101 Atheist Quotes

Pensive:
You have the curiosity to have read “every one of these quotes”, yet not enough curiosity to question your own dogma?

[...] August 2008 101 Atheist Quotes Posted by zuarmfuerdiempu under leben und so   47: I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am n… – Douglas [...]

Pensive: So what are your answers?

God Bless you people.

Some great quotes there. And nothing I can’t agree with.

In the (paraphrased) words of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams when interviewed by Richard Dawkins for the recent mini-series on Darwin: “Well it’s more poetic language than a statement of fact” (on the bible).

Christianity has its own history…Remember the Crusade?

It’s funny that you should say that because Atheism is the belief of nothing, so you think that ‘faith’ is the actual enemy. We place our faith in things all the time, even in the Atheist’s Holy Grail, SCIENCE. You put faith in a seat belt, not knowning if it will break, you put faith roads that should not crumble, faith is and will always be, what makes us different from the other monkey’s in the zoo.

Paveen, half of the list is about crimes in the name of religion. That’s why I had to mention crimes in the name of atheism. And you dismissed even the idea that Stalin’s crimes had something to do with atheism. What did you use to support your argument? Only capitalization…

Didn’t the crusades have something to do with political power? Yes. But the masses were led in the name of God. Stalin led people in the name of atheism (and some other things). In the real world no idea is nice and clean.

Crusades were called by the church – and kings. The church was in the business of politics. How can you separate these two things?

Atheism was an integral part of communism. Stalin’s Russia was build on this ideology and everything was done in its name.

I never said that you can’t blame religion for what’s done in its name. But atheism deserves the same treatment.

My bottom line is: religion or atheism, neither is clean.

Oh yes, clearly Stalin committed his atrocities because he was an atheist. Similarly, Hitler committed his atrocities because he was a vegetarian. Or because he was a teetotaller and non-smoker. Pick your favourite non-sequitur.

As one of the quotes above states, it doesn’t take religion to make good people do good things, or evil people (like Hitler and Stalin) to do evil things.

Chill, guys. I’ve got to admit, I’m an atheist, but if you’re happy which whatever belief you’ve chosen, why do you need to argue with each other about it? Just believe what you think is right, and whatever suits your life.

Man, I knew this article would have way more comments than usual, lol.

I plan to post one of these quote in my (non-religious) home school classroom and rotate through them. Yes, some people do home school for non-religious reasons. I am a science Zealot…and so are my kids!

nice list.. would like to point out.. number 50… it’s StePHen Colbert… Misspelling the Supreme Leader’s name is a pet peeve of ours at Colbert Nation….

It’s StePHen

A lot of these quotes attack religion. But attacking religion does not disprove the existence of God, as God would exist despite the existence of religion.

Some other quotes merely attack God, but don’t disprove God’s existence at all.

The most compelling argument was by Sam Harris: “If we expect God to subscribe to one religion at the exclusion of all the others, then we should expect damnation as a matter of chance. This should give Christians pause when expounding their religious beliefs, but it does not.”

I have often thought about this very thing. But the way this quote puts it is very clear. If salvation is based on one’s religion, then it is accidental. One cannot control the conditions of one birth, or the society into which he is born. It would not seem fair for God to deny salvation to someone because he never had access to the true faith. But this quote doesn’t disprove the existence of God; it supposes the existence of God and attacks the notion of religion. Hardly an atheistic argument.

There are three major world religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) that all believe in the same God. All these religions believe that salvation is exclusive to them. It would be unfair to believe that God would only save those by accident of their religion. But since each of those religions has God as similar belief, maybe they all have a chance of being saved. Which would mean that salvation is not earned through one’s religion, but through something else. Maybe God wants us to live a good life and isn’t picky about the religion.

Clarification to my post #33 …

“the bottom 90% of the worlds population (in terms of wealth) …”

The basic rule of the jungle is aptly adapted by humans to cover up what they still dont know, but tha jungle law is”SURVIVAL FOR THE FITTEST”

“THUS WE HAVE REMAINED ANIMALS, BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT YET LEARNT ANY OTHER WAY TO SURVIVE”

PLEASE EXPLAIN WHERE DOES THE EXISTANCE OR NONEXISTANCE OF GOD FIT IN ??

SO ARE YOU AN ATHEIST ??

BUT JUST BY CALLING YOURSELF ATHEIST IS THE FIRST & FOREMOST THIMG YOU ARE ACKNOWLEDGING IS THE EXISTANCE OF GOD ITSELF OTHERWISE IF YOU REALLY ARE AN ATHEIST THEN THERE IS NO GOD THEREFORE THERE IS NOTHING CALLED AS AN ATHEIST !! is there ???

ANY ANSWERES ??

do you believe? who cares! you dont believe? who cares anyway, religion doesnt change a thing, humans will always be humans and is in humans nature all those feelings that some consider right some others dont, thats why humans invented rules and moral to have a consented and agreed why of behaving. chill guys
the truth is that we dont give a shit if half of the world dies as long as our home and comfort are safe.

Sudeep, J, Pensive…

I fear you’ll have to live with it: Father Christmas doesn’t exist too…

for the believers:

if you knew god wasn’t magical, couldn’t bring you life, or death. never created life, never did anything great. if you knew that by praying to him you wouldn’t get anything out of it — would you still believe in him?

I’m an atheist.. because atheism is the reply of the Scientific Facts to the bane of religion, On his first day,some bloody slightly intelligent man created a non-existent concept and named it god to explain whatever he could not and thereby control his unintelligent fellowbeings using the mystery of god. And why i hate them, bcoz they popularise god by telling that every good thing is god’s and every bad thing is your fault and make a lot of money, the actual god of those people,in the name of god

I’m an atheist, just not because i love scientific theories, but because religions are a bane and god is an entity created by the intelligent of the older generations of humanity that they never could explain, to disapprove and defeat the super-intelligent people who were considered crazy just because a vast majority could not understand the truth which they explained with science. Nowadays those days are long gone, Now he existence of god has another purpose rather.It is now the dog of the people who actually use it for obtaining the salvation in their higher god, called MONEY. It is also used to create a mob, an army, so they can influence the democratic politics, exhibiting votebank.The power is a requirement always and in democracy, one of the most risky but profitable investment is politic, because along with power,that needs a lot of money to establish, comes a lot of money.Only problem you need a lot of money and people with you. MONEY is power.The unholy link between he religion and power is always inevitable. In the crusades, in the courtships there was always a priest or equivalent who used to control the rulers to a bit.

So do you still believe god exists

I love how fun it is to get my Christian friends riled up, ‘cuz I’m a complete athiest and it’s fun to hear “but, but” whenever I prove a point. If any Christian would bother to tell me exactly why they believe in God, I’d love to debate. You can find me on this page.

Also, I think that the people who created the bible were drunks who thought it would be fun to write a book and see how gullible people are. a MESSAGE FOR People who believe GULLIBLEISWRITTENONTHECEILINGANDFISHTRACKSAREONTHEFLOORandjeezifyoucan’tfigureoutwhati’msayingmaybeyoushouldreadthebiblecloser.

First of all i would like to say that I do not agree with Somedude’s inflamatory comment and that his words should not be taken to represent Christian attitudes. Yes, even Christians make mistakes and say things in anger :)
To Jay: I am a Christian and I have to say that I totally agree with you. Many christians do not know why they believe what they believe, or in some cases, they don’t even know what they believe. It is an issue that frustrates me just as it frustrates you.
Since the decision to be or not to be christian is one that will heavily affect the way one lives his or her life and is likely, in today’s world, to be a decision that must be constantly defended(no matter what it is), one should at least look into the matter. However, procuring evidence for and against Christianity is a time-consuming and sometimes confusing task. I am definitely someone who has not spent enough time on it even though I acknowledge it is something that all serious christians should do.
You friends probably stumble over thier words when you ask them to defend thier beliefs because they do not want to look uninformed or ignorant when in fact it would be a much more beneficial thing to admit thier fault and have an intelligent and open-minded discussion. Not many Christians have the courage to do this. To admit ignorance would be to become vulnerable, something no one wants to do too often. So, next time you talk to your friends maybe it would help to come into the situation with a specific question and research it together, with no judging or blaming on either side.
That is how I believe it should be since it is not, as according to Christianity, a human’s place to judge. That place is God’s alone, but hey Christians are humans and they have faults too.

