From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Thu Sep 13 2001 - 19:53:26 MDT
From: "Greg Burch" <gregburch@gregburch.net>
> here are quotes from about the first 20% of the Q'ran that I
> found particularly chavinistic and inciteful to bigotry and violence:
>
> <><><>
>
>
> "2.190": And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you, and
> do not exceed the limits, surely Allah does not love those who exceed the
> limits.
Interesting quotes... Lame, but interesting.
Here are some of my favorites:
"The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots
in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the
name of Satan. Many people don't like that statement, but few can argue with
it." [Kenneth V. Lanning, Supervisory Special Agent at the Behavioral
Science Institution and Research Unit of the FBI Academy, from The
Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan]
"Religion convinced the world that there's an invisible man in the sky who
watches everything you do. And there's 10 things he doesn't want you to do or
else you'll to to a burning place with a lake of fire until the end of
eternity. But he loves you! ...And he needs money! He's all powerful, but
he can't handle money!" [George Carlin, on Politically Incorrect, May 29,
1997]
"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man." [Thomas
Jefferson, in "Toward the Mystery"]
"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understandthat bother me, it is
the parts that I do understand." [Mark Twain]
"To YOU I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition." [Woody Allen]
"The blessed Religion revealed in the word of God will remain an eternal and
awful monument to prove that the best Institutions may be abused by human
depravity; and that they may even, in some instances, be made subservient to
the vilest of purposes." [George Washington]
"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these
shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for
centuries." [James Madison, 1803]
"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these
shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for
centuries." [James Madison, 1803]
"I want nothing to do with religion concerned with keeping the masses
satisfied to live in hunger, filth and ignorance. I want nothing to do with
any order, religious or otherwise, which does not teach people that they are
capable of becoming happier and more civilized, on this earth, capable of
becoming true man, master of his fate and captain of his soul. To attain
this, I would put priests to work, also, and turn the temples into schools."
[Jawaharlal Nehru]
"What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry
combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether
inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer."
[Bertrand Russell]
"I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some
thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to
believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that
assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful
thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that
there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's
little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to
look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but
magnificent opportunity that life provides.
[Carl Sagan, 1996 in his article "In the Valley of the Shadow"
Parade Magazine]
"Snatches of information that leap from mind to mind, contagious, like a
melody that wells up in the reveries of a solitary songwriter till it seizes
the brain of a singer, and then infects the consciousness of millions; or a
scientific concept that starts as a vague glimmer in one researcher's
thoughts, and ends up with a whole school of adherents." (Howard Bloom)
"The idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I am unable to
take seriously." [Albert Einstein, letter to Hoffman and Dukas, 1946]
"If this being is omnipotent, then every occurrence, including every human
action, every human thought, and every human feeling and aspiration is also
His work; how is it possible to think of holding men responsible for their
deeds and thoughts before such an almighty Being? In giving out punishment and
rewards He would to a certain extent be passing judgment on Himself. How can
this be combined with the goodness and righteousness ascribed to Him?" [Albert
Einstein, "Out of My Later Years"]
"[My] deep religiosity... found an abrupt ending at the age of twelve, through
the reading of popular scientific books." [Albert Einstein, as quoted in
Einstein, History, and Other Passions, p. 172]
"Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of awesome mystical power. We know this
because they manage to be invisible and pink at the same time. Like all
religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic
and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are
invisible because we can't see them." [Steve Eley]
"For that again, is what all manner of religion essentially is: childish
dependency." [Albert Ellis]
"Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; Or he can, but does not want
to; Or he cannot and does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is
impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. But, if God both can
and wants to abolish evil, Then how come evil in the world?" [Epicurus,
350-?270 BC]
"We would be 1,500 years ahead if it hadn't been for the church dragging
science back by its coattails and burning our best minds at the stake."
[Catherine Fahringer]
"AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose it would be
like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save one of Pharoah's
chariotters." [Jerry Falwell]
"If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being."
