Richard Dawkins

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top atheist quotes (total: 34)

atheist quote	context
Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one.		103 1398
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.		18 925
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, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.		9 753
Religion is unusual among divisible labels in being spectacularly unnecessary. If religious beliefs had any evidence going for them, we might had to respect them in spite of their concomitant unpleasantness. But there is no such evidence. To label people as death-deserving enemies because of disagreements about real world politics is bad enough. To do the same for disagreements about a delusional world inhabited by archangels, demons and imaginary friends is ludicrously tragic.		44 828
Religious faith not only lacks evidence, its independence from evidence is its pride and joy, shouted from the rooftops.		32 687
We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.		11 621
"When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion"		3 260
We admit that we are like apes, but we seldom realise that we ARE apes.		133
All religious beliefs seem weird to people not brought up in them.		1 85
By disclaiming the idea of a next life, we can take more excitement in this one!		3 54
By all means be open minded, but don't be so open minded your brain falls out		30
Gravity is just a theory too, anyone who doubts it is welcomed to jump out of a ten story window.		23
Without religion, evil people would do evil things and good people would do good things. It is only with religion that good people do evil things.		1 23
If you had been born in Middle-East would you still believe in Jesus?		20
"In my view not only is science corrosive to religion, religion is corrosive to science. It teaches people to be satisfied with trivial super natural non explanations and blinds them to the wonderful real explanations that we have within our grasp. It teaches them to except authority, revelation, and faith instead of always insisting on evidence."		12
Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful!		12
What has 'theology' ever said that it is the smallest use to anybody? When has theology ever said anything that is demonstrably true and is not obvious? What makes you think theology is a subject at all?		11
We should be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brain falls out		11
The idea of a divine creator belittles the elegant reality of the Universe		1 12
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.		9
The American Constitution is a precious treasure, the envy of the world. The First Amendment of the Constitution, which enshrines the separation between church and state, is the model for secular constitutions the world over and deserves to be imitated the world over.		1 11
Don't fall for the convention that we're all too polite to talk about religion. Religion is not off the table. Religion is not off limits. Religion makes specific claims about the universe which need to be substantiated and need to be challenged and, if necessary, need to be ridiculed with contempt. I want to end now on what my colleagues from the Richard Dawkins Foundation said. I am an outsider but we have been well-staffed in America and we're going to spread the word along with our colleagues in other organizations throughout the length and breadth of this land. This land which is the fountainhead, the birthplace of secularism in the world, as I said before. Don't let that tradition down. Thank you very much.		8
Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.		8
It is ridiculous to say you believe in something just because we cannot prove that it doesn't exist. For example if i was to say there was a teapot that was orbiting around the Sun, but it was to small to see with our telescopes, it would be stupid to say 'I am prepared to believe in the teapot because you cannot disprove it'		7
It is futile to use a creator to explain how we came to be, when it raises a bigger question, who created the creator?		7
God makes me uncomfortable.		10 25
Hey, Let's face it. A world without religion doesn't have a prayer.		1 8
We are so staggeringly lucky to find ourselves in the spotlight. However brief our time in the sun, if we waste a second of it, or complain that it is dull and barren or (like a child) boring, couldn't this be seen as a callous insult to those unborn trillions who will never be offered life in the first place? [...] the knowledge that we have only one life should make it all the more precious. The atheist view is correspondingly life-affirming and life-enhancing, while at the same time never been tainted with self-delusion, wishful thinking, or whinging self pity of those who feel life owes them something.		1 8
well, what if I'm wrong? Any one could be wrong about the flyin spagetti monster, the pink unicorn or the flying teapot. You happen to have been brought up, I would presume, with the christian faith. You know what it's like not to beleive in a particular faith because you are not a muslim, you are not a hindu. Why aren't you a hindu? Because you happen to have been brought up in America and not in India. If you were brought up in India you'd be a hindu. If you were born in Denmark at thetime of te Vikings you'd be beleiving in Wotan and Thor. If you were brought up i classical Greece, you'd be beleiving in Zeus. If you were brought up in central Africa you'd be beleiving in the great Juju up the mountain. There's no particular reason to pick on the jeudao- christian god, in which by the cheerest accident, you happen to have been brought up and ask me whatif I'm wrong? What if you're wrong about the great juju at the bottom of the sea?		5
What if I'm wrong? What if /you're/ wrong about the Ju Ju Monster under the sea!		5
...when two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them. It is possible for one side to be simply wrong		5
Science is interesting, and if you don't agree you can fuck off!		4
Isn't enough to say a garden is beautiful without believing there are fairies at the bottom of it?		2 8
There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence for it, but you can't prove that there aren't any, so shouldn't we be agnostic with respect to fairies?		3

Richard Dawkins

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top atheist quotes (total: 34)

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