‘With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.’

No, it doesn’t. How about Milgram’s infamous experiment in obedience? Surely you can’t blame that on religion. Surely you can’t think shocking an unwilling victim isn’t an evil thing. And surely the people in that study weren’t particularly evil people, in and of themselves.

Not believing in anything is considered something. Just as Religious people are “ironic”, so are the Atheist.

peace out.

History has proofed that religion has bought more wars, more hatred among countris, peoples and more casulties than any other reason

You Know these quotes are very interesting they trully show how ignorant athesism. Do people have nothing better to do than to make false acusations about something so big the human mind can not comprehend. “…People don’t question there faith…” How do you know that maybe they do, everyone has a bit a doubt every know and then. I honestly believe these quotes are made by people who can’t comprehend something so they give up, Because seeing is believing right? Oh, who created the big bang theory!

If we could convince everyone on earth to stop praying and just live morally, honestly, and most important Love. Love yourself, love human nature, love mother nature, just love it all and go about our everyday lives cherishing this wonderful life and earth that we PRESENTLY have before us then we will have arrived in heaven. I currently live my life this way and do not hurt anyone in thy process. If we all did this god just may find that earth is better than his heaven and come down to have some tea with us, maybe even take in a ball game… I ask this, if this did in fact occur would god still send us all to hell for not acknowledging him althoug we all lived righteously? If the answer is yes then I know a very large amount of GREAT people in hell and would prefer to be there with them anyway. I am my own god and this earth in this my only life is my heaven. I am not just content with this but so very appreciative!

Christians,christians, christians……you really only see evil dont you? You live in a scary evil world where the devil and sinners haunt your every second of existence. You embelish such evils only to magnify them into reality. Once their is such evil you can then validate your existence for your god. Im not saying evil doesnt exist, i just would prefer not to fixate on it and make that my focus. I find the good things and stay on them. I search my own heart and strength in times of turmoil and I know that this beutiful life very well is my only life. If its not then thats icing on the cake. Just how bad do you have it where the existence of heaven is the only thing that keeps you going? I sure can understand some poor kid growing up in the slums of India where his parents are muredered and his sister raped would have to believe just to get by that there must be a better place than this. And so he hears this grand tale that if hes good and prays to god and bla bla bla he will go to this better place, I get it. But whats your story? Why do you need it? This is America, this is heaven, and that child can find heaven too? He needs to think for himself, act, and get his little ass out of there. He has the power to do that, but if he gets too caught up in this heaven and hell bullshit hes going to rely on some fake being to get him out of there and out of there he will not get! All you have to do is be willing to think about it, and if you allow yourself you will know that there is no god, no heaven as described in the bible and no hell as described in the bible. It really is as simple as that. Why not live in reality and worry about death when it comes to us. Sure where all gong to die so are we supposed to just sit around and wait for it to happen? I love because I choose to love, not because I am forced into it for fear of actions against me if do not. I am a true husband, firefighter, citizen, brother, neighbor and friend. Most of all I am true to myself!

Otaika- quick answers…..Trial and error and 60,000 plus years of intelligent human life has evolved humans into knowing what is wrong and right, adultery hurts the partner who has placed their trust in you so yes it does hurt people, and killing isnt always wrong if you must eat a chicken or defend yourself against a charging murdering army of ignorant christians.

It distorts my brain knowing that world leaders, doctors, lawyers, police,etc supposed responsible intelligent people still believe in fake godly beings. It destroys my hope for humanity for if we can never get past this virus we may never evolve enough to save ourselves when the world is faced with exstinction. We have the proper brain tools to solve vast problems and with a little funding for testing on things like embryos and stem cells we really could divert a world catastrophe whether it be man made or mother nature. However we are constantly catapulted back to the middle ages every time a vote goes in the churches favor. Churches dont deserve tax exemptions nor do they a voice in the government. We have solved many problems on this earth but we cant get adults to stop believing in Santa Claus! It makes me sick! All I can do is teach my kids the TRUTH and let them know how rediculous all that is and hopefully they can persuade the children of Otaika and Sudeep and many others while they are still a molding mind of the obsurdness of their beliefs. Teach your kids to think for themselves and why not give it a try yourself.

So why should anyone (other than Jews or Christians of course) believe the Jewish/Christian creation myth, (told by some goat herders in the Middle East a few millennia ago) to any greater extent than any other religious belief. One of the answers to this question lies in the nature of Christianity it is fundamentally a huge business where the greater the congregation the greater the money it generates and the greater the power it has in spiritual and political matters.

There is no logic in religion. Logical possibility that there is a god is an oxymoron. If you were born into a life where not once did anyone EVER mention religions and God, you would never just start thinking that it makes sense that there possibly is a higher more powerful being up in the stars and a burning hell fire below us. However if you were born where never did anyone ever mention evolution, it is possible that you just may figure it out on your own regardless. One makes perfect sense, the other is immature and down right ludicrous. This is not an opinion. I just will have to wait till you or I die before I can prove it fact.

I’ve decided I’m afraid to die. We have one life to live, so we have to have fun with it, not waste praying for redemption for 10 minutes every time we bump into someone in a restaurant or smoke a cigarette. Life is a great thing and to think that some racist, powerful dude in the sky is going to fix all our problems is insulting. I’m a Humanist which is a branch of Atheism. Google it, it’s one of the few religions that makes sense.

Good point . . both of you.

More sensible how HAA? Sounds like you are making the argument from incredulity. That somehow, because people make things, it makes sense that something had to “make” everything. This doesn’t even follow in man made objects, where failure to understand the rules of the universe clearly has, can, and continues, to result, in some cases, in behaviors, designs, or failures, which where not predicted by any engineer. And, in the software world, its pretty much inevitable. Just replacing one part, or program, in a computer can, in some cases, cause drastically unpredictable results, which where never “designed” into it.

That we can imagine something that can “predict” and “know” everything, and thus not make such mistakes, while we continually fail to, doesn’t make such an imagined thing “exist”. Nor is it entirely clear that such a being does exist, since, if he/she/it did, they wouldn’t have created DNA, which makes even the most sophisticated software we have to date look like a perfect geodesic dome, when comparing such a dome to a bowl of spaghetti. I.e., genetics makes the incidental errors, and complexity, we get in computers now look “understandable” and “error free”, by comparison.

The logical space of doubt is a good thing. Attempting to “fill” the gaps with something that is imagined as a 100% perfect fit never works. Someone inevitably zooms in on the fractal, showing more, but tinier, gaps, and fewer places for such a creature to fit into. The only thing such an argument actually does is show an unwillingness of some people to simply say, “I don’t know yet”, and instead sit some place an think really really hard about what should fit in there. And… surprise, surprise, somehow the only thing they find to “fit” the hole is stuff already put in their head by someone else.

Its the same problem you get with revelation: Garbage in, garbage out. If you see something you don’t know, then look **it** over real well, you might learn something. If you see something you don’t known, and instead do nothing but “think about it”, all you will get is what is already between your own ears. Its hardly surprising that a philosophical (i.e., lot of time thinking, without actively doing anything like experiments) solution to the problem of “gaps” is inevitably going to be something a) someone else already suggested, and b) is widely believed enough that it won’t be rejected as insane.

