why I'm an atheist...

[Dominic]

Stephen Roberts:
I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

Seneca the Younger 4 b.c.- 65 a.d.:
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

Blaise Pascal:
Men never commit evil so fully and joyfuly as when they do it for religious convictions.

Emo Philips:
When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

Bertrand Russell:
And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence.

George Bernard Shaw:
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

Doug McLeod:
I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence.

Unknown:
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.

Epicurus:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

Carl Sagan:
You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep-seated need to believe.

Steven Weinberg:
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

Unknown:
Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence.

and for those of you who still think the United States of America was founded as a "Christian nation"

Thomas Jefferson:
I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.

more

[Jasper109]

Gold


One more.

[ QUOTE ]
Religion is unusual among divisible labels in being spectacularly unnecessary. If religious beliefs had any evidence going for them, we might had to respect them in spite of their concomitant unpleasantness. But there is no such evidence. To label people as death-deserving enemies because of disagreements about real world politics is bad enough. To do the same for disagreements about a delusional world inhabited by archangels, demons and imaginary friends is ludicrously tragic.

written by Richard Dawkins

[/ QUOTE ]

[Shadowrun]

[ QUOTE ]
Stephen Roberts:
I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

Seneca the Younger 4 b.c.- 65 a.d.:
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

Blaise Pascal:
Men never commit evil so fully and joyfuly as when they do it for religious convictions.

Emo Philips:
When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

Bertrand Russell:
And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence.

George Bernard Shaw:
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

Doug McLeod:
I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence.

Unknown:
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.

Epicurus:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

Carl Sagan:
You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep-seated need to believe.

Steven Weinberg:
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

Unknown:
Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence.

and for those of you who still think the United States of America was founded as a "Christian nation"

Thomas Jefferson:
I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.

more

[/ QUOTE ]

I really like the quote in bold and i have one to offer tell me what you think....

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for evil people to do good things, that takes religion."

[evank15]

The two people I admire most in this world are Tommy Douglas and Carl Sagan (edit: yes I know they're both dead).

Naturally, I love that quote of Sagan's. I like this one too:

"For thousands of years humans were oppressed - as some of us still are - by the notion that the universe is a marionette whose strings are pulled by a god or gods, unseen and inscrutable."

[John21]

So are you an atheist because you don't believe in God or religion? Because several of the people you quoted either believe in a Supreme Being or don't discount the possibility of one, regardless of their detest of organized religion.

[benjdm]

My favorites:

"I'm not convinced that faith can move mountains, but I've seen what it can do to skyscrapers" - William H. Gascoyne

"Faith means not wanting to know what is true." - Nietszche

"Yesterday's cult = today's religion = tomorrow's myth" - me

[Dominic]

[ QUOTE ]
So are you an atheist because you don't believe in God or religion? Because several of the people you quoted either believe in a Supreme Being or don't discount the possibility of one, regardless of their detest of organized religion.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mostly religion. I'm not arrogant enough to claim I know for a fact that there is no God. No proof of one does not necessarily mean there isn't one. So I guess I'm really more agnostic...I'm open to anything...just show me proof!

[John21]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So are you an atheist because you don't believe in God or religion? Because several of the people you quoted either believe in a Supreme Being or don't discount the possibility of one, regardless of their detest of organized religion.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mostly religion. I'm not arrogant enough to claim I know for a fact that there is no God. No proof of one does not necessarily mean there isn't one. So I guess I'm really more agnostic...I'm open to anything...just show me proof!

[/ QUOTE ]

I kind of lean towards some kind of creative impulse kicking the whole thing off. It could be some form of a divine being or simply a quantum leap, but I treat it more of a hypothesis than fact.
I do however share in most atheists view on religion. But the one element of religion I've adopted is faith. I have a complete and absolute faith in Truth. Eventually it will win out.

[soon2bepro]

Some more:

"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart." -H. L. Mencken


"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." -Ambrose Bierce


"Pray: To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy." -Ambrose Bierce


"Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day. Teach him a religion and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish." -Unknown

[Jasper109]

[ QUOTE ]
"Pray: To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy." -Ambrose Bierce

[/ QUOTE ]

lol