Quotes

2 Responses to Quotes

1. Mike aka MonolithTMA says:

   April 13, 2009 at 3:41 pm

   Mark, I know you are joking about your blog not being smart and worth reading, but I do think it is smart, worth reading and overall it is the brutal honesty with which you post that keeps me coming back for more.

   Here’s some quotes:

   “Most atheists don’t give a rat’s ass about religion as it’s practiced by a handful of theologians. We care about religion as it’s widely practiced in the real world. And that includes many versions of religion that are outdated, simplistic, stupid and ugly … and richly deserving of criticism.” – Greta Christina

   “God save us from the smallness we practice in the name of religion.” — Sr. Joan Chittister

   “If there is a God who will damn his children forever, I would rather go to hell than to go to heaven and keep the society of such an infamous tyrant. I make my choice now. I despise that doctrine. It has covered the cheeks of this world with tears. It has polluted the hearts of children, and poisoned the imaginations of men…. What right have you, sir, Mr. clergyman, you, minister of the gospel to stand at the portals of the tomb, at the vestibule of eternity, and fill the future with horror and with fear? I do not believe this doctrine, neither do you. If you did, you could not sleep one moment. Any man who believes it, and has within his breast a decent, throbbing heart, will go insane. A man who believes that doctrine and does not go insane has the heart of a snake and the conscience of a hyena.”
   – Robert Green Ingersoll, “The Liberty Of All” (1877)

   “Thought that is silenced is always rebellious. Majorities, of course, are often mistaken. This is why the silencing of minorities is necessarily dangerous. Criticism and dissent are the indispensable antidote to major delusions.” — Alan Barth

   “Man should think; he should use all his senses; he should examine; he should reason. The man who cannot think is less than man; the man who will not think is traitor to himself; the man who fears to think is superstition’s slave.” — Robert Green Ingersoll – “Superstition” (1898)

   “For me, it is far better to perceive the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying or reassuring.” — Carl Sagan

   “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” — Arthur C. Clarke

   “I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.” — Wilson Mizner

   “All superstition is much the same whether it be that of astrology, dreams, omen, retributive judgment, or the like, in all of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled, but neglect and pass over their failure, though it be much more common.” — Francis Bacon, Novum Organum

   “Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue.” — Robert K. Merton, Social Theory

   “Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed.” — Thomas Henry Huxley

   “Heresy is what the minority believe; it is the name given by the powerful to the doctrines of the weak. — Robert G. Ingersoll

   “It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.” — Giordano Bruno

   “The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.” — Sir William Osler

   “A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.” — José Bergamín (1923, The Rocket and the Star)

   “I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”– Stephen F. Roberts

   “The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.”
   — George Bernard Shaw
2. Mark Lefers says:

   April 13, 2009 at 8:55 pm

   Thanks Mike for the complement. I still wish I had more time to get into the meaty topics. However, there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day. Thanks for the quotes from a more skeptical side. They’ve rounded out the quotes I currently had.