Or, lets put it another way. Various experiments have been run with computers, to see if they can “find” new mathematical solutions, so they where given the basics, things to test against, and allowed to run. In all cases, thinking about what other people already thought of, i.e. philosophical examination of math, resulted in any number of different, and sometimes unknown, ways to do the same things we already **knew** how to do, but never once has such a machine “invented” a new formula for something we didn’t already figure out. To do that requires stepping out of the box and looking at things that you don’t already know something about. Philosophy is crawling **into** the box, on the theory that disconnected your examination from the unknown can give you a purer view of it. But, all you can get from that is *what you already have*.

It is funny to me how all the religious folks ended up on this website. I assume they did the same thing i did, typed in atheist quotes on google. The must be doubting their religion. The bottom line is that no one knows for sure how everything started, but believing in myth and legend as fact is ridiculous. Why didnt the christians become muslims early on in their faith? How come theMuslims didnt become Christians? they both are old religion and both have religious text that are “true.” The reason is because their parents taught them and that was it. Kids believe that santa is real because everyone around them says it is.That doesnt make it so. This is the same reason people believe in their religion because they were scared since they were little kids.
The bible has so many contradictions but it is the word of god. how is that possible?
PS-SCIENCE ISNT A WAY TO EXPLAIN THE “BEGINNING.” IT IS A WAY TO MEASURE WHAT IS TANGIBLE AND THE RULES THEY FOLLOW (i.e. math, physics, astronomy, and so on.)
IF IT WAS UP TO THE CHURCH, WE WOULDNT BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE RIGHT NOW THROUGH THE COMPUTER. WE WOULDNT HAVE ADVANCED ENOUGH TO DO SO. THE CHURCH BELIEVED THE EARTH WAS FLAT AND THE SUN REVOLVED AROUND THE EARTH. RELIGION IS THE BIGGEST OPPONENT TO SCIENCE ADVANCEMENT.i.e stem-cell research is a recent example. AT ANY RATE, KEEP YOUR DAMN RELIGIONS TO YOURSELF..AND FOR THE RELIGIOUS FOLK HERE, GO AWAY AND STOP COMING TO ATHEIST BLOGS IF YOU ARE SUCH A BELIEVER..LOL

Not only does compiling a list like this represent a considerable effort – it seems to point to a driving passion for something. If you ever figure out what ’something’ is – please let the world know.

How does Humanism fare under your scrutiny? The great humanist experiments of the 20th century killed more people than all the ‘religious’ wars ever fought. The consequences of their misguided social programmes still deprive millions, perhaps billions, of people of basic human needs and rights. These were and are ’scientific’ social systems underpinned by ‘reasoning’ not ignorance and superstition.

Some reasoning minds would arrive at the conclusion that the corporate nature of humanity itself is the problem – not one or another belief system or world view.

Well, I hope I can help to clear up one mistake made by a couple of posters above.

“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.”

“The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naïve.”

“I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings.”

“I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.”

Albert Einstein

http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/quotes_einstein.html

***

While I’m here, here’s another.

“All great religions, in order to escape absurdity, have to admit a dilution of agnosticism. It is only the savage, whether of the African bush or the American gospel tent, who pretends to know the will and intent of God exactly and completely.” H.L. Mencken

More of my favourites can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3342430

TRiG.

I put my faith in science. Science can give me facts and truth. What is religion giving the world right now? Please…if there was not for religion don’t you agree this world would be a lot more peaceful place to live in? If you all look at all the comments, there is more “believers” being angry then atheists. That is because we atheists seem to have more tolerance for people that does not believe in facts/science and we don’t like to go to “WAR” just because the rest of you believes in invisible guys.

Science and religion do not have to be enemies they certainly were not during the age of enlightenment were many scientific pursuits had church funding and backing. I think that most of the nonsense that holds science back is perpetrated by fringe groups for example the main denominations (Catholic/Anglican) support biological evolution it’s just more of the loony nutters who are more right wing than Genghis Khan that seem to have problems with science, they do not speak for all Christians and should not even be deluded into thinking that they speak for the majority.

As for the past nationalism, religion and other ideologies have a bloody sordid past I think that has more to do with humanity abusing
belief systems to their gain. If not religion then nationalism if not that they would find an another excuse to go to war one way or the other.

Why do Christians never tell us which denomination they are, its as if they are trying to kid the rest of us that Christianity is one big happy family when in reality it is far from it. as for a God every Christian denomination think they are the true spokes people for ‘Christ’/ God Every Christian Denomination, Sect or Order seem to have a different spin on ‘their own God’ most of them have bloody histories. So if Atheists seem to attack Christianity its because they are seen as the most dangerous, the most intolerant and the most bigoted of all the world religions. As for being a half atheist or half Christian this is just daft. Which half a God is it, God on the stick or just the stick?

In response to mehmet1453 science and religion not being enemies. I think you had better read the diktats that emenate from the Pope.
Try reading some of the encyclicals from past Popes these are not in any way reasoned they are diktats claiming ultimate truth from divine source to be believed or else. Pope Pius XII stated “scientific research is a reprehensible desire of novelty” and only his lot could determine the truth. Enemies does not come close, Its not that long age that Christianity was burning books and scientists.

I see from browsing the comments that some of you have been sucked into the religion vs. science argument. Atheists say “I believe in science!” and religious types say “I believe in god!,” but it’s a pointless argument because the two have nothing to do with one another. Science has nothing to do with religion. It’s concerned with observing and studying the natural world, not with philosophy. There have been thousands of hours devoted to disproving science by literalists because they feel like they have something to prove, but nothing with which to prove their point. There have been zero hours spent by the scientific community trying to disprove god.

Atheism is not a belief in nothing. I believe in many things. I believe in the wonder and complexity of the natural world. I believe in the wonderful compassion that can be shown by humans. I believe in living a happy and full life, doing everything in my power to leave this world in better shape than I found it. Atheism is not a belief in nothing, it is taking oneself out of the whole system all together.

Whoops a omitted a section to my last comment.

Philosophy comes from the human mind which are thoughts, feelings, illusions, halucinigations, dillusions, processes, etc. of the human brain, which is how its a form of anatomy which is inarguably a science.

I do agree with you otherwise, I just wanted you correct you on one part (unless you can prove me otherwise).

and let me clear this up-there isn’t a SINGLE contradiction in The Bible. if you’re athiest, then you wouldn’t read The Bible, and therefore, cannot make such assumptions. the only contradictions that may occur are from man, not God. they may have been used to teach by Jesus, but God didn’t make any contradictions. God could have made us all perfect and clean from sin, but He gave us a chance to decide for ourselves, and we blew it. but, Jesus came and changed that. “He became sin, so that we would be free from sin.” He endured the Cross, scorning its (and our) shame, so that we may no longer be slaves to sin, but free to Christ. We have all been offered A Second Chance. the question lies with man-will you accept a second chance, or live hopelessly, anticipating the Fire of Hell you will be sentenced to if you don’t accept Christ? it’s either this, or you need to be able to show God that you’re a perfect person, blameless and pure from sin. good luck with that.

Bryan you have got to be kidding me. In many cases, Atheists are the oens that have read the bible the most, that are the most familiar with it. and this is exactly why they reject it, because it is complete non sense. How do you know that “your god” is real? why is he “yours”? this is why religion is dangerous, b/c people like you just “know” he (apparently the omniscient creator of the universe is male) real. does he talk to you in your sleep or appear in your dreams? go ahead and write your high school research paper and call all of these prolific men and women idiots, im sure you are a credible source of information.
religion humiliates the soul and dominates the mind. youre telling me that when i was born i was automatically a filthy creature? why would anyone believe that bullshit? and you are infact wrong, there is one sin that you can’t repent for: “denying the holy spirit.” and since the holy spirit is omniscient, it can see our actions, hear our thoughts, and even know what we are thinking about doing. so if we begin to question god we are immediately damned to hell. this is one of the many tools built into religion to keep peopel from thinking.
the very argument that there is a personal god is the most arrogant argument in history. simply look at the size of the universe, the billions of galaxies, and the fact that the universe is expanding. the earth has only existed for a tiny blip in time, and humans even less. how arrogant to think there is an invisible man in the sky listening to every little person murmuring to him at once.
Christians don’t want “to help us.” they want to judge and divide and control. i have great hope and reason to live: my family, my friends, and every single person in the world. their religion doesnt matter at all, what we have in common isnt our beliefs but our humaninty. that is more beautiful than forcefully thrusting your holy book on others and using it to divide and ostracize.
oh and by the way, don’t use quotes from the bible to argue the existence of god, thats the worst way you can possibly argue it. and also dont use statements like the one i mentioned at the beginning on how you “know he is there.” all that does is reveal that you have no substantiated evidence whatsoever, and shows that all faith is is delusion and wishful thinking.

haha thats true. why the hell are there christians in here to begin with? i just noticed that picture btw, “ghostbusters”, thats hilarious.

