws, regulations and institutions they view as being discriminatory. In some Islamic countries, atheists face discrimination including lack of legal status or even a death sentence in the case ofapostasy.


Wikipedia has the rest of the info



Discrimination against atheists

Sports and Religion


Sports and Religion

Clarence Darrow - Why I Am An Agnostic

An agnostic is a doubter. The word is generally applied to those who doubt the verity of accepted religious creeds of faiths. Everyone is an agnostic as to the beliefs or creeds they do not accept. Catholics are agnostic to the Protestant creeds, and the Protestants are agnostic to the Catholic creed. Any one who thinks is an agnostic about something, otherwise he must believe that he is possessed of all knowledge. And the proper place for such a person is in the madhouse or the home for the feeble-minded. In a popular way, in the western world, an agnostic is one who doubts or disbelieves the main tenets of the Christian faith.


I would say that belief in at least three tenets is necessary to the faith of a Christian: a belief in God, a belief in immortality, and a belief in a supernatural book. Various Christian sects require much more, but it is difficult to imagine that one could be a Christian, under any intelligent meaning of the word, with less. Yet there are some people who claim to be Christians who do not accept the literal interpretation of all the Bible, and who give more credence to some portions of the book than to others.


I am an agnostic as to the question of God. I think that it is impossible for the human mind to believe in an object or thing unless it can form a mental picture of such object or thing. Since man ceased to worship openly an anthropomorphic God and talked vaguely and not intelligently about some force in the universe, higher than man, that is responsible for the existence of man and the universe, he cannot be said to believe in God. One cannot believe in a force excepting as a force that pervades matter and is not an individual entity. To believe in a thing, an image of the thing must be stamped on the mind. If one is asked if he believes in such an animal as a camel, there immediately arises in his mind an image of the camel. This image has come from experience or knowledge of the animal gathered in some way or other. No such image comes, or can come, with the idea of a God who is described as a force.


Man has always speculated upon the origin of the universe, including himself. I feel, with Herbert Spencer, that whether the universe had an origin– and if it had– what the origin is will never be known by man. The Christian says that the universe could not make itself; that there must have been some higher power to call it into being. Christians have been obsessed for many years by Paley’s argument that if a person passing through a desert should find a watch and examine its spring, its hands, its case and its crystal, he would at once be satisfied that some intelligent being capable of design had made the watch. No doubt this is true. No civilized man would question that someone made the watch. The reason he would not doubt it is because he is familiar with watches and other appliances made by man. The savage was once unfamiliar with a watch and would have had no idea upon the subject. There are plenty of crystals and rocks of natural formation that are as intricate as a watch, but even to intelligent man they carry no implication that some intelligent power must have made them. They carry no such implication because no one has any knowledge or experience of someone having made these natural objects which everywhere abound.


To say that God made the universe gives us no explanation of the beginnings of things. If we are told that God made the universe, the question immediately arises: Who made God? Did he always exist, or was there some power back of that? Did he create matter out of nothing, or is his existence coextensive with matter? The problem is still there. What is the origin of it all? If, on the other hand, one says that the universe was not made by God, that it always existed, he has the same difficulty to confront. To say that the universe was here last year, or millions of years ago, does not explain its origin. This is still a mystery. As to the question of the origin of things, man can only wonder and doubt and guess.


As to the existence of the soul, all people may either believe or disbelieve. Everyone knows the origin of the human being. They know that it came from a single cell in the body of the mother, and that the cell was one out of ten thousand in the mother’s body. Before gestation the cell must have been fertilized by a spermatozoon from the body of the father. This was one out of perhaps a billion spermatozoa that was the capacity of the father. When the cell is fertilized a chemical process begins. The cell divides and multiplies and increases into millions of cells, and finally a child is born. Cells die and are born during the life of the individual until they finally drop apart, and this is death.


If there is a soul, what is it, and where did it come from, and where does it go? Can anyone who is guided by his reason possibly imagine a soul independent of a body, or the place of its residence, or the character of it, or anything concerning it? If man is justified in any belief or disbelief on any subject, he is warranted in the disbelief in a soul. Not one scrap of evidence exists to prove any such impossible thing.


