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A place to post favorite quotes about atheism and other significant topics
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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 Loren Miller. Last reply by Stephen Brodie Mar 14. 7 Replies 1 Like
Bill Maher has been, is now, and likely will continue to be a polarizing figure for a while to come. He says shit that angers people, hosts guest who have views that are sometimes WAY past Six…Continue
Tags: China, Real Time, Bill Maher
Started by Loren Miller. Last reply by Mrs.B Feb 3. 4 Replies 3 Likes
The following is OLD, not quite 10 years old, presuming that the video was released not long after the Notre Dame debate between Sam Harris and William Lane Craig. That doesn't change the fact that,…Continue
Tags: rebuttal, debate, christianity, William Lane Craig, Sam Harris
Started by Joan Denoo. Last reply by Loren Miller Jan 16. 1 Reply 0 Likes
Loren, have you seen this article? The Top 30 Worst Places to Live in…Continue
Started by Joan Denoo. Last reply by Onyango Makagutu Jan 6. 5 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
Nice Comment
RICHES OF THE ‘IMPOVERISHED’ CHURCH
“No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.” Florida State Constitution, USA.
“By contrast in Britain, we have mediocre governments, one after the other, who defy financial and sensible logic in appeasing the poverty claims of the well-endowed Church of England (thousands of little used churches need repair) and, more recently, the undeserving claims of Muslims, Jews and Evangelical Christians in acquiring tax-payers money to found ‘faith’ schools—wherein faith is more akin to fake.”
Terence Meaden. Atheistweb March 2008.
“Tax all property equally, whether church or corporation.” President Ulysses Grant.
“Religions are shams—that is to say, bogus businesses—but some are greedier, more heartless and money-sucking impostures than others.”
Terence Meaden. Atheistweb. 3 February 2008.
Dragging many of the rest of us down too.
Stephen, it has gotten to the point where I honestly think that the Dunning-Kruger effect needs to be taught, probably at the high school level. Kids need to understand that there is a problem with pretending to know something you don't – a slight variation on Peter Boghossian's definition of faith! – and that such practices can have a disastrous effect, not just on themselves but the society we all live in and share. It's also a variation on that famous Asimov quote, where "my ignorance is as good as your knowledge."
You and I know that isn't the case, but there are a whole lot of people who need to learn.
Loren every time Trump said something outrageous I clung to the hope that reason, logic and compassion would change the minds of Trump's base. However, now I understand why Trump would say he loved the poorly educated. Sadly the US and the UK have millions of these poorly educated and like most ignorant people they are sure they know what they are talking about.
This degradation of the American experiment is real. This is tangible. Truth is no longer governing the White House statements. Nobody believes – even the people who believe in him somehow believe in him without believing what he says.
-- Retired General James Norman Mattis
The above describes in frightening detail the cult of personality that formed around Donald John Trump as president. Even as he said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any voters, he could say any outrageous thing and be believed by his base. Even in his absence, that mindset of unreality persists, and it will have to be fought and defeated, if our nation is to survive.
All good ones.
If we go back to the beginnings of things, we shall always find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that imagination, rapture and deception embellished them; that weakness worships them; that custom spares them; and that tyranny favors them in order to profit from the blindness of men.
-- Paul-Henri, baron d'Holbach, System of Nature
Knocks it all in a cocked had, don't it?
“Once people get hung up on theology, they're lost to sanity forever. More people have been killed in the name of Jesus Christ than any name in the history of the world.”
Gore Vidal
“I am inclined to follow Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, when he said, 'When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called Religion.'”
“Most men would kill the truth if the truth would kill their religion.”
Lemuel K. Washburn
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