Just because something makes you feel more important, or the thought of some celestial being that created the universe cares about you, doesnt make it real. this is the same god that sees to the daily destruction of stars and galaxies and to the expanding universe. why would he give a damn about a person on earth? it is very emotionally satisfying to believe in santa clause as a kid that gives presents to every little kid on earth out of the goodness of his heart, but this isnt true. like one of these quotes put it, “the absence of evidence is evidence of absence.” why dont you believe in santa clause anymore, or the flying spaghetti monster? you cannot disprove it, but why dont you believe in them? because you were born into a christian family and your society has indoctrinated you into believing that a man that lived 2000 years ago is the son of god and he died for you. people die for all of us everyday but we dont consider them the son of god. people perform “miracles” like healing the sick and curing the blind every day, but its only in the context of 2000 years ago do we actually beleive them to be true.
that is the most irrational, ignorant conclusion you can draw from any argument: that the fact that you cannot disprove something means it must the the supernatural fairy tale. this is called an informal fallacy and even has its own specfic genre: begging the question. b/c our world is so complex people assume there must be a supernatural, omniscient creator. this is just reasoning in a circle. how do you know that the only way this complexity could have come about is through a creator? if you are willing to make this conclusion then you have the burden of proof to explain this conclusion. but why pretend to know something you clearly dont? why not leave it to the progress of mankind and let us continually try to understand rather than constantly referring to a book written by men (only men) 2000 years ago when a shovel was considered technology. if you want to talk about faith, well i would rather put my faith in future generations and the future of mankind rather than tradtion and superstition.
you have to honestly ask yourself, if there were conclusive evidence that there ws no personal god, would you continue to believe?

That is the height of arrogance if you believe that the same being that tends to the daily destruction of much of the universe and matter into black holes, cares about the thoughts or actions of a human on earth. It is intellectually dishonest to refute that point with “awesome isn’t he!” yes, and it would also be great if I convinced myself that there would be a million dollars in my checking account tomorrow. What makes him unreal is the lack of evidence (there is NONE) to support the existence, not just the fact that I don’t believe. I am not CHOOSING not to believe, I am just not convinced to believe.
I am not well versed in philosophy or epistemology (yet) as I am just a freshman in college, so my response isn’t going to cite any of that. However, there are numerous, substantiated, corroborated accounts of the life and actions of George Washington. His actions have been corroborated and so have the consequences, not just by people in this country but all over the world.
Like so many others have said, the burden of proof no more lays on me to prove that the biblical god doesn’t exist than it does to prove that there isn’t a tea pot orbiting mercury. The best way we have to acquire knowledge about the state of the universe is through a dispassionate search for the observable, facts, rather than beginning with a highly emotional, unsubstantiated belief about the state of the universe, and then trying to reconcile the observations and discoveries with those beliefs by using phrases like “god works in mysterious ways” or “he is merciful and just” or whatever flexible phrasing they can use to somehow suggest the compatibility when the logical person can see that this is not the case. It is not the goal of science to disprove god. That is an ignorant statement. However religion makes claims that clearly trespass on the grounds of science. It is the goal of science to objectively seek an understanding of how and why things are through empirical analysis by using whatever grounds of knowledge have been established before it (and also even questioning those), as opposed to resorting to supernatural claims of certainty.
And if you “don’t care” it is easy to turn to books from the bronze age that advocate a dogma of ignorance that is constantly seeking to profess its compatibility with modernity but has constantly seen many of its points disproven. It would be very easy to just stop thinking and resort to some historical literature. “as a Christian I dedicate my life to learn and know what I believe” – to “learn and know” what you believe. This just shows that you already have the end made up in your mind and are cherry picking whatever you possibly can to substantiate this belief from reality.
Being an atheist isn’t “so important to be.” what is important to me is rational inquiry and the use of reason and logic in dealing with our public policy and understanding of the world rather than resorting back to dead religious dogmas written my men 2000 years ago.
And your last argument: you completely made up your own situation and then your own conclusion to that situation in order to show that everything is a matter of faith. I think that a possible piece of evidence that could be incredibly devastating to faith (correct me if imp wrong b/c I’m curious) would be if we find conclusive evidence that there is no immaterial soul and that what some conceive as the “soul” is actually chemical reactions and electrical impulses. On a similar note, V.S. Ramachandran did a study about the separate hemispheres of the brain in split –brain patients and observed in patients that the right side believed in god and the other did not. Here’s the link to clip one and then you can find clip 2 on the related videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWIUa5cvjSo
Enjoy

I’m not sure what you mean about denying what is outside the flask? what isn’t cool is always resorting to some mystical, superntaural creator every time we are confronted with something that we do not know yet. the idea of god seems to be more of a comfort blanket to people. Imagine if the idea of a god never came into being. Imagine that all of scientific history is the same, only the omission of “god” from the history of humanity. Then take all of the scientific discoveries and achievements; all the knowledge we have gained about our world and the universe. Would all of this information even suggest the existence of a supreme, omnipotent, omnipresent being? Would this idea of god develop AFTER all of these discoveries? It isn’t a coincidence that the idea of a “god” was formed BEFORE we had any knowledge whatsoever about the state of the universe and of our being. If we didn’t already have this presupposition of god, at this point in time with the knowledge that we do have it would not in any way suggest a designer. The idea wouldn’t even enter our heads. What we would be thinking is that we have a long way to go to truly understand everything because we cannot even conceive of the amount of information there is out there. We wouldn’t be looking at a black hole, mercilessly sucking in matter and annihilating galaxies and concluding that the designer of the universe must be seeing to it that this galaxy be destroyed. We wouldn’t be looking at the Andromeda galaxy on its crash course to the Milky Way and conclude there is some omnipotent, intellectual being that we must have pissed off. After discovering the life cycle of our Sun and its inevitable transition into a Red giant which would turn our planet into a crisp, we wouldn’t derive the conclusion that this was under the supervision of some god.
It was an archaic method (an unscientific method) to explain our existence, but just like any ancient method of explanation it should have been thrown to the scrap heap when we developed a new method of attaining knowledge and information. For many others reason it wasn’t.
the question of god’s existence isn’t a simple coin flip with a 50% chance of him existing and vice versa considering there is no evidence or anythign to imply his existence except the tradition of belief.
i do not have a problem whatsoever with someone’s belief being a benign force in their life. however i do have a problem when it is their justification for killing someone or taking away groups of peoples’ rights. sam harris, in his book the end of faith, goes into great detail about the threat that religious moderation poses in our society. moderates give cover to religious extremists b/c once something is deemed “faith” then apparently we are required to respect it, when in actulity we do not repsect eachothers beliefs. like if i said i belief that elvis’ spirit was still among us, i would immediately pay the price. a religion that believes in martyrdom and 72 virgins waiting for them in heaven that has accessto nuclear weapons doesnt mix well with a religion that believes the end of the world will be a glorious return of jesus. your beliefs, your neighbor’s beliefs, they affect all of us.
your last point: i dont think a perfect god would give us the ability to think and reason and apply logic and then punish us for using them. why would anyone be tortured for eternity for pursuing the truth. ” sorry god, there just wasn’t enough evidence” i think would suffice, considering there isn’t. if he is omnipotent i think he could see our real thoughts and your arrogant to think you can fool god by just SAYING you believe so you can go to heaven. if he did create everything, he created me. he created me a skeptical person, not readily or blindly believing something unless there was good evidence.
i could go on and on, but just the basic idea that there is some omnipotent omnipresent entity with intellect seems to be a logical fallacy. why create anything at all? why not bask in your perfection? thats kind of underachieving if your great feat is creation of a race of tiny, powerless humans on an infinitesimally small pixel of the universe. wouldnt you consider that immoral to simpkly create a species so that they can just worship you, and if they dont then you torture them for all of eternity (whatever that means)? seems mroe liek a tyrant to me. i would rather not even exist that live in a world of utter, natural submission upon birth with the threat of that kind of fate awaiting me. just dont even create me in the first place.