Many Christians base the belief of a soul and God upon the Bible. Strictly speaking, there is no such book. To make the Bible, sixty-six books are bound into one volume. These books are written by many people at different times, and no one knows the time or the identity of any author. Some of the books were written by several authors at various times. These books contain all sorts of contradictory concepts of life and morals and the origin of things. Between the first and the last nearly a thousand years intervened, a longer time than has passed since the discovery of America by Columbus.


When I was a boy the theologians used to assert that the proof of the divine inspiration of the Bible rested on miracles and prophecies. But a miracle means a violation of a natural law, and there can be no proof imagined that could be sufficient to show the violation of a natural law; even though proof seemed to show violation, it would only show that we were not acquainted with all natural laws. One believes in the truthfulness of a man because of his long experience with the man, and because the man has always told a consistent story. But no man has told so consistent a story as nature.


If one should say that the sun did not rise, to use the ordinary expression, on the day before, his hearer would not believe it, even though he had slept all day and knew that his informant was a man of the strictest veracity. He would not believe it because the story is inconsistent with the conduct of the sun in all the ages past.


Primitive and even civilized people have grown so accustomed to believing in miracles that they often attribute the simplest manifestations of nature to agencies of which they know nothing. They do this when the belief is utterly inconsistent with knowledge and logic. They believe in old miracles and new ones. Preachers pray for rain, knowing full well that no such prayer was ever answered. When a politician is sick, they pray for God to cure him, and the politician almost invariably dies. The modern clergyman who prays for rain and for the health of the politician is no more intelligent in this matter than the primitive man who saw a separate miracle in the rising and setting of the sun, in the birth of an individual, in the growth of a plant, in the stroke of lighting, in the flood, in every manifestation of nature and life.


As to prophecies, intelligent writers gave them up long ago. In all prophecies facts are made to suit the prophecy, or the prophecy was made after the facts, or the events have no relation to the prophecy. Weird and strange and unreasonable interpretations are used to explain simple statements, that a prophecy may be claimed.


Can any rational person believe that the Bible is anything but a human document? We now know pretty well where the various books came from, and about when they were written. We know that they were written by human beings who had no knowledge of science, little knowledge of life, and were influenced by the barbarous morality of primitive times, and were grossly ignorant of most things that men know today. For instance, Genesis says that God made the earth, and he made the sun to light the day and the moon to light the night, and in one clause disposes of the stars by saying that “he made the stars also.” This was plainly written by someone who had no conception of the stars. Man, by the aid of his telescope, has looked out into the heavens and found stars whose diameter is as great as the distance between the earth and the sun. We know that the universe is filled with stars and suns and planets and systems. Every new telescope looking further into the heavens only discovers more and more worlds and suns and systems in the endless reaches of space. The men who wrote Genesis believed, of course, that this tiny speck of mud that we call the earth was the center of the universe, the only world in space, and made for man, who was the only being worth considering. These men believed that the stars were only a little way above the earth, and were set in the firmament for man to look at, and for nothing else. Everyone today knows that this conception is not true.


The origin of the human race is not as blind a subject as it once was. Let alone God creating Adam out of hand, from the dust of the earth, does anyone believe that Eve was made from Adam’s rib–that the snake walked and spoke in the Garden of Eden–that he tempted Eve to persuade Adam to eat an apple, and that it is on that account that the whole human race was doomed to hell–that for four thousand years there was no chance for any human to be saved, though none of them had anything whatever to do with the temptation; and that finally men were saved only through God’s son dying for them, and that unless human beings believed this silly, impossible and wicked story they were doomed to hell? Can anyone with intelligence really believe that a child born today should be doomed because the snake tempted Eve and Eve tempted Adam? To believe that is not God-worship; it is devil-worship.


