Quotationary

"I refuse to prove that I exist" says God, "for proof denies

    faith, and without faith, I am nothing."

"Oh," says man, "but the Babel Fish is a dead give-away, isn't

    it?  It proves You exist, and so therefore You don't.  Q.E.D."

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that." says God, who promptly vanishes

    in a puff of logic.

  Douglas Adams, "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

 “In-depth" religious knowledge is not essential to be a fully-functioning member of our society; indeed the absence of it might even make you a better person. 

Terry Sanderson, National Secular Society

France, America, Turkey and many other countries do not allow religion into the classrooms of their schools. They recognise its divisive nature and its expression in schools is discouraged.    Terry Sanderson, National Secular Society

God is a comic playing to an audience that is afraid to laugh   Voltaire

He was a wise man who invented god.    Plato

In science it often happens that a scientists say, “You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,” and they actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again….It happens every day.  I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.     Carl Sagan

Is God able 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 comes evil?   Is he neither able or willing?  Then why call him God?   Epicurus

If god did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.   Voltaire

Surely, God could have caused birds to fly with their bones made of solid gold, with their veins full of quicksilver, with their flesh heavier than lead, and with their wings exceedingly small.  He did not, and that ought to show something. It is only in order to shield your ignorance that you put the Lord at every turn to the refuge of a miracle.   Galileo Galilei

Help preserve your child's belief in Santa Claus. Tell him or her that Santa will send them to hell if they don't believe in him.   Anon

I don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for his reputation if he didn’t..    Jules Renard

If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which he has inflicted upon men he would kill himself.    Alexandre Dumas

I hear God is dead. They read His will in churches.   Anon

Faith is a wonderful thing; it is not only capable of moving mountains, but also of making you believe that a herring is a racehorse.   Arthur Koestler, philosopher and novelist

Faith does not enhance reason, it replaces it.   Anon

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty.  He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.   Thomas Jefferson

Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.    William James, psychologist

There are none more ignorant and useless, than they that seek answers on their knees, with their eyes closed.   Anon

Gods cannot be detected except by people with active imaginations.   Anon

Men rarely (if ever) dream up a god superior to themselves.   Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.  Robert Heinlein, author.

The greatest tragedy in mankind’s history may be the hijacking of morality by  religion.   Arthur C Clarke

Cruel men believe in a cruel god and use their belief to excuse their cruelty.  Only kindly men believe in a kindly god, and they would be kindly in any case.   Bertrand Russel, philosopher.

The god of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction; jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniac, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.     Richard Dawkins

This is a brutal, partial and murderous god…he is passionately partisan, has little compassion for anyone but his own favourites and is simply a tribal deity.   If Yahweh had remained such a savage god, the sooner he vanished, the better…   Karen Armstrong, ex nun and author.

Kill one man and you are a murderer.  Kill a million and you are a conqueror.  Kill all and you are a god.   Jean Rostand.

Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on thee, and I’ll forgive thy great big joke on me.   Robert Frost.

Truth, in the matters of religion, is simply the opinions that have survived.   Oscar Wilde.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.  It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.   Charles Darwin.

Science endlessly revises models as observations require it. That is called progress by science and a scandal by religion.   Anon

Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives, and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of their time.   Voltaire.

The easy confidence with which I know another man’s religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.   Mark Twain

Test your beliefs as if you were an outsider to your faith.   John W Loftus

Our earthly life is the only one we are ever going to experience.  If we sacrifice this life in dormant subservience to a non-existent god, then we have lost everything.   David Mills

Secularism isn't some sectarian Western view: it's the best route to combining liberty and social cohesion."    Oliver Kamm, Times

Science demands patience.  Arthur C. Clark

God is an invention of man.  So the nature of god is only a shallow mystery.  The deep mystery is the nature of man.   Nanrei Kobori, Japanese Zen Buddhist monk. Abbot of the temple of Ryokoin, Kyoto.

The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything…nothing is left to chance…logic can happily be tossed out the window.   Stephen King, Author

A metaphysician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there, and a theologian is one who finds the cat.   Anon

The Christians have fathers who aren't fathers, mothers who aren't mothers, brothers who aren't brothers, and sisters who aren't sisters, they swear off sex, and then try to explain "family values" to the rest of us.   Anon

God seems to have left the receiver off the hook, and time is running out.   Arthur Koestler, philosopher and novelist

Religion: Safer than a lobotomy, but just as effective.   Anon

Scientists are peeping toms at the keyhole of eternity.   Arthur Koestler, philosopher and novelist

In the brain of every religious person there is a god shaped vacuum.    Jeremy Konopka.

Whatever we cannot easily understand we call god; this saves much wear and tear on the brain tissue…belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination.   Edward Abbey, author.

If the Bible proves that God exists then comic books prove the existence of Superman."    Seen on the Atheism IRC

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty.  To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.     Bertrand Russell, Philosopher

There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, (and) science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.   Stephen Hawking, ABC TV

The Holy Father is neither   Anon

Religion is a major weapon in the war against reality.    Anon

According to one theory, God accurately recorded the history of the earth (great age, evolution, trilobites, the Permian extinction -- the whole works) in Genesis, but then made the words look like they were telling a reworked Mesopotamian creation myth.    Anon

A scientist drunk makes more sense than a preacher sober.   Anon

"If, as they say, God spanked this town

 For being much too frisky,

 Why did He burn His churches down

 And save Hotaling's Whiskey?"

Poem on 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, in which  the city's largest whiskey distillery was left unscathed

"If god doesn't like the way I live,  Let him tell me, not you."    As seen on a button

At one point in time, many of us actually had Jesus as our personal lord and saviour.  Unfortunately, we later had to dismiss him for incompetence, gross negligence,  misconduct and consistent failure to show up for work.    Anon

"When the philosopher's argument becomes tedious, complicated,  and opaque, it is usually a sign that he is attempting to prove as true to the intellect what is plainly false to common sense."    Edward Abbey (from Voice Crying in the Wilderness)

 "The missionaries go forth to Christianize the savages--  as if the savages weren't dangerous enough already."   Edward Abbey

Fantastic doctrines (like Christianity or Islam or Marxism) require  unanimity of belief. One dissenter casts doubt on the creed of

 millions.  Thus the fear and hate; thus the torture chamber, the iron stake, the  gallows, the labor camp, the psychiatric ward.   Edward Abbey

Those who have faith need no proof because they have lowered their standard of evidence to ground zero.    Anon

 Belief is the disease, knowledge the cure.   Anon

The world holds two classes of men -- intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence.  Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma'arri (973-1057; Syrian poet)

Isn't it enough to see  that a garden is beautiful without having  to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?    Douglas Adams

 They have Dial a Prayer for atheists now.  It rings and rings but nobody answers.   Anon

I have yet to hear of an atheist suicide bomber screaming “God is a superstition” before he pulls the pin and blows himself and those around him to smithereens.   Hugh Hill

I don’t believe in God.  I believe in patriotism.  Andrew Carnegie

An atheist is a man who watches a Celtic –v- Rangers football match and doesn’t care who wins.   After Dwight D. Eisenhower

The earth is flat.  Whosoever declares it round is an atheist deserving of punishment.    Said by the Supreme Religious leader of Saudi Arabia in 1993.

Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense and understanding.     Martin Luther