All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and shall never be accepted by any self-respecting person as final. — by Hapathia.

Hapathia, who lived in ancient Alexandria, was the first female philosopher, mathematician, extremely beautiful, daughter of the Great Theon,… yet, she was stripped naked by Peter, cut into pieces with clam shells and broken tiles, and then torn apart aline and burned to death by a christian mob…

Religious people always assume we all want to go to heaven. I told them, hell no! I do not want to party with my boss 24/7 and being monitored by him. I want to stay in this world, if not, hell is my second choice because I have the freedom to swear to anyone and have my privacy :)

@matt

try atheist bible by joan konner

Excellent!

Haha…. these replies are funneh!

Ahem… A demonstration of faith:

I really really really really believe Jesus is actually a homosexual himself, and wants to be really unique and special so that all his friends think he is awesome, and so he commissioned a book, aptly named, the BUYble, to reinforce this notion thus condemning homosexuals to ages of discrimination.

And because I have faith, and this idea is just too much to comprehend, it must be true! And God must be true, and Jesus is indeed awesome to his friends, and athiests are all smelly dog liar fools.

Woot! My faith skills are LENGENDARY!

Peace out mankind :)

PAVEEN. no i dont. i wasn’t there. Were you?

Yes I realize this I was just trying to calm everyone down and stop the nasty comments while giving atheists and sensible christains something to think about

I love this site! I do have some authors for a few of your atheist quotes. I’ll post 1 for now.

“Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every
stage of human history than any other single idea.”
[Madelyn O'Hair]

Einstein didn’t believe in god
he wasnt a fool

How can u NOT believe in GOD?????
read the quran once. just once. or watch dr. ZAKIR NAIK’s lecture(u can find the on youtube 2). i hope u get on the right path.

May GOD set u alll on the right path….

“I have read every one of these quotes and I have an answer for every one.”

No doubt you have some stupid “answer” to all of them, but no one cares.

“I am a Christian.”

Poor you.

“The persons who said these things assumed that they knew what all Christians and Christian denominations believe.”

Bzzzt! Wrong!

“You put faith in a seat belt, not knowning if it will break, you put faith roads that should not crumble”

No, moron, I have a fact-based expectation about the likelihood that seat belts will break and that roads will crumble; faith is not required.

“Atheism was an integral part of communism.”

So was breathing, but Stalin didn’t lead in the name of breathing.

“Stalin’s Russia was build on this ideology and everything was done in its name.”

That is a lie, like you calling yourself an atheist, and like the rest of the claptrap that is religion. Predictably, a lot of lying scum come to websites like this and lie their asses off. Regardless of whether there is a God, his believers are assholes.

“BUT JUST BY CALLING YOURSELF ATHEIST IS THE FIRST & FOREMOST THIMG YOU ARE ACKNOWLEDGING IS THE EXISTANCE OF GOD ITSELF OTHERWISE IF YOU REALLY ARE AN ATHEIST THEN THERE IS NO GOD THEREFORE THERE IS NOTHING CALLED AS AN ATHEIST !! is there ???

ANY ANSWERES ??”

Theism: With god. Atheism: Without god.
Atheism is not acknowledgement of god’s existence. It’s denial or disbelief of it. Also, what’s with all the caps? You don’t have to yell.

I am an atheist because I do not BELIEVE god exists, not because I KNOW he doesn’t. If this makes me a weak atheist, that makes sense, given that I just recently “converted” (or is it “de-converted”?), and I’m not as “confident” in my convictions as others, but I’ve seen nothing yet to make me change my mind.
I don’t hate christians. I know quite a few who are very likable. A good friend of mine is christian. I don’t hate god (I can’t hate what I don’t believe in).
Stop arguing. You’re only proving your own intolerance.

And one more thing, where does it state that these quotes are meant to disprove god? They’re just quotes. They no more disprove god than theistic quotes prove god.

Man this is a long arguement

I am an atheist but really it doesn’t matter to me whether he exists or not
I’d rather spend my Sundays on the beach than on my knees and if you haven’t noticed, Einstein may be christian but many founding fathers and Isaac Newton were Atheists

P.S. “In heaven all the interesting people are missing”

I am a devout atheist however, if I did believe that “god” existed I think that I would loathe him for the way in he’s behaved. If you are a person of faith I would recommend doing what Proud Muslim girl suggested and read the quran, bible or torah (as most people of faith have not) and decide for yourself weather you like this “god” character.

Bottom line – I don’t even care if there is a god.

Still don’t hate me enough to stop reading?

I often hear the argument that without “god”, then what moral guide does one have not to commit murder, steal etc, etc…

I challenge anyone to do a simple Google search. (or even some real research) and have a look at history’s leading serial killers, mass murderers, rapists, war lords…you name the crime. You will be hard pressed to find an atheist’s name attached to such acts.

So why is it then that people of faith who have a moral guide to goodness behave in such a way, while heathens like myself are gentle, respectful pacifists. Like I said above. If there was a god,(and there is not) I’m not on his team.

Peace and enlightenment to you all….And people of faith, if you see me walking down the street please don’t turn to run me down with you car…Remember – “Thou Shall Not Kill”.

I Really Cant Stand how religion affects everything we do in this world. Anyone Agree With Me?

Stalin…Yes this was his “reason” for killing….Honestly I’m not sure if he believed in god either….I’ll have to look in to this….

I don’t suggest that many of the murderous superstars killer “because” of religion, but rather that they tended to be people who believed in god but still behaved in such a way. Further, If you look at those atheists who committed crimes against humanity, (Mao) I think they saw themselves as “god like”.

…I’m curious however….A question for those of faith – Why did god create Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot, Idi Amin? Or give them free will?

Interesting thought that. He gave us free will because “he is so amazing”. And for all those victims of those who choose to do evil deeds- I suppose they used their free will to decide they wanted to be stabbed, raped, gassed, shot etc? Where is their free will?

OK – So god in his greatness decided that he would give mass murderers free will and not protect those who perhaps would be the next Gandhi?

I refer to what I wrote above….Even if he did exist, I wouldn’t care for him much given the track record.