Can anyone call this scheme of creation and damnation moral? It defies every principle of morality, as man conceives morality. Can anyone believe today that the whole world was destroyed by flood, save only Noah and his family and a male and female of each species of animal that entered the Ark? There are almost a million species of insects alone. How did Noah match these up and make sure of getting male and female to reproduce life in the world after the flood had spent its force? And why should all the lower animals have been destroyed? Were they included in the sinning of man? This is a story which could not beguile a fairly bright child of five years of age today.


Do intelligent people believe that the various languages spoken by man on earth came from the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel, some four thousand years ago? Human languages were dispersed all over the face of the earth long before that time. Evidences of civilizations are in existence now that were old long before the date that romancers fix for the building of the Tower, and even before the date claimed for the flood.


Do Christians believe that Joshua made the sun stand still, so that the day could be lengthened, that a battle might be finished? What kind of person wrote that story, and what did he know about astronomy? It is perfectly plain that the author thought that the earth was the center of the universe and stood still in the heavens, and that the sun either went around it or was pulled across its path each day, and that the stopping of the sun would lengthen the day. We know now that had the sun stopped when Joshua commanded it, and had it stood still until now, it would not have lengthened the day. We know that the day is determined by the rotation of the earth upon its axis, and not by the movement of the sun. Everyone knows that this story simply is not true, and not many even pretend to believe the childish fable.


What of the tale of Balaam’s ass speaking to him, probably in Hebrew? Is it true, or is it a fable? Many asses have spoken, and doubtless some in Hebrew, but they have not been that breed of asses. Is salvation to depend on a belief in a monstrosity like this?


Above all the rest, would any human being today believe that a child was born without a father? Yet this story was not at all unreasonable in the ancient world; at least three or four miraculous births are recorded in the Bible, including John the Baptist and Samson. Immaculate conceptions were common in the Roman world at the time and at the place where Christianity really had its nativity. Women were taken to the temples to be inoculated of God so that their sons might be heroes, which meant, generally, wholesale butchers. Julius Caesar was a miraculous conception–indeed, they were common all over the world. How many miraculous-birth stories is a Christian now expected to believe?


In the days of the formation of the Christian religion, disease meant the possession of human beings by devils. Christ cured a sick man by casting out the devils, who ran into the swine, and the swine ran into the sea. Is there any question but what that was simply the attitude and belief of a primitive people? Does anyone believe that sickness means the possession of the body by devils, and that the devils must be cast out of the human being that he may be cured? Does anyone believe that a dead person can come to life? The miracles recorded in the Bible are not the only instances of dead men coming to life. All over the world one finds testimony of such miracles: miracles which no person is expected to believe, unless it is his kind of a miracle. Still at Lourdes today, and all over the present world, from New York to Los Angeles and up and down the lands, people believe in miraculous occurrences, and even in the return of the dead. Superstition is everywhere prevalent in the world. It has been so from the beginning, and most likely will be so unto the end.


The reasons for agnosticism are abundant and compelling. Fantastic and foolish and impossible consequences are freely claimed for the belief in religion. All the civilization of any period is put down as a result of religion. All the cruelty and error and ignorance of the period has no relation to religion.


The truth is that the origin of what we call civilization is not due to religion but to skepticism. So long as men accepted miracles without question, so long as they believed in original sin and the road to salvation, so long as they believed in a hell where man would be kept for eternity on account of Eve, there was no reason whatever for civilization: life was short, and eternity was long, and the business of life was preparation for eternity.


When every event was a miracle, when there was no order or system or law, there was no occasion for studying any subject, or being interested in anything excepting a religion which took care of the soul. As man doubted the primitive conceptions about religion, and no longer accepted the literal, miraculous teachings of ancient books, he set himself to understand nature. We no longer cure disease by casting out devils. Since that time, men have studied the human body, have built hospitals and treated illness in a scientific way. Science is responsible for the building of railroads and bridges, of steamships, of telegraph lines, of cities, towns, large buildings and small, plumbing and sanitation, of the food supply, and the countless thousands of useful things that we now deem necessary to life. Without skepticism and doubt, none of these things could have been given to the world.


The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom.


The modern world is the child of doubt and inquiry, as the ancient world was the child of fear and faith.


 


Clarence Darrow



Clarence Darrow - Why I Am An Agnostic