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Douglas Adams

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Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 â€“ 11 May 2001) was an English writer, humorist and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and in 2005 a feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame.

Adams also wrote Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988), and co-wrote The Meaning of Liff (1983), Last Chance to See (1990), and three stories for the television series Doctor Who. A posthumous collection of his work, including an unfinished novel, was published as The Salmon of Doubt in 2002.
Adams became known as an advocate for environmentalism and conservation, and also as a lover of fast cars, cameras, technological innovation, and the Apple Macintosh. He was a staunch atheist, famously imagining a sentient puddle who wakes up one morning and thinks, "This is an interesting world I find myself inâ€”an interesting hole I find myself inâ€”fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!" to demonstrate the fallacy of the fine-tuned Universe argument for God. Biologist Richard Dawkins dedicated his book The God Delusion (2006) to Adams, writing on his death that "Science has lost a friend, literature has lost a luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender."

top atheist quotes (total: 21)

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I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.

[On being an atheist rather than agnostic]: People will then often say: "But surely it's better to remain an agnostic just in case?"

This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I've been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would choose not to worship him anyway.)

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

Why can't we see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?

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

Religion has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call sacred or holy or whatever. What it means is, "Here is an idea or a notion that you're not allowed to say anything bad about; you're just not. Why not? Because you're not!"

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

I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.

"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife."

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

If somebody votes for a party that you don't agree with, you're free to argue about it as much as you like. But if somebody says, 'I mustn't move a light switch on a Saturday,' you say, 'Fine, I respect that.'

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

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

Is a garden not beautiful enough without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it?

Now it is such a bizarrely impossible coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God. The argument goes something like this:
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," say Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't though of that" and promply vanishes in a puff of logic.
- The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy

People will then often say, ‘But surely it’s better to remain an Agnostic just in case?’ This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I’ve been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would choose not to worship him anyway.)

"i refuse to prove that i exist" says god "for proof denies faith and with out faith i am nothing"
"but the babelfish is a dead giveaway isnt it?" says man "it could not have evolved by chance, you must have created it, so by your own admission, you dont exist. QED."
"oh." says god " i hadnt thought of that" and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"that was easy" says man, who then goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

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

Even the sceptical mind must be prepared to accept the unacceptable when there is no alternative. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands.

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

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
"Not only is it a wholly remarkable book, it is also a highly successful one – more popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty-three More Things to Do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid’s trilogy of philosophical blockbusters, Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes and Who Is This God Person Anyway?"