What do you think? Would you want to hang out with me (never mind worship me) if I stood by and watched someone kill those 10 babies when I was perfectly capable of helping? You’d probably want to see me burn at the stake.

dude, god is not a superhero , he wont come in and pick up robbers and revive the clerk he just killed. so stop thinking that he will do anything. trose people who were stabbed, gassed, etc to death will now go on to their promised land, so really its all good.in the end, theyll sit comfortably in heaven or whatever they believed in while the killer, if he hasnt repented, will burn in hell. well, that sounds pretty nice to me. this life is temporary, what they believe in is forever.

oh and did you not read grannie smith apple’s comment? the murders are made not born. you dont go up to jordan and say, god im so jealous you came out of your mother with a bulls jacket. he worked his ass for that record in history. everyone is affected by something, and as for the ones being raped young and turning out to be murderers, i think god will be the judge of that.

for me, i think religion is like the stock market. what do you do when its down? youve pretty much quit all stocks. so for you, it will always be a bear market.if you adhere to something long enough, you will have faith

oh and if you are an atheist, what difference will it make if i get your nuts and grape them while i eat your left hand and then put a rat on top of your stomach and get a bucket and burn the bucket until the rat digs his way through your intestines.

i mean what difference does it make when in the end, it will be all black and you would realize that you have died. so nothing really happens. so whats the use? would you want to hang out with me then?

and no i wouldnt want you to be burned at the stake.try being a nihilist. i think its better than being an atheist.although the resemblence is uncanny

p.s. do you know what i realized, when it comes to religion, people sure can type a profusely about these things. when i looked at the comments and saw how lengthy they were, i thought i wasnt going to type that much but i ended up doing so.

ughhh christians are such a buzz kill. honestly these quotes were witty, funny, and more or less accurate. i believe in God and i still enjoyed this list.

seriously christians stop getting offended and quoting the bible (i’m sure atheists REALLY trust that book), and just appreciate the humor in some of these quotes.

to me religion deprives people of thinking outside the box. for once why dont you people think god isnt the answer to everything? youll feel so much better

Part 2

Those who suffer will go on to bliss in the promised land – OK – fair
enough….god exists then and chooses to allow people to suffer for however
many years then, decides to sweep them off to his promised land? Although
for some he decides to shower them with riches, power and comfort…yet they
profess faith (the right one I might add) and therefore after their life
of opulence, get to go to the promised land as well. (May I repeat, if he
were there I wouldn’t like him much). I think it’s just as easy to explain
this away by saying that “he has reasons that are mysterious” we just
don’t know what they are….indeed we don’t know…..but what we don’t know we
like to make up. Just like there was a time when we made up other gods.
(zeus, titan, venus, Poseidon, Ra, Nut, Amun, Appolo, Juno Mars, Alkuntam,
Allowat Sakima, Alowatsakima, Amala…the list can get kind of long). It’s
natural for our species to create myth about what we don’t know. We’ve
done this for a very long time. Believing in traditional modern god(s) is
no different than believing Poseidon lies somewhere in the deeps
overseeing the oceans. The loss of this belief if the gaining of something
much greater.

Murderers are made and not born – Many will disagree with this and in fact
provide physical evidence that can be measured and viewed by way of
activity in the brain that dictates various behaviors. The “granny smith
apple comment” was a “comment” based on someone belief. . In fact most
“real” clinical studies suggest that it is a combination of many factors.
If you’re interested in reading up on this I recommend the following as a
good start. Parables and proverbs are probably not the best way to guide
one’s principals.

Part 4

A nihilist? I certainly don’t believe that we are all “pointless” if this
is what you mean. There is great satisfaction in truth. I do believe that
we have a purpose and can guide ourselves towards something really great.
I also believe that we can only do this once we leave the dark ages and
begin trusting ourselves and our own real perceptions. We need to cast off
the blindfold of religion. We need to have FAITH (oh…did I use that word),
yes, faith in ourselves.

With all respect, and understanding that I too am victim of this,
everything you write is based not on any real learning or understanding.
You’ve regurgitated propaganda and rhetoric that’s been forced down your
throat. I don’t say this to insult you. Like I said, I’ve victim of this
as well….The only thing you can do is to QUESTION EVERYTHING! Take
apposing views to see if what you are being told is based in fact. You
decided that god is not a superhero in the context that you described in
order to prove to yourself what you believe is true. You conjured it up in
your head to support your belief. This is something that we do. We need to
explain what we don’t know. (ie. god comes to us) Otherwise, how did you
come to this conclusion about god?

Think of an old urban myth, any one will do. The teller of the myth will
believe what they are telling you. Indeed “this happen to a friend of
theirs”. And the more you don’t believe, the greater the conviction of the
teller. They believed it and to admit that their belief was silly, is
admitting that they were not as clever as they thought, no matter how
silly the belief. I think we’ve all come across an experience such as
this. Believing in god is no different. Admitting that it does not exist
can be crushing…But you can enjoy learning about not what you’ve been
told, but what you can discover for yourself.

In any case – if you believe I’m wrong, please pray for me and perhaps god
will see fit to show me otherwise…that is if he answers prayers…

What do you think

I am not a Christian, I am not an atheist. However, I will tell both sides this: I will give up my religion right after you pull my gun from my cold dead fingers. Both sides have been warned. There are many of us with this opinion. Mind your own business, stay out of other people’s lives. We are tired of both sides involvement in our affairs!

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

hey dude i wasnt trying to insult, its just almost twelve in the afternoon writing exorbitanly looks a little shady?

Who says atheists cannot turn the tables and destroy the religious for once? Violence is necessary as most religious fools will not come to the side of truth and reason. And just because something is true doesn’t mean we don’t have to fight for it. Most Christians would love to have Armeggedon occur during their lifetimes, and I will be happy to oblige.

so just something funny ive noticed…

the word “believe”

has “lie” exactly in the middle of it.

sort-of ironic =]

oh yea and it was “sudeep chatterjee” who had no life. once you started going into the “wealth” shit i just didnt even bother reading the rest. you’re trying to sound deep and smart, when your just bringing up obvious junk. accept the fact that that’s how our government is run, and theres nothing you can do to change that.

I would like to say that my favorite quote is:

It will yet be the proud boast of women that they never contributed a line to the Bible. – George W. Foote

Does anyone not think that this was so because the bible was written during a time when “men” were considered superior? How backwards in time does that take us as a society? People are following the bible back to a time when logic was not easily explained. If man created the bible today how different it would be……

Great that people are willing to follow a story about a bunch of men sitting around in their robes, drinking “holy” wine and then putting their drunken thoughts together to create the bible. No wonder we are left questioning the fiction we read.

an epitaph on a head stone of an Atheist:

Here lies an atheist all dressed up and nowhere to go…

We are all atheist until we are taught the religion of our culture
Michael-Wood

lol queers…

rusli Zainal Sang visioner

Its funny to think that what scares religious people is the fact that you will die and disappear as a human being.
I am proud to be the guy who does something to be remembered that the guy who prays to live on.
The main reason why religion likes to control information is that informed people are not religious.
It would be nice to think that there is someone or something out there that will protect me and help me make the right decisions in my life and will help me succeed. In fact there is such thing its called reason.

Matt,

“God, The failed hypotheses” by Victor Stenger is a good book , also “50 reasons people give for believing in a god” by Guy P. Harrison is interesting.

Ego eimi katholikos.(I am catholic) Theos Logos Parakletos(Thought Word Spirit)In analogy, Father God is thought. The only begotten son is word. In analogy, my faith is not claiming to know but rather claiming that it can be known. I am Catholic.

http://www.bspcn.com/2008/01/22/top-10-reasons-to-believe-logic-over-religion/ EVERYONE SHOULD CHECK THIS OUT REGAURDLESS OF RELIGION. P.S. WHERE IS THOMAS JEFFERSON ON THE PAGE, HE WAS THE MAN!

Howdy,
This link is the convesion story of a very intellegent athiest. If you have the patience to read it (it takes a while) this man explains some of the topics argued about on this forum.

http://www.nextwavefaithful.com/purpose%C2%AD_may06.asp

May the force be with you!

I like these quotes from BV

“Teaching a child they must believe in themselves is more important than any Sunday school lesson ever taught.”
“If I can fix myself I will never call on another to fix me”. Brian Vetri

The Ten Commandments
But not as you think you know them

The Ten Commandments, a set of general, Policies Rules, and Guidelines (PRGs) or a set of political diktats needed to keep together a bunch of refugee tribes escaping from Egyptian tyranny.
Christians in particular claim these Ten Commandments like other parts of the Bible should be taken literally, so let’s take a look at them, not from some theological position or standpoint but from the point of view of the simple lay person who is asked to believe and follow these rules and live their lives governed by them.
Even the numbers of commandments seem to differ from religion to religion from denomination to denomination and from sect to sect, Just how many are there and what relevance do they have today.
Three or four thousand years ago and right up to modern times, virtually all leaders, kings pharaohs etc either claimed to be living gods or at least especially picked by a god. It is how they kept control and demonstrated their power over their minions. The Pope for example claims to be the infallible vicar of Christ. Of course not all Christians believe this and hundreds of thousands have died because they said they don’t.
So what makes Moses, this guy who sneaked off up a mountain to have a meeting with a God, any different, in fact he would be expected to be chosen by a god or at least in direct contact with some powerful supernatural entity. As for the commandments surely anyone taking on the task of leading a bunch of refugees across a desert for 40 or so years has to set out some rules of behaviour or the social cohesion would not exist and the tribes would drift away on their own.
This group of refugees are moving out from well organised settled lives to wander across a very harsh wilderness so it’s not surprising that there should be some pretty strict rules and what better way to ensure compliance than by saying they come direct from god himself, but why all the secrecy and if these wretched people were slaves of the Egyptians and fleeing this intolerable existence where did they get their slaves from are we to believe that as slaves of the Egyptians they had slaves of their own. If the Almighty Hebrew god was so concerned about ‘his people’ why all the theatricals he after all promises to brush aside the people that already inhabit Israel, the Egyptians wouldn’t have been much of a problem after all they didn’t have real gods to help them did they.
The lists known as the Ten Commandments are given in passages in two books of the Bible: Exodus 20:2–17, Exodus 34:11–27 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21. Various religions and denominations group the commandments differently; In fact they are interpreted so differently it is impossible to find a consensus. It would appear that it became necessary to shorten the list to ten that most could agree on. Some put these differences down to translation others to interpretation if this is the case how can they possible be taken literally.

The Roman Catholic Church uses the translation ‘kill’ (less specific) instead of ‘murder’. Some Lutheran churches use a slightly different division of the Ninth and Tenth Commandments (9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours’ house; 10. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his workers, or his cattle, or anything that is your neighbour’s). Sources within Judaism assert that this is a reference to kidnapping, whereas Leviticus 19:11 is the Biblical reference banning the stealing of property. This understanding is based on the Talmudical hermeneutic known as ??? ???? ???????/davar ha-lamed me-inyano, (lit. Something proved by the context), by which this must refer to a capital offense just as the previous two commandments refer to capital offenses. The “Talmudic Division” is the breakdown held by modern Judaism, and dates to at least the Third Century. The “Philonic Division”, which dates to the first century, is found in the writings of Philo and Josephus. They ended the first commandment after verse 3 and list the second commandment as verses 4-6, similar to most Protestants (non-Lutheran) and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

So let’s look at these PRGs from Exodus 20:2–17

The Name of the LORD represents His power, actions, and reputation in the universe. Almighty God cannot be “conjured” or treated as an object, since He is the Master of the Universe and subject to no one. It is chilul HaShem to attempt to invoke the Name of God for selfish or manipulative purposes (Exodus 20:7).
Is this not exactly what people do when they pray? Do all the Saints and Icons of the modern Church not represent Idols? Or the fact that Christianity is riven with schisms with each new breakaway Church claiming God as their own not treating god as an object to be fought over like two dogs with a bone.
• I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
So is this God the same one the Christian worship? Because if it is why is there such a difference between their respective religions. Neither Christianity nor Judaism has anything remotely in common. The plagues of Egypt can now be seen as being natural disasters, which are so easily claimed as acts of an angry god after the fact.

• Do not have any other gods before me.
Why mention other Gods if he is the only one, just how many are there?
Or is this an indication that this God like all others is just a made up a device for controlling the masses..
If indeed there are no other Gods why is this one so worried about this, after all worshiping some inanimate object should only cause concern for the person’s sanity and couldn’t possibly be a threat to an almighty God, maybe just a hint of paranoia along with the jealousy then.

• You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
So it would appear that this God does indeed think that there are other Gods to worry about. In fact they seem to be everywhere. If so where are they hiding?
• You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me,
Surely for a God this is pretty vindictive, malevolent, malignant and downright brutish behaviour. Would you want this as a friend? Sounds like, this God has some serious mental health issues. Three or four generations sounds a bit on the harsh side but dictatorial Gods are just like their human counterparts.
• But showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
A pretty big promise here? Three or four generations of punishment dished out for a wee bit of wickedness but rewards for keeping the faith run to a thousand generations. No wonder people followed this guy; he should have written a book on motivational techniques.
• You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
No turning the other cheek for this God then. It is all sounding more threatening than loving but what the hell all megalomaniacs sound the same.
• Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Oops seems that he should have said which day it is, as there seems so much confusion about whether it is Saturday or Sunday, which are curiously both named after Pagan Gods, .which I don’t suppose pleases this bad tempered sod.
• For six days you shall labour and do all your work.
Obviously not a farmer then, or someone who needs to work to survive. An early version of the European Working Time Directive, working like slaves 24/6 cheers mate.
• But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.
This God seems to be really hung up on the diktats. And where do the aliens come from Mars perhaps. Here again he seems to endorse slavery, and where did the ‘towns’ come from these refugees were wandering about aimlessly in the desert.
• For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.
The more you say it the more bizarre it sounds. I think he should have explained this a bit more as it has led to the most outrageous claims. That he didn’t really do it but a thing called Evolution, Natural selection and millions of years where needed, ok, if he was trying to keep it simple for the wandering ex slaves with their towns we might be being just a little too critical. So does your god believe that slavery is ok but working on the Sabbath day that one he took off as a rest day is a sin? The mind boggles at this hypocrisy and what about the rest of the time since, a six day career or has he taken early retirement.
• Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Is this the holy land perhaps, the land that’s now so full of holes the same land that now flows with blood rather than milk and honey?

• You shall not kill
Kill or murder let’s not quibble about the words they both mean someone dies, not much notice is taken of this particular one anyway as two thousand years of Christian barbarity can testify, to say nothing of the killing going on in the Holy land as we speak.
• You shall not commit adultery.
Another one that is completely ignored
• You shall not steal.
Unless it is from some one that does not believe or is this just a guidance, a bit of wishful thinking or did it lose something in translation. Stealing is exactly what Christianity does best.. For the Americans amongst you try asking what’s left of your own indigenous people.
• You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
Tell this to the Popes and the Bishops that have slaughtered millions in genocidal rampages across the world. That committed incest rape and adultery. Tell this to the Jews who stole the Palestinians land. Tell this to the indigenous peoples of the world that had their lands taken from them their children stolen, their gold and wealth taken from them at the point of a sword. Yep his followers really know how to break the rules. Must be another one that is left up to you to decide whether or not to obey.
• You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.
Slavery again, no mention of paedophilia yet i.e. coveting your neighbours kids., I wonder if this is why it’s so popular amongst priests and it’s ok to do a bit of coveting if you are a God coveting the Egyptians slaves and worse he waited till all that building work was done.
.

