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Idiots must stop claiming that atheism is a religion. Religion is defined as the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power. And atheism isโฆ precisely not that. Atheism is a religion like abstinence is a sex position
Bill MaherAtheism and agnosticism signify the rejection of certain images and concepts of God or of truth, which are historically conditioned and therefore inadequate. Atheism is a challenge to religion to purifiy its images and concepts and come nearer to the truth of divine mystery.
Bede GriffithsI have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by men who were inspired. I study the Bible daily. Opposition to godliness is atheism in profession and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors.
Isaac NewtonAtheism cheapens everything it touches - look at the results of communism, the most powerful form of atheism on earth.
Peter KreeftFew men are so obstinate in their atheism, that a pressing danger will not compel them to acknowledgment of a divine power.
PlatoAmong the repulsions of atheism for me has been its drastic un-interestingness as an intellectual position. Where was the ingenuity, the ambiguity, the humanity of saying that the universe just happened to happen and that when we're dead we're dead?
John UpdikeThat's true that I'm "not religious as that term is conventionally understood," though I've never been an atheist. Atheism is an active faith; it says, "I believe there is no God." But I don't know what I believe. I was brought up a Lutheran in Jamestown, North Dakota. I have trouble with faith. I'm not proud of this. I don't think it makes me an intellectual. I would believe if I could, and I may be able to before it's over. I would welcome that.
Rodney StarkAtheism: It seeks to replace in itself the moral power of religion, in order to appease the spiritual thirst of parched humanity and save it; not by Christ, but by force.
Fyodor DostoevskyBecause morality is a social necessity, the moment faith in god is banished, man's gaze turns from god to man and he becomes socially conscious. Religious belief prevented the growth of a sense of realism. But atheism at once makes man realistic and alive to the needs of morality.
Goparaju Ramachandra RaoThe Scripture saith, The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; it is not said, The fool hath thought in his heart; so as he rather saith it, by rote to himself, as that he would have, than that he can thoroughly believe it, or be persuaded of it....It appeareth in nothing more, that atheism is rather in the lip, than in the heart of man.
Francis BaconAtheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.
Isaac NewtonThere is at least one more atheism left; it is by its very nature a belligerent form that wants to spread far and wide by propagating itself though books, TV, and other media.
Gerard VerschuurenUnhappy, let alone angry, religious people provide more persuasive arguments for atheism and secularism than do all the arguments of atheists.
Dennis PragerWe are all born free from all religious affiliations and only come to believe in such things after being introduced to it โ so, atheism is the default position. Although some children are not indoctrinated with a specific religion before the age of reason, there are many more who are.
David G. McAfeeAnytime that knowledge and a version of the truth are considered to be absolute, fundamentalism is the result, whether the arena is Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any other religious faith, as well as atheism, conservative or liberal political views, even evolution or intelligent design. Anytime our minds are closed and there is no room for dissent, we are on a slippery slope towards stagnation.
Carlton PearsonAtheism is a way of humility. It's to think oneself to be an animal, as we are actually and to allow oneself to become human.
Andre Comte-SponvilleOnce you have awakened to the question of faith, you cannot simply return to your everyday agenda like a committed atheist could. You cannot retreat to the comforts of atheism.
Martin WalserAtheism is a very positive affirmation of man's ability to think for himself, to do for himself, to find answers to his own problems.
Madalyn Murray O'HairIf God does not exist, and if religion is an illusion that the majority of men cannot live without ... let men believe in the lies of religion since they cannot do without them, and let then a handful of sages, who know the truth and can live with it, keep it among themselves. Men are then divided into the wise and the foolish, the philosophers and the common men, and atheism becomes a guarded, esoteric doctrine - for if the illusions of religion were to be discredited, there is no telling with what madness men would be seized, with what uncontrollable anguish.
Irving KristolAs Iโve said, Iโve never believed in God, which technically makes me an atheist (since the prefix โaโ means โnotโ or โwithoutโ). But I have problems with the word โatheism.โ It defines what someone is not rather than what someone is. It would be like calling me an a-instrumentalist for Bad Religion rather than the bandโs singer. Defining yourself as against something says very little about what you are for.
Greg GraffinThe fundamental religious objection to the theory of evolution is not scientific but moral. [Fundamentalists believe that] evolutionary theory must be opposed because it leads to rampant immorality, on both the personal and political scales. The basic cause of this immorality is atheism.
Elizabeth S. AndersonAtheism, the absence of belief in gods, is a comparatively late phenomenon in history.
Chapman CohenIn order to obey God, one must receive his commands. How did it happen that I received them in adolescence, while I was professing atheism? To believe that the desire for good is always fulfilled - that is faith, and whoever has it is not an atheist.
Simone WeilGod never wrought miracles to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it.
Francis BaconEssentially I see the new atheism as largely part of the crisis of the left. Having failed to carry through its agenda in relation to political and economic life it's rounding on religion, ignoring the fact that, in some key respects, many believers are likely to share leftist aspirations.
George PattisonI have not come to know atheism as a result of logical reasoning and still less as an event in my life: in me it is a matter of instinct.
Friedrich NietzscheI think the neoatheists have set atheism back a few decades. And I'm a self-described atheist.
Matt StoneAtheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.
C. S. LewisIf atheism is to be used to express the state of mind in which God is identified with the unknowable, and theology is pronounced to be a collection of meaningless words about unintelligible chimeras, then I have no doubt, and I think few people doubt.
Leslie StephenIn Philadelphia, I inadvertently came upon an edition of Robert Ingersoll's Essays and Lectures. This was an exciting discovery; his atheism confirmed my own belief that the horrific cruelty of the Old Testament was degrading to the human spirit.
Charlie ChaplinAtheism is not just about not believing there is a God, but on the assumption that there is one, what kind of God is he?
Stephen FryHad this author [Sir W Drummond Academical Questions, chap. iii.], instead of inveighing against the guilt and absurdity of atheism, demonstrated its falsehood, his conduct would have, been more suited to the modesty of the skeptic and the toleration of the philosopher.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyI love how people walk around with crucifixes, skullcaps, pointy hats, funny beards and then say 'you should keep your atheism to yourself.'
Ricky Gervais