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
To be charitable, one may admit that the religious often seem unaware of how insulting their main proposition actually is. Exchange views with a believer even for a short time, and let us make the assumption that this is a mild and decent believer who does not open the bidding by telling you that your unbelief will endanger your soul and condemn you to hell. It will not be long until you are politely asked how you can possibly know right from wrong. Without holy awe, what is to prevent you from resorting to theft, murder, rape, and perjury? It will sometimes be conceded that non-believers have led ethical lives, and it will also be conceded (as it had better be) that many believers have been responsible for terrible crimes. Nonetheless, the working assumption is that we should have no moral compass if we were not somehow in thrall to an unalterable and unchallengeable celestial dictatorship. What a repulsive idea!
-- Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
This is among the larger loads of horse manure spread by believers against those of us who don't subscribe to any form of deity: that their god and its commandments are necessary for morality. All it takes is one serious look at the bible to realize that if anything, the opposite is true. Yahweh's brand of morality effectively comes out of a threat: do as I say or be tortured for eternity! And THIS is a LOVING GOD???
Likewise, Onyango.
Stephen I have made it a rule to only lend out books i can do without
I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absented myself from Christian assemblies.
-- Benjamin Franklin
Two hundred forty years later, you're not alone, Ben, not at all!
It's the very least she could do.
She has offered to replace the two missing books and I have accepted her apology, After all these things can happen. We shall see if she is good for her word.
I stopped lending books after I got one of my books back soaked in red wine.
Then she'd better get at replacing them.
It is odd that the Bible says, “God created man,” whereas it is the other way round: man has created God. It is odd that the Bible says, “The body is mortal, the soul is immortal,” whereas even here the contrary is true: the body (its matter) is eternal; the soul (the form of the body) is transitory.
-- Béla Bartók
Seems as though Maestro Bartok was more than just an excellent composer; he was also, at minimum, a skeptic!
And Stephen? I think your friend owes you a couple books!
Loren you'd think I'd learnt my lesson by now. Asked by a friend if I would lend her a couple of my books one of which was my copy of Q by Professor Meaden and the other was The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament, by Joshua Bowen she said that on her way home from a lonĝ weekend away she had left both books on the train. When will I ever learn?
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