[Jerry Falwell]
"AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for
the society that *tolerates* homosexuals." [Rev. Jerry Falwell, 1993]
"The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures,
both by precept and example." [Rev. R. Furman, D.D., Baptist, of South
Carolina]
"The doctrine that the earth is neither the center of the universe nor
immovable, but moves even with a daily rotation, is absurd, and both
philosophically and theologically false, and at the least an error of faith."
[Catholic Church's decision against Galileo Galilei]
"I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell's ass." [Senator Barry
Goldwater] :)
"Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent
people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public
policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their
views the only alternatives." [Barry Goldwater, 1981 speech]
"When the temptation to masturbate is strong, yell "Stop!" to those thoughts
as loudly as you can in your mind. Then recite a portion of the Bible or sing
a hymn." [Mormon _Guide to Self-Control_]
"Whenever morality is based on theology, whenever right is made dependent on
divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified
and established." [Ludwig Feuerbach, "The Essence of Christianity" (1841)]
"Atheism has one doctrine: To Question
Atheism has one dogma: To Doubt
The Atheist Bible has but one word: THINK." [Emmet F. Fields]
"Prayers never bring anything... They may bring solace to the sap, the bigot,
the ignorant, the aboriginal, and the lazy - but to the enlightened it is the
same as asking Santa Claus to bring you something for Xmas" [W. C. Fields]
"Christian biblical theology must recognise that its articulation of
anti-Judaism in the New Testament ... generated the unspeakable sufferings of
the Holocaust." [Dr. E. Florenza (Prof. of New Testament Studies) & Dr. D.
Tracy (Prof. of Philosophical Theology), "The Holocaust as Interruption"
(Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, Ltd., 1984).]
"The Bible has done more harm than any other book in the world." [William
Floyd, "Christianity Cross-Examined"]
"It will yet be the proud boast of women that they never contributed a line to
the Bible." [George W. Foote]
"The atheist bashes all religions whilst the theist bashes all but his own,
upon which he lavishes great care in case it should come in contact with
reality." [Gully Foyle]
"The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men, the more
widespread is the decline of religious belief." [Sigmund Freud]
"It would be very nice if there were a God who created the world and was a
benevolent providence, and if there were a moral order in the universe and an
after-life; but it is a very striking fact that all this is exactly as we are
bound to wish it to be." [Sigmund Freud]
"I turned to speak to God/About the world's despair;/But to make bad matters
worse/I found God wasn't there." [Robert Frost (1874-1963)]
"It vexes me when they would constrain science by the authority of the
Scriptures, and yet do not consider themselves bound to answer reason and
experiment." [Galileo Galilei, "The Authority of Scripture in Philosophical
Controversies"]
"The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have
been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives."
[Mohandas Gandhi (Young India, 1927)]
"Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very
efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning." [Bill
Gates]
"I would recommend that skeptics devote even more effort than they do now to
understanding the reasons why so many people want or need to believe." [Murray
Gell-Mann, "Quark and the Jaguar"]
"All in all, I can't say I believe in god. If, in fact, I ever find out that
he does indeed exist, I think I'll stay away from him, because if he's
responsible for half the things he gets credit for, he's got to be one mean
son of a bitch." [Peter Gether, _A Cat Abroad_, pp. 89-90]
"God gave the savior to the German people. We have faith, deep and unshakeable
faith, that he [Hitler] was sent to us by God to save Germany." [Hermann
Goering, from Louis L. Snyder, "Hitler's Elite, Shocking Profiles of the
Reich's Most Notorious Henchmen", Berkley Books, 1990]
"God is not all that exists. God is all that does not exist." [Remy de
Gourmont (1858-1915) French novelist, critic, philosopher]
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"Faith is believing in something you know ain't true."
- Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
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"The inspiration of the Bible depends on the ignorance of the person who
reads it." -Robert G. Ingersoll
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"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward,
then we are a sorry lot indeed." -Albert Einstein
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"It has been discovered that the man who was lost in thought was not a church
member." -Lemuel K. Washburn
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"There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express commandment of
God, that are shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of moral
justice....".
-Thomas Paine
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"If Atheism is a religion, then health is a disease!" - [Clark Adams]
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