Citing Atheists: Quotes of Agnosticism, Non-Theism, Skepticism, Irreligion, Free Thought, and Philosophy

By Steve Dustcircle

Not exhaustive, but a great quick A-to-Z reference of quotes by atheists, freethinkers and philosophers--almost a greatest hits, if you will. Some quotes are very anti-theist in nature while others lean more political or non-religious. There are even a few appalling quotes by the religious. Coming from a religious background, the editor put these quotes together based on what helped him leave religion behind. Citing Atheists is a great book to add to any skeptic's library without the heavy cost of a huge, exhaustive volume.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hudson Books
• Release date: Feb 12, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310239144

Steve Dustcircle

Originally from Chicago, Steve Dustcircle comes from a background in religious ministry and music performance, but now has his hand in many forms of activism, mostly focused on free thought and human rights. He is an amid reader and doer.Steve authored or edited several books: Trump's Cabinet, Leaving Worship, Politics for the Disinterested, Black Panther 101, and many others.Steve has contributed to The Good Men Project, OpEd News, Counter Currents, Ex-ChristianNet, and others. He lives in central Ohio and loves good coffee and stimulating conversation.Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/dustcircle

Book preview

CITING ATHEISTS

Citing Atheists

Quotes of Agnosticism, Non-Theism, Skepticism,

Irreligion, Free Thought, and Philosophy

By Steve Dustcircle

SMASHWORDS EDITION

© 2015 aLife Beyond Books

http://www.alifebeyondbooks.com

Copyright © 2015 by Steve Dustcircle

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at the address below.

aLife Beyond Books

c/o Hudson Media

P.O. Box 163381

Columbus, Ohio 43216

www.alifebeyondbooks.com

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address above.

Printed in the United States of America

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Dustcircle, Steve.

Citing Atheists : Quotes of Agnosticism, Non-Theism, Skepticism, Irreligion, Free Thought, and Philosophy / Steve Dustcircle.

p. cm.

ISBN

1. Reference 2. Atheism 3. Non-Fiction

Smashwords Edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS:

Abbot

Bachelet

Calvin

Daly

Eccleston

Fahringer

Gage

Hailey

Ibsen

Jaffree

Kagin

LaBruyere

MacCready

Nadal

O'Dowd

Packer

Radcliffe

Sackett

Taylor

Updegraph

VanBeethovan

Wallas

Young

Zappa

Introduction:

I want to thank everyone who has fed me knowledge and wisdom over the years, either directly and personally, or unknowingly through their writings or podcasts.

Many of these quotes come from books I have read, websites I visit, and newsletters I receive. Mostly, I am deeply indebted to the Freedom from Religion Foundation (http://www.FFRF.org) for their hard work putting together their daily Freethought of the Day, from which I have acquired at least half of these quotes.

However, there are not atheist quotes in this book. There are also a few that lean political in a secular manner. There are also some quotes on science and philosophy. Finally, there are even a few quotes by religious people, ones that I feel are appalling.

This quote book is in alphabetical order by the person's last name (or by their popular name, as in Plato, Cicero or Augustine). The Table of Contents are simply a jump-to option, the name of the chapter being random—whoever happens to be at the top of the page.

I don't claim that this slim volume is definitive. On the contrary. I feel that these quotes spoke most to me, coming from a religious background and moving into a future of skepticism and free thought. Will there be a sequel to this volume (or a deluxe edition)? I sure do hope so.

While there are several, thick volumes of quote books out there, many of them being called definitive, I feel that I am providing a comprehensive, condensed volume here—almost a best of.

Other volumes I would highly recommend are:

2000 Years of Disbelief – James A. Haugt

The Atheist's Bible – Joan Konner

The Big Book of Quotations for Atheists – I. M. Probulos

Blasphemy – Jon Webster

The Quotable Atheist – Jack Huberman

The Portable Atheist – Christopher Hitchens

Thank you for buying this book, and I hope you check out some of my other books, including the political/rights quote book, The Quotable Dissenting Heretic.

Steve Dustcircle, Editor

ABBOT

That great and growing evils render it a paramount patriotic duty on the part of American citizens, who comprehend the priceless value of pure Secular government, to take active measures for the immediate and absolute secularization of the state, and we earnestly urge them to organize without delay for this purpose.

- Francis Ellingwood Abbot

[Religions] impose antiquated and narrow beliefs which are entirely unsuitable for a being who knows nothing and can affirm nothing.

- Louise Victorine Ackermann

If you describe yourself as 'Atheist,' some people will say, 'Don't you mean Agnostic?' ' I have to reply that I really do mean Atheist. I really do not believe that there is a god—in fact I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one. It's easier to say that I am a radical Atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it's an opinion I hold seriously. It's funny how many people are genuinely surprised to hear a view expressed so strongly. In England we seem to have drifted from vague wishy-washy Anglicanism to vague wishy-washy Agnosticism—both of which I think betoken a desire not to have to think about things too much.

- Douglas Adams

Now, the invention of the scientific method is, I'm sure we'll all agree, the most powerful intellectual idea, the most powerful framework for thinking and investigating and understanding and challenging the world around us that there is, and it rests on the premise that any idea is there to be attacked. If it withstands the attack then it lives to fight another day and if it doesn't withstand the attack then down it goes. Religion doesn't seem to work like that. It has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call sacred or holy or whatever.

- Douglas Adams

Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?

- John Adams

Have you considered that system of holy lies and pious frauds that has raged and triumphed for 1,500 years?

- John Adams

People are not disposed to inquire for piety, integrity, good sense or learning in a young preacher, but for stupidity (for so I must call the pretended sanctity of some absolute dunces), irresistible grace, and original sin.

- John Adams

The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.

- John Adams

This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.

- John Adams

Twenty times in the course of my late readings, I have been on the point of breaking out, 'This would be the best of all worlds if there were no religion in it!'

- John Adams

Until this awful blasphemy [the Incarnation] is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.

- John Adams

A wise man has told us that 'men are once for all so made that they prefer a rational world to believe in and live in' .

- Jane Addams

The very word woman in the writings of the church fathers stood for the basest temptations.

- Jane Addams

For more than three thousand years men have quarreled concerning the formulas of their faith. The earth has been drenched with blood shed in this cause, the face of day darkened with the blackness of the crimes perpetrated in its name. There have been no dirtier wars than religious wars, no bitterer hates than religious hates, no fiendish cruelty like religious cruelty; no baser baseness than religious baseness. It has destroyed the peace of families, turned the father against the son, the brother against the brother. And for what? Are we any nearer to unanimity? On the contrary, diversity within the churches and without has never been so widespread as at present. Sects and factions are multiplying on every hand, and every new schism is but the parent of a dozen others.

- Felix Adler

We propose entirely to exclude prayer and every form of ritual . . . to occupy that common ground where we may all meet, believers and unbelievers . . . be one with us where there is nothing to divide, in action. Diversity in creed, unanimity in the deed.

- Felix Adler

As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active force in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of woman comes from a defect in the active force or from some material indisposition, or even from some external influence.

- Thomas Aguinas

How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?

- Woody Allen

I am a Jew only in the sense that I was born into a Jewish family. I have no interest in the organized religions beyond a certain cerebral historical curiosity. They are all nonsense to me in their basic premises. . . . I'm agnostic, but I have one foot in atheism.

- Woody Allen

Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends.

- Woody Allen

To you, I'm an atheist. To God, I'm the loyal opposition.

- Woody Allen

He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust.

- St. Thomas Aquinas

I am an atheist, I have no religious beliefs. And obviously I don't believe in spirituality of some kind.

- Javed Akhtar

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when a man has only one idea.

- Alaine

I’m an atheist, . . . You could say that I’m agnostic, but that’s just a certain kind of atheist. If I were a gambling man I would put all my money on there not being anything other than this universe.

- Steve Albini

People use God to fill in the spaces in the gaps of their knowledge. . . . As we follow the trajectory of knowledge, the need for a God just dwindles, and it approaches zero.

- Steve Albini

I asked myself: Why should I burn in hell just because I'm drinking this? But what prompted me even more was the fact that the killers of 9/11 all believed in the same God I believed in.

- Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I had left God behind years ago. I was an atheist. . . . From now on I could step firmly on the ground that was under my feet and navigate based on my own reason and self-respect. My moral compass was within myself, not in the pages of a sacred book. . . . All life is problem solving. . . . There are no absolutes; progress comes through critical thought. . . . Reason, not obedience, should guide our lives. Though it took centuries to crumble, the entire ossified cage of European social hierarchy—from kings to serfs, and between men and women, all of it shored up by the Catholic Church—was destroyed by this thought.

- Ayaan Hirsi Ali

How often in our house had I heard talk of superstitious idiots, often relatives, who hated a Satan they never knew and worshiped a God they didn't have the brains to doubt?

- Tariq Ali

I grew up an atheist. I make no secret of it. It was acceptable. In fact, when I think back, none of my friends were believers. None of them were religious; maybe a few were believers. But very few were religious in temperament.

- Tariq Ali

We grew up in Lahore, which had been one of the most cosmopolitan towns in India. Then you had the partition of India, and you had massive killings. This is not much talked about these days, but nearly two million people died, as Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs slaughtered each other to create this state . . . when you realized what had happened, how much killing had gone on, you did ask yourself, 'Was it worth it?'

- Tariq Ali

If you think you've got an inside track to absolute truth, you become doctrinaire, humorless and intellectually constipated. The greatest crimes in history have been perpetrated by such religious and political and racial fanatics.

- Saul Alinsky

In those parts of the world where learning and science have prevailed, miracles have ceased.

- Ethan Allen

. . . The vast mass of existing gods or divine persons, when we come to analyze them, do actually turn out to be dead and deified human beings. . . . I believe corpse worship is the protoplasm of religion.

- Grant Allen

Are we really that special? I don't think so.

- William Anders

I'm an Atheist. I don't believe in God, Gods, Godlets or any sort of higher power beyond the universe itself, which seems quite high and powerful enough to me. I don't believe in life after death, channeling chat rooms with the dead, reincarnation, telekinesis or any miracles but the miracle of life and consciousness, which again strike me as miracles in nearly obscene abundance. . . . I'm convinced that the world as we see it was shaped by the again genuinely miraculous, let's even say transcendent, hand of evolution through natural selection.

- Natalie Angier

Reason, which we recognize as our highest and only law-giver, commands us to be free.

- Mathilde Franziska Giesler Anneke

Ethical people will do what is right, no matter what they are told. Religious people will do what they are told, no matter what is right.

- Anonymous

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice