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SCHOLAR ISLAND |
Disbelief
"Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don’t believe in the gods. What’s your argument? Where’s your proof?"
Aristophanes (448-380 B.C.)
"As to the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or do not exist or what they are like. Many things prevent our knowing; the subject is obscure, and brief is the span of mortal life."
Protagors (Ca. 481 411 B.C.)
"No disease is so full of variations, so changeable in symptoms, so made up out of ideas opposed to, nay, rather, at war with one another, as is the disease called Superstition. We must therefore fly from it, but in a safe way and to our own good-not like those who, running away from the attack of highwaymen, or wild beasts, or a fire, have entangled themselves in mazes leading to pitfalls and precipices. For thus some people, when running away from Superstition, fall headlong into atheism, both rugged and obstinate, and leap over that which lies between the two, namely, true Religion."
-Plutarch On Superstition
"The world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief"
-Steven Weinberg (Nobel Laureate in Physics)
"What ancient or modern history can parallel the brutality of religious zealots? The most irregular of our other passions decay with time, and their mischievous effects are restrained by good sense and human policy; and we have some passions in us, such as pity, good nature and humanity, which help to preserve a tolerable balance in the human machine. But religions zeal gathers strength with time, bears down common sense and policy , leaps the bounds of natural humanity, and vanquishes all tender passions."
-Anthony Collins A Discourse on the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion 1723
"Ignorance is the foundation of atheism, and free-thinking is the cure of it. And thus though it should be allowed that some men by free-thinking may become atheists, yet they will ever be fewer in number if free-thinking were permitted than if it were restrained."
-Anthony Collins 1713
"Great hypocrites are the true atheists."
-Francis Bacon
"Overwhelmingly strong proofs of intelligent and benevolent design lie around us....the atheistic idea is so non-sensical that I cannot put it into words."
-Lord William Kelvin (1824-1907)
"When I reached intellectual maturity, and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; a Christian or a freethinker; I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until, at last, I came to the conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, except the last. The one thing in which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure they had attained a certain "gnosis"-had, more or less successfully, solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble. And , with Hume and Kant on my side, I could not think myself presumptuous in holding fast by that opinion."
Thomas Henry Huxley
Life and Letters
"(Believers) are but triflers who, when they cannot explain a thing, run back to the ‘will of God; this is, truly, a ridiculous way of expressing ignorance."
Spinoza
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one."
-Voltaire
"Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error."
-Thomas Jefferson
"A believer is a bird in a cage; a freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing....there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought you are without a chain..."
-Robert Ingersoll
"We, too, have our religion, and it is this: Help for the living, hope for the dead."
-Robert G. Ingersoll
"Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe....I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life....I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy. I do not believe....in the creed of any church I know of. My own mind is my own church."
-Thomas Paine
"First of all, let me define what I mean when I say "freethinker." The term "freethinker" has been used in different contexts over the years. For a long time, the word 'freethinker' referred to anybody who rejected authority and insisted on thinking for themselves in any field. Later on, it referred to people who used reason to decide about religious matters rather than appealing to divine revelation. In other words, rational religion as opposed to revealed, supernatural religion. "Free-thinker" came to be a term for atheists, agnostics, and -generally speaking-heretics."
Queen Silver
"Popular religion may be summed up as a respect for ecclesiastics"
Spinoza
"Most of the great men of this world live as if they were atheists"
Voltaire
"It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's mind about to religion. .....
The causes of atheism are : divisions in religion, if they be many....scandal of priests....custom of profane scoffing in holy matters....and lastly, learned times, specially with peace and prosperity; for troubles and adversities do more men's minds to religion. They that deny a God destroy men's nobility; for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature."
-Francis Bacon
"The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reasoning."
Voltaire
"Religion.....is the first enemy of the ability to think. That ability is not used by men to one-tenth of its possibility, yet before they learn to think they are discouraged by being ordered to take things on faith. Faith is the worst curse of mankind, as the exact antithesis and enemy of thought."
-Ayn Rand
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."
-Benjamin Franklin
"Examine the religious principles which have, in fact, prevailed in the world, and you will scarcely be persuaded that they are anything but sick men’s dreams."
David Hume
"There are so many things to be said against religion that I wonder they do not occur to everyone."
Frederick the Great
"Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is none more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself than this called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid or produces only atheists or fanatics. As an engine of power, it serves the purpose of despotism, and as a means of wealth, the avarice of priests, but so far as respects the good of man in general it leads to nothing here or hereafter."
Thomas Paine
"My object is not to plead for the existence of God, who does not need an advocate at court, but, touching upon only the surface of a deep and tranquil lake of argument, to counter the arrogant notion that the faith and astonishment of billions across cultures and time is an absurdity to be addressed with exasperated contempt."
-mark Helprin
The Rise of Antireligious Orthodoxy
"….I am not afraid of the priests. They have tried upon me all their various batteries, of pious whining, hypocritical canting, lying and slandering, without being able to give me one moment of pain."
Thomas Jefferson
"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."
Thomas Jefferson
"When the soul is just liberated from the wretched giant’s bed of dogmas on which it has been racked and stretched ever since it began to think, there is a feeling of exultation and strong hope."
George Eliot
"….To regard Christ as God, and to pray to him, are to my mind the greatest possible sacrilege."
Leo Tolstoy (in response to his excommunication)
"Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking; where it is absent discussion is apt to become worse than useless."
-Leo Tolstoy
"I am convinced that the teaching of the church is in theory a crafty and evil lie, and in practice a concoction of gross superstition and witchcraft."
Leo Tolstoy
"One may say with one’s lips: ‘I believe that God is one, and also three’-but no one can believe it, because the words have no sense."
Leo Tolstoy
What is Religion
"It has always seemed absurd to suppose that a god would choose for his companions, during all eternity, the dear souls whose highest and only ambition is to obey."
Robert Green Ingersoll
"The church in all ages and among all peoples has been the consistent enemy of the human race. Everywhere and at all times, it has opposed the liberty of thought and expression. It has been the sworn enemy of investigation and intellectual development. It has denied the existence of facts, the tendency of which was to undermine its power. It has always been carrying fagots to the feet of Philosophy. It has erected the gallows for Genius. It has built the dungeon for Thinkers. And today the orthodox church is as much opposed as it ever was to the mental freedom of the human race."
Robert Green Ingersoll
"At the City of London Tavern on the night of 21 August 1817, Owen spoke before a packed crowd of radicals, clergymen and bullish free-traders. To their astonishment, and accompanied by some hisses, he rounded on religion, denouncing it as nothing but lies. Then he offered to end that 'long bondage of error, crime, and misery'. The new millennium began there and then. According to Owen's highly partial account, the audience were first thunderstruck, then burst into applause and cheering. The great crisis and misery, the Last Days, were now over, he told them, a new dawn had arrived, brought about by 'the invincible and irresistible power of Truth."
-Kevin Rushby
paradise: A History of the Idea That Rules The World
"Only those who have lived all their lives under the dark clouds of vague, undefined fears can appreciate the job of a doubting soul suddenly born into the kingdom of reason and free thought. Is the bondage of the priest-ridden less galling than that of the slave, because we do not see the chains....?"
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton
"Religion, in short, is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism."
William James
Varieties of Religious Experience
"I condemn Christianity, and I bring against the Christian Church the most terrible of all accusations….The Christian Church has left nothing untouched with its depravity, it has made a worthlessness of every value, a lie out of every truth…."
Nietzsche
"....the wonderfully interlocking self-protective structure of a great religion-any of the religions; they are all alike in this claim,...."Here is something more important than anything else: it must be believed; if you do not believe , you will be terribly punished."
-Charlotte Perkins Gilman
"One should not go to church if one wants to breathe pure air."
Nietzsche
"Not one man in ten thousand has the goodness of heart or strength of mind to be an atheist."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race."
Bertrand Russell
"It is no cynical joke, it is literally true, that the Christian churches would not recognize Christianity if they saw it."
Lincoln Steffens
"I do not think that the question of origins and the question of ethics-which are the two big things which lead people to religion-are things which are not answered by religion. I don't believe in any of the religious stories of the origin of the universe and I don't look to priests for my moral answers."
-Salman Rushdie
"The man who worships a god has no confidence in himself. He lays his troubles on godly shoulders because he is not brave enough to assume responsibility for his actions. The man who fears a god is also afraid of any man who occupies a higher or more powerful position than his own. The man who would trust a god would also trust any crooked politician. It is very desirable from the capitalist point of view, that the working class should worship their masters, fear their bosses, and put their trust in the crooks who rule over them. The Christian religion tells you to "become as a child...knowing neither good nor evil," to trust those who injure you and love those who hate you. They tell you that you must be born again, I suppose because when you were born the first time you knew nothing at all, and when you are born the second time you will know still less. No wonder the capitalist class can afford to spend billions of dollars trying to convert you to Christianity.
Every religion has for its object the pacification of a restless people. Whatever the origin of religious belief may have been, the only excuse that modern religion has for organized existence is the ability of religious leaders to control the masses. For that they are paid in proportion to the efficiency with which they can exercise their power.
Christians talk everlastingly to the effect that "Jesus died to save us," but a hundred million people, and more, have died that you and I might have what little freedom we now enjoy. They say that "Jesus died upon a cross," and forget that hundreds of thousands of rebellious slaves have died upon crosses, died fighting for their freedom. They want us to forget that the Christian church has burned, crucified, tortured, starved, and slaughtered uncounted millions whose only crime was harboring an idea different from that accepted as true by their ignorant, brutish, fanatical neighbors. They want us to forget that human progress has been an eternal struggle between the men who have property and the men who have only muscle, between the men who have power and the men who have brains, between the men who use their intellect to enslave their fellows and those who would use their reason to set free the human race. "
Queen Silver
"It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible. What we know as blind faith is sustained by innumerable unbelief's. The fanatical Japanese in Brazil refused to believe for years the evidence of Japan's defeat. The fanatical communist refuses to believe any unfavorable report about Russia, nor will he be disillusioned by seeing with his own eyes the cruel misery inside the Soviet promised land.
It is the true believer's ability to 'shut his eyes and stop his ears' to facts that do not deserve to be either seen or heard which is the source of unequaled fortitude and constancy.....And it is the certitude of infallible doctrine that renders the true believer impervious to uncertainties, surprises and the unpleasant realities of the world around him."
-Eric Hoffer,
The True Believer
Letter to the Editor New York Times Nov 27,2006
To the Editor:
Richard A. Shweder, like most who rail against atheism, doesn't address what atheists today actually think.
One thought is that belief in the Golden Rule and the binding nature of an oath does not require a belief in God and the threat of eternal damnation. Another is that while it may be more pleasant to believe that we live in a world guided by the gentle hand of a supreme being, that does not make it so.
Assuming Mr. Shweder's premise that the conflicts of the 20th century have had little to do with religion, it is also fair to say that the existence of billions of believers did not keep a lid on the violence. Nor does it today."
Sandra Osborne ,San Francisco,Ca
"In our culture, the word "truth" is most often used as a universal, an absolute-an object one could go searching for-rather than what it is, a conditional affirmation. Proof for-rather than what it is, a conditional affirmation. Proof must come before truth. In every case, truth affirms each of the conditions that were set by the proof as well as the conclusion, if it gets that far. If there is no proof, there is no truth. Belief attempts to make things true or real without proof, and in doing so, belief internalizes fallacy and contradiction. Worse still, belief hides these fallacies from the perception of the believer, which is what makes belief both possible and pernicious. Pernicious? The Belgrade-Kosovo wars, the Semitic-family wars, and the Kashmir conflict come to mind, but there is a very long list because all prejudice is rooted in belief and all belief systems enclose the seeds of prejudice. When belief is recognized as a way of using our minds that is riddled with contradiction and fallacy, a way will be found to eliminate belief from human mental processes. Then everything will change. Those seemingly intractable social problems will no longer plead for solutions, for in the absence of belief they will simply dissolve, evaporate, disappear....
And so we have found it, Humanity's Universal Fallacy: the belief mode of thought."
-Paul E. McCullough Infinite Energy Mag Issue 60,2005
"Around the world, the United States is widely considered to be one of the most religious nations, filled primarily with Christians. What gets relatively little attention is the fact that one out of every ten citizens (11 percent) are either atheist (9 percent) or agnostic (2 percent). That is an important distinction, by the way. Atheists are those who contend with certainty that God does not exist; they do not believe in Him or that anything that exists can be attributed to Him. Agnostics are people who hold that God may exist, but that it is impossible for human beings to know with certainty. Atheists rely upon arguments that they believe poke holes in theist positions supporting the existence of God or His creation of the universe. Agnostics believe that neither position can be proven, so they keep their spiritual options open.
The combination of atheists and agnostics gains a lot of attention in religious research circles. What receives less attention is that the group has nearly doubled in size during the past quarter century, currently representing about twenty-five million adults. given the current spiritual patterns evident in the research, we anticipate continued growth of this tribe."
Skeptics-the name I have assigned to the tribe that blends atheists and agnostics-are most heavily concentrated along the East and West Coasts, although they are present throughout the nation. They are the least likely people among all of the tribes to get married (just 44 percent are presently married) and are among the most likely to be homosexual (almost double the national average). This tribe is comprised of an unusually high percentage of men (57 percent) and Asians. (Skeptics are twice as likely as other Americans to be Asian) African Americans are notably less likely to be part of this tribe (just 89 percent are African American). "
-George Barna
The Seven Faith Tribes
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Book: "2,000 Years of Disbelief"* by James A. Haught
Book: "Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and their Legacy of innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson" by Jennifer Hecht
Book: "Doubt: A History" by Jennifer Michael Hecht
Book: "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason" by Sam Harris
Book: "Letter to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris
Book: "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins
Book: "There Is A God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind" by Antony Flew with Roy Abraham Varghese
Book: Philosophers Without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life" Ed. by Louise M. Antony
Book: "The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World" by Alister McGrath
Book: "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism" by Susan Jacoby
Book: "Everything You Know About God Is Wrong" Ed. by Russ Kick
Book: "Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief" by Andrew Newberg Eugene D'Aquili, and Vince Rause
Book: "God is Back" by John McKletllwait & Adrian Wooldridge
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