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Quote Of The Day
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A place to post favorite quotes about atheism and other significant topics
Website: https://
Members: 14
Latest Activity: 3 hours ago
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!
Discussion Forum
Brandi Carlile almost dies -- 7/30/21 (Delanceyplace.com)
Started by Loren Miller. Last reply by Mrs.B yesterday. 6 Replies 3 Likes
To be honest, I have NO idea who Brandi Carlile is (though I suppose I could Google her), but the following brief story of her illness, coma, and recovery are pretty striking. As my friends from…Continue
Tags: Jesus, coma, Baptist, Catholic, meningitis
Culture and Cooperation in Human Evolution
Started by Joan Denoo. Last reply by Davy Jun 20. 1 Reply 2 Likes
The Australian Western Desert and the High Arctic could hardly be less alike, and both differ sharply from the rainforests of the Congo basin. Even so, in crucial ways, their social lives are…Continue
Christopher Hitchens – "The Only Conversation Worth Having"
Started by Loren Miller. Last reply by Mrs.B Jun 8. 3 Replies 4 Likes
There may be no one whose words in favor of freedom of thought and in opposition to the mind-binding effect of religious belief were quite so powerful as those of Christopher Hitchens. His repeated…Continue
Tags: debate, the only conversation worth having, poisoned chalice, William Dembski, Christopher Hitchens
WAR is a racket.
Started by Joan Denoo. Last reply by Joan Denoo Apr 27. 7 Replies 1 Like
WAR is a racket. It always has been.By Major General Smedley Butleronline at: https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html"It is…Continue
Tags: skills, interpersonal, &, personal
Comment Wall
Nice Comment
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Comment was by Loren Miller on June 30, 2021 at 6:43am
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While believing strongly, without evidence, is considered a mark of madness or stupidity in any other area of our lives, faith in God still holds immense prestige in our society. Religion is the one area of our discourse where it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about. It is telling that this aura of nobility extends only to those faiths that still have many subscribers. Anyone caught worshiping Poseidon, even at sea, will be thought insane.
— Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation
Yeah, Poseidon is off-limits, but Yahweh and his carpenter-turned-rabbi are still in the game, though their poll numbers are dropping!
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He who does not allow his miracles to be investigated is a crook. He who does not have courage to investigate a miracle is a gullible and he who is prepared to believe without verification is a fool.
-- Dr. Abraham Kovoor
That pretty well sums it up.
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Let's say that the consensus is that our species, being the higher primates, Homo sapiens, has been on the planet for at least 100,000 years, maybe more. Francis Collins says maybe 100,000. Richard Dawkins thinks maybe a quarter-of-a-million. I'll take 100,000. In order to be a Christian, you have to believe that for 98,000 years, our species suffered and died, most of its children dying in childbirth, most other people having a life expectancy of about 25 years, dying of their teeth. Famine, struggle, bitterness, war, suffering, misery, all of that for 98,000 years.
Heaven watches this with complete indifference. And then 2000 years ago, thinks "That's enough of that. It's time to intervene," and the best way to do this would be by condemning someone to a human sacrifice somewhere in the less literate parts of the Middle East. Don't let's appeal to the Chinese, for example, where people can read and study evidence and have a civilization. Let's go to the desert and have another revelation there. This is nonsense. It can't be believed by a thinking person.
-- Christopher Hitchens
No, it can't be believed, mostly because it's a load of meadow muffins, with exactly no corroborating evidence.
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Unreason and anti-intellectualism abominate thought. Thinking implies disagreement; and disagreement implies nonconformity; and nonconformity implies heresy; and heresy implies disloyalty — so, obviously, thinking must be stopped. But shouting is not a substitute for thinking and reason is not the subversion but the salvation of freedom.
-- Adlai Stevenson
A clear and well-expressed truism in any field of discussion, but particularly those of politics and religion.
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A God who kept tinkering with the universe was absurd; a God who interfered with human freedom and creativity was a tyrant. If God is seen as a self in a world of his own, an ego that relates to a thought, a cause separate from its effect, he becomes a being, not Being itself. An omnipotent, all‐knowing tyrant is not so different from earthly dictators who make everything and everybody mere cogs in the machine which they controlled. An atheism that rejects such a God is amply justified.
-- Karen Armstrong
There are few active concepts out there more utterly absurd than that of a god: an insubstantial yet omnipotent being that somehow controls all of reality without leaving any trace. Yeah, right ... and I got this real swell bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you, too.
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Of course, it should, Onyango. The ongoing and persistent problem has been that religion repeatedly insists on trying (and frequently succeeding) to get into the game, and in so doing, twist the operations of government to suit its own needs and ends. Because so many people fail to see the harm that does, or in some cases actively encourage religion's participation, we get the current situation in the US, and much worse elsewhere in the world.
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Comment was by Onyango Makagutu on June 25, 2021 at 8:45am
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Loren, that should be for all societies, if you ask me
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The United States should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy.
-- George Washington
We SHOULD. The sad fact is that, in the current day, we DON'T.
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Well since I've been hitched thrice all my missus they looked after that aspect of our relationship as I am pathetic when it comes to that illusion oft called money. It was also a thing called trust in my wife.
I would only take out what I needed be it weekly or fortnightly which weren't much 10 - 20 A$ a fortnight. Everything else was budgeted for.
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We lived on one wage, with 3 kids, & I kept track of every penny, so we knew where we stood every day of the month.
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