Exodus 34:11–27
• Observe what I command you today. See, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites
Not just coveting here or petty larceny this is downright genocide, Hitler couldn’t have said it more menacingly.
• Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, or it will become a snare among you.
No peace treaties, definitely sounds as if this is his final solution.
• You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles.
Yep a Blitz Krieg reign of terror.
• (For you shall worship no other god, because the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).
A Jealous, bloodthirsty war mongering and genocidal maniac who is paranoid about other nonexistent Gods more like.
• You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, someone among them will invite you, and you will eat of the sacrifice.
This paranoia is getting beyond a joke, which one of the ex slaves would dare break this rule and face the wrath of this dictatorial nut. Oops the Christians.
• And you will take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods.
Afraid of these femme fatales or is God losing faith in his chosen people,.
• You shall not make cast idols.
Just when they were getting out of the Neolithic, none of him either presumably or literally speaking. Oops these darn Christians should pay more attention. Would TV Evangelists fall into this category as most of them seem wooden? And idolised.
• You shall keep the festival of unleavened bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.
This one can’t be taken literally it must only be for the Jews, if not oops again, Never seen a Big Mac in an unleavened bun.
The next lot of commandments deal with the cost of joining this select band of wandering ex slaves
• All that first opens the womb is mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.
High price to pay for your freedom, human sacrifice just about tops the league on cruelty. Or shouldn’t we take this too literally? And what in hell is god going to do with all these sheep, goats, donkeys and cows etc
• For six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in ploughing time and in harvest time you shall rest.
More Working Time Regulations, But no mention in this one about men from mars or slaves having a day off.
• You shall observe the festival of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the turn of the year.
The Christians just renamed this. Most if not all farming communities celebrate harvest time so this is nothing new and I doubt if it needed to be enshrined in Law.
• Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.
A wee bit sexist or still afraid of the girlies, much the same as today really.
• For I will cast out nations before you, and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
Must have repealed this one because there has been a lot of coveting going on round the holy land lately, along with all that flowing blood and making holes in each other.
• You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, and the sacrifice of the festival of the Passover shall not be left until the morning.
The Christians amongst you aren’t doing too well at this commandment thing, this is another one that you let slip.
• The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God.
The best to the High Priests who sit about doing bugger all except, making up Working Time Directives of course.

• You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
You don’t have to be Gordon Ramsay to know this; it’s just ‘Fucking’ sick. And why would a god be bothered about recipes.

So what have we got a set of rules for a bunch of superstitious refugee Hebrews?
Some sound bites, a bit of spin and propaganda and a huge number of threats.
Or the literal historical word of a Jealous Genocidal, bloodthirsty and paranoid god running a protection racket to keep a bunch of equally malignant high priests in power to service their vanity and greed.
What surprises me most is not that people believe this rubbish comes from a god, but the fact that they think that they are following these commandments today.
As an Atheist I of course had already made up my mind at about the age of ten or was it twenty seven but then what’s in a number. Even as a child I could see that these laws, commandments or PRGs were being used to manipulate the Hebrews, they are nothing more than what was needed at the time. As mankind advanced Theology was needed to insert new meaning, new interpretations and to twist what was essentially tribal laws into political tools.
Do Christians believe in the Hebrew God? If so why all the differences we see today?
Or is it that humans need to be governed, ruled by an Alpha type leader. All religions change, not by commands from god but by very human leaders. Throughout the history of mankind religions and politics have been closely bound, political systems change and so have Gods. The ancient Greeks, Romans, Mayans and all the multitude that make up the population of this planet believed in their Gods with as much faith as any evangelical christian today. So to have the political systems from God Kings, Emperors, Pharaohs, Chiefs, Elders and all the rest of the political classes. Both evolve to suit their times; to cling to the past no matter how comforting is to stifle mankind’s thirst for knowledge. If you want to hold on to the past, that’s ok but don’t hold the rest of us back with preposterous notions that god wants us to be like a semi nomadic tribe wandering across the desert escaping persecution from Man Gods and Demons.

Man most certainly made God in his own image a very nasty being and Christianity came up with the most brutal and nasty of them all.

I read the first few comments and the few before this one. id just like to say that i find it humorous when such strong believers in christianity read a whole lot of these quotes then ‘comment’ by getting angry at the fact that their religion is being attacked in some way, shape or form. What exactly are you guys expecting? and why, if you are so sure of your faith, are you reading about the beliefs of those who disagree with you, then getting upset?
seems to me like you are searching for answers, then getting upset with yourself as you try to justify the opposite of the convincing arguments in front of you.

everyman want to go the heaven but not everyman want to be die :)

10 Commandments? 100? And based on how many contortionist philosopher theories? How about just one rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s as old as caveman and it ain’t rocket science.

he suck!! i belive in athiest!

Again please read my Comments carefully. The most important
statement is bring back to all Public Meetings etc. a TIME FOR
REFLECTION a minute or two. THIS IN ITSELF WILL GIVE EACH
PERSON TIME TO THINK AND IF NOTHING ELSE…RESPECT FOR
OTHERS….AND LIFE IN GENERAL. DON’T PASS THIS OPPORTUNITY
FOR ALL TO GIVE THEIR OPINION TO MOVE CONGRESS BACK TO
LISTENING TO THE CITIZENS…THANKS AGAIN
A HAPPY GRANDMOTHER…CATHY MASON………..

this is a good collection of quotes

A believer states everything must have a creator but fail to say how he was created.

this always shuts them up.

Here’s one I like. My fav quote actually.

“Guilt is like a bag of fucking bricks. All you gotta do is set it down… Who are you carrying all those bricks for anyway? God? Is that it? God? Well I tell you. Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He’s a prankster. Think about it. He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift and then what does he do? I swear, for his own amusement, his own private cosmic gag reel he sets the rules in opposition. It’s the goof of all time. Look but don’t touch. Touch but don’t taste. Taste but don’t swallow. And while you’re jumping on one foot to the next, what is he doing? He’s laughing his sick fucking ass off. He’s a tightass. He’s a sadist. He’s an absentee-landlord! Worship that? Never!”

Dawkins FTW

“I do not need an imaginary friend to help me through life and help me overcome the fear of death. I am not that weak-minded.” –Myself

I am so happy I stumbled across this, even if I am a year late from the date of it’s posting.

First off, I’d like to thank whoever compiled these quotes. They are very eye opening, and although some are slightly backwards, very entertaining.

Secondly, Atheist and Christians alike, learn proper grammar. Your is not the same as You’re, so don’t interchange them. It just makes you sound less credible. P.S. most internet browsers now have spell check. Use it. (Sorry if this makes me sound like an Ass. It just hurts my eyes when I have to read a sentence 3 times just to figure out the context of one word.)

Thirdly, no offense to any religious person, but in my mind, I just cannot fathom the existence of a god or higher being. I physically cannot do it. I’m sorry Christians, I am one person you are not going to be able to manipulate into joining your cult.

Darwin Bless.

This is a joke? Right?

All you religious folk are actually just as much atheists as I am. You just believe in one more god than I do.

Great Quotes by the way

if God doesn’t exist, well.. see you on FINALS! (final Judgement) see ya! Jesus Loves you

I agree with these quotes whole heartedly.
But may I remind people, that while our U.S. constitution gives us freedom of religion, it also grants freedom FROM religion.

To each his/her own beliefs.
That being said, I don’t see why believers feel the need to come here and “bless” the non-believers here.

If you believe, fine by me. But if we are to listen to God be mentioned everywhere we turn (the Pledge of Allegiance, our money, etc.) then I believe we deserve the same right to have a few saying as such to express our views.
After all, “Jesus loves us,” so if you believers are correct, he will love us even after we deny he exists. So it’s a no harm, no foul theory there

It’s ironic my name is Angel, for I’m an agnostic. Not because I have ANY belief in any religion; but because I believe that there is more than science.
Religion – False
Spirituality – Possible
I can’t say I have a belief in nothing; but I refuse to follow any godhead.

Awesome quotes. Loved them; amazingly epic collection of perfectly wise quotes.

please stop with the “God bless u” garbage if we wanted his blessing we would believe in him and pretend that we have gotten something from him. all christians try going to a place like Africa or india to the poorest places not even on the maps if we are all equal in the eyes of God then y do we get better lives than those people who suffer and why dont u go and help them? if God is so Good then maybe he can enspire more than half the worlds population 2 get of there asses and help the less fortunate and if he can speak 1 word and it happens why is he such a cruel person to sit and watch people suffer. if your so called “God” does exist then he is a cruel being who should not be worshipped for the scum he has put on this earth. If there is such a God(who is scientifically proven not to be there) why doesnt he show him self is he scared to face us to tell us why he made such an awful place??? “We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.” – Gene Roddenberry some of the greatest minds are athiest because they dont sit around preying and hoping that just maybe something will happen they actually go out and do it. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish. – Anonymous