We are a worldwide social network of freethinkers, atheists, agnostics and secular humanists.
I have been a quote collector and quote monger for at least as long as I have been an atheist, and likely much longer. There is a fascination in me of those who are sufficiently skilled in language that they structure words into concepts and ideas and proposed actions which grab my attention and interest, whether it is John F. Kennedy's unabashed statement: "We choose to go to the moon and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard," Robert A. Heinlein's blunt expression: "If you've got the truth, you can demonstrate it. Talking doesn't prove it. SHOW people," or Captain Kirk's subtle yet important tactical observation, having encountered and been challenged by the dauntingly huge First Federation vessel: "Not chess, Mr. Spock ... Poker!"
Certainly, atheism has had its share of skilled spokespeople, whose words have inspired and driven us, whether it was Madalyn Murray O'Hair, saying: "An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church," or Sam Harris, who noted that: "The only problem with Islamic fundamentalism are the fundamentals of Islam," or Aron Ra's far more succinct: "If you can't SHOW it, you don't KNOW it."
Consciously or unconsciously, I suspect all of us have learned and grown from such words and many others, becoming stronger and more mature, not just in our atheism but in ourselves, having heard such words as these, and that is the point of this group: not to just deal in quotes which praise and promote atheism but which advance the cause of knowledge, self-understanding and self-ownership. Each of us have likely heard someone say something and think, "Wow!" and resonated to the significance of what they heard.
That's what I want to do here: share, learn, and grow, not just from THEIR words, but our own.
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One suggestion for the main comment area of the group: Please keep your quotes to under 20 lines or 200 words. That way, one entry won't dominate a given page of the comment area. If you have a longer quote or speech which you think is significant, create a separate post in the group.
Please enjoy!
Started by Grinning Cat. Last reply by Onyango M on Sunday. 5 Replies 1 Like
[Reposting Alan Perlman's suggested speech for Pope Benedict's retirement, which he posted at the now-defunct site Atheist Nexus ten years ago.Archive copy at the Wayback Machine: …Continue
Tags: Atheist Nexus, repost, Alan Perlman, fantasy speech, Roman Catholic Church
Started by Grinning Cat. Last reply by Grinning Cat Jan 27. 21 Replies 3 Likes
This one, with its context, is too long for the group comments, but in my opinion the context deserves to be more widely known. You'll probably enjoy it, whether or not you're a writer."Now,…Continue
Tags: Shitty First Drafts, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott, writing
Started by Loren Miller Jan 26. 0 Replies 2 Likes
I mentioned in the Quote Of The Day comment section a few days ago that…Continue
Tags: logical fallicy, arguments, fact, faith, circumcision
Started by Loren Miller Nov 4, 2022. 0 Replies 0 Likes
The following is commentary, made by Atheist Universe member Doug Hanlon, regarding the Supreme Court of the United States, I presume in response to some of the previous quote postings which…Continue
Nice Comment
If you want your life to mean something, try making someone else's life meaningful.
-- Aron Ra
I find it remarkable just how well Aron's suggestion here works!
Katharine Hepburn. A grand lady
How could any Lord have made this world?... there is no reason, order, justice: but suffering, death, the poor. There was no treachery too base for this world to commit... No happiness lasted.
-- Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
Ms. Woolf, like so many others, has issues with theodicy ... and with good reason!
The lord works in delirious ways.
-- Aron Ra
And all it takes is a cursory look at the Old Testament to confirm that!
I am an atheist and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.
-- Katharine Hepburn
I like your attitude, Kate!
Isn't it interesting that religious thinking and psychosis are so closely related you can't tell them apart?
-- Dr. Gregory House
True enough. WHYIZZAT?!? [smile]
"It was easier for me to think of a world without a creator than of a creator burdened with all the contradictions in the world.
-- Simone de Beauvoir, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
Considering that said supposed "creator" is the one that created all those contradictions we see, both in the world AND in the bible, its competence must be called into question.
Agreed!
And on the subject of miracles implying "a world... run by WHIM", that reminded me of a scene from Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, where Harry grows up not with a dull executive, but with an Oxford biochemistry professor. After Harry is accepted into Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall visits the family and demonstrates some magic...
"You turned into a cat! A SMALL cat! You violated Conservation of Energy! That's not just an arbitrary rule, it's implied by the form of the quantum Hamiltonian! Rejecting it destroys unitarity and then you get FTL signalling! And cats are COMPLICATED! A human mind can't just visualise a whole cat's anatomy and, and all the cat biochemistry, and what about the neurology? How can you go on thinking using a cat-sized brain?"
Professor McGonagall's lips were twitching harder now. "Magic."
"Magic isn't enough to do that! You'd have to be a god!"
Professor McGonagall blinked. "That's the first time I've ever been called that."
A blur was coming over Harry's vision, as his brain started to comprehend what had just broken. The whole idea of a unified universe with mathematically regular laws, that was what had been flushed down the toilet; the whole notion of physics. [...]
"Right," Harry said, somewhat dazed. He pulled his thoughts together. The March of Reason would just have to start over, that was all; they still had the experimental method and that was the important thing. "How do I get to Hogwarts, then?"
Loren, as usual, your words & quotes always reach into a deeper place than simply defining something.
Thanks again!
Yes, he do!
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