Atheistic quotes

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"I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religion than it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism."

"I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it."

"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for a reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." -Albert Einstein

I'll have more sometime in the future to post.

"You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough."
-Aldous Huxley

The two quotes above make me wonder how childish the human race is at this moment. The time that we decide to grow up is the time where the world can be as one.

This is a quote that I made up.

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

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@MITech,

Einstein was far from an atheist.

2 Replies

@Stormalv,

And Huxley was a mystic.

Besides, only the first quote seems to be atheistic.

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism."

This quote only denies God with certain traits, and rejects the notion that ego survives bodily death. Notice that life after death is not altogether ruled out, but only a certain sort.

Quote:

"I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it."

Like the previous quote, this denies the immortality of the individual, not life after death; the quote leaves the larger question of life after death open. As for ethics and superhuman authority, we can make more than one theistic interpretation. For example, we might make a distinction between ethics and morality wherein ethics are not founded upon divine authority, but morals are based on divine authority. Or maybe the author thought that, God or no God, man can determine what is ethical or unethical and that humans are responsible for their ethical decisions.

Quote:

"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for a reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." -Albert Einstein

This is just as easily applied to notions of God as to politics. I see nothing inherently religious about this statement. Perhaps in context.

Quote:

"You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough."
-Aldous Huxley

One can be a theist, even a monotheist, without associating with any particular religion or having anything to do with magic.

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@Stormalv,

Stormalv wrote:

Einstein was far from an atheist.

Whenever Einstein spoke about God he was actually talking about Nature, not a supernatural being, a creator. He said "The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naive." By personal God Einstein means any gods imagined by humans like Thor, Apollo, Unkulunkulu, Zeus or the Judeo-Christian God. Also, when he said that God doesn't play dice with the universe he was actually saying "there can't be randomness in Nature". Quantum theory disapproves though, as quantum events can or can not happen based on some probability which can be calculated. Anyway, after saying he doesn't believe in "God" in the traditional sense, the response was pretty nasty: "Take your crazy, fallacious theory of evolution and go back to Germany where you came from, or stop trying to break down the faith of a people who gave you a welcome ...". Both Catholic and Jewish priests and rabbis got pissed, because what Einstein essentially said it's stupid to believe in imagined gods. Einstein was fun :bigsmile:

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@ariciunervos,

YO!

His overall message stated that it was time for humanity to grow up. One can have a spiritual life without pretence to the supernatural.

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@MITech,

Kind of an atheistic quote I'm a fan of

So that, upon the whole, we may conclude, that the Christian Religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.
-David Hume

1 Reply

@Deftil,

At the risk of blatant grandstanding, I'd like to add something I came up with long ago that's... for decades... illustrated how I feel on this this subject's thread:

~~~~~~~~~~

For all things, as is human nature, preciousness is defined in terms of rarity.
What is abundant is not sought
What is disposable, recyclable is not cherished

Life, our life, only when appreciated in its indisputable temporary condition, can be truly cherished and given the worth and respect it truly deserves

This is but a reminder
... that life will end
... that time is short

That the time is now to appreciate each day, each breath, each hug.

~~~~~~~~~~

2 Replies

@Khethil,

Daily Atheist Quote - View All Quotes

1 Reply

@MITech,

If there was no God, there would be no Atheists.
G.K. Chesterton

He knew his stuff.

1 Reply

@avatar6v7,

avatar6v7 wrote:

If there was no God, there would be no Atheists.
G.K. Chesterton

He knew his stuff.

If there was no conception of God is what it should mean.

1 Reply

@Holiday20310401,

Holiday20310401 wrote:

If there was no conception of God is what it should mean.

No he really didn't. If God did not exist, how could you oppose him . You cannot set yourself in opposition to a fiction, any more than I could set myself in opposistion to harry potter. If you accept god, you naturally accept his existance, if you ignore god, you do not acknowlage his existance but if you oppose god you act as if he exists and must be fought. The agnostic does not believe in God but the atheist believes against god.

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@MITech,

I thought the autumnal equinox was the reason for the season... Smile

Kevin

1 Reply

@kdryan,

The Bible. What fools have written, what imbeciles command, what rogues teach and young children are made to learn by heart
~Voltaire

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@avatar6v7,

avatar6v7 wrote:

No he really didn't. If God did not exist, how could you oppose him . You cannot set yourself in opposition to a fiction, any more than I could set myself in opposistion to harry potter. If you accept god, you naturally accept his existance, if you ignore god, you do not acknowlage his existance but if you oppose god you act as if he exists and must be fought. The agnostic does not believe in God but the atheist believes against god.

Come on, man. Atheism is the opposition of the idea of God. You can oppose a fiction when someone proposes the fiction to be real.

1 Reply

@hue-man,

no, the position you outline is agnosticism. To be an atheist is not simply an abscence of belief, but a denial. We don't believe in a fictional charachter in a novel, but we don't deny their existance. Atheists, particualarily the fervent ones, have, in my experiance, somthing to set up in the place of God, and the denial of God is for them the denial of a false idol.

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@avatar6v7,

avatar6v7 wrote:

no, the position you outline is agnosticism. To be an atheist is not simply an abscence of belief, but a denial. We don't believe in a fictional charachter in a novel, but we don't deny their existance. Atheists, particualarily the fervent ones, have, in my experiance, somthing to set up in the place of God, and the denial of God is for them the denial of a false idol.

How is the position I outlined agnosticism?!! The opposition to theism is atheism, not agnosticism. I swear, arguing with some of you guys is a lost cause. It's like pulling teeth.

1 Reply

@hue-man,

a⋅the⋅ism [ey-thee-iz-uhm] –noun
1. the doctrine or belief that there is no God.
2. disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.

0 Replies

@Khethil,

Khethil wrote:

At the risk of blatant grandstanding, I'd like to add something I came up with long ago that's... for decades... illustrated how I feel on this this subject's thread:

~~~~~~~~~~

For all things, as is human nature, preciousness is defined in terms of rarity.
What is abundant is not sought
What is disposable, recyclable is not cherished

Life, our life, only when appreciated in its indisputable temporary condition, can be truly cherished and given the worth and respect it truly deserves

This is but a reminder
... that life will end
... that time is short

That the time is now to appreciate each day, each breath, each hug.

~~~~~~~~~~

Khethil, rare is not precious. Rare is rare. That's all it is. We deem it precious because it is hard to get. It is because we deem it precious it is used as a means to establish status and there is nothing precious about status. Status is unfeeling and condescending. As in anything, it is how we use it, is what matters and we have shown we are poor stewards as it comes to all our resources, abundant and rare.

No, abundance is not sought, but it is greatly taken for granted and squandered because we place less value on as that which is rare and give it little regard until it becomes no longer abundant. We can survive without that which we deem "rare", but we cannot without that which we deem "abundant".

In regards to life as you state it sounds truly altruistic. Unfortunately no all feel as you and it is in that we deem life short and finite we manifest our greed for it. That, my friend, is our most serious problem IMO.

It is my belief each lifetime is but a parenthesis in eternity and each visit it is incumbent on us to leave it better than we found it.

Yes, the time is now and to fully appreciate that, one must be able to live it regardless of his lot in life. But status forbids that as those who have acquired the gold display it as a measure of their worth as they bask in it's glory. How can anyone find serenity in life as long as one struggles in squaller and poverty anywhere in the world.

This is where a certain faith takes hold. As I note, it is not so much that we prove our immortality, but in the degree we do "believe" it, we leave the world better than we left it as a token of love for those who follow even if it is not true. If it is true, then everybody wins.

Khethil, I understand fully where you are coming from, unfortunately there are those who can take that very same rationale to justify their enormous greed. You truly have nailed the paradox of our existence. IMO.

William

1 Reply

@William,

William wrote:

Khethil, rare is not precious.

No, they're not synonymous at all. This speaks to only a broad correlation in what is commonly referred to as precious. Think about it; much of what we define as precious is rare. Of course, there are lots of exceptions.

... perhaps the most notable would be "life"; which isn't rare at all. I'd think this need not be said. But let's not get two-dimensional; the quote refers to what is often associated with, it doesn't attempt to define preciousness itself nor establish an iron-clad absolute relation between the two

William wrote:

No, abundance is not sought, but it is greatly taken for granted...

Woops, you might wanna go back and read it. It didn't say abundance was sought, it said "What is abundant is not sought". No worries, I often misread things too Smile

William wrote:

In regards to life as you state it sounds truly altruistic. Unfortunately no all feel as you and it is in that we deem life short and finite we manifest our greed for it. That, my friend, is our most serious problem IMO.

This speaks not one iota of "greed" for life, but "love" of it. Might we spin love into greed? From whence comes this propensity to cast such goodness into dank, abjectly negative overtones?

William wrote:

Yes, the time is now and to fully appreciate that, one must be able to live it regardless of his lot in life...

Sure, but let's not read to much into what's being said here. For me to say "I want to appreciate every moment" speaks not, nor implies, that one should just 'accept' anything, nor does it speak to how many eggs go into an omelet.

William wrote:

This is where a certain faith takes hold. As I note, it is not so much that we prove our immortality, but in the degree we do "believe" it, we leave the world better than we left it...

I'm sure this is true of many! It's also just as true of peoples regardless of their belief system. I draw no direct correlation between one's beliefs and the likelyhood of their leaving the world a better (or worse) place; such a thing would necessarily depend on how they've lived.

William wrote:

Khethil, I understand fully where you are coming from, unfortunately there are those who can take that very same rationale to justify their enormous greed.

... to be sure! Just as it's equally as likely that koolaid flavor selections could be used to justify the selling of junk-bonds.

I get the impression you're under the notion that my quote - something that's inspirational to me personally, and posted in the hope that it might be to someone else - was done so to justify or otherwise shore-up an atheistic view, is this the case?

If so, I suppose I could see how that could be; given that it's posted in a thread with this particular title. We tend to dichotomize too much, don't you think? (I mean 'we', as a whole, something I'm desparately trying to break free from). Could something inspirational to an christian also be inspirational to a atheist, fisherman or rock star for that matter? Drawing such steadfastly disparate conclusions people lies at the core of much discord (at least I see it to be so).

Let's not too narrowly define inspiration, preciousness and rarity amongst any silly party-lines. Sometimes a cake is just a cake.

Thanks

1 Reply

@Khethil,

Khethil wrote:

Woops, you might wanna go back and read it. It didn't say abundance was sought, it said "What is abundant is not sought". No worries, I often misread things too

No. I was agreeing with you. "yes, abundance is not sought" just didn't sound right. Sorry. The lines we are attempting to distinguish here are sheer and thin and it is my belief we are both right. It is in the individual interpretations that will, it seems, be something that will always on the table. Just as the statement "God helps those who help themselves" is a truth some choose to live by. By the same token, interpreted another way it could be the motivation that could cause an enormous amount of bloodshed. It depends on how you interpret it. There are many such truisms that have apposing meanings.

This was the reason for my response.
William

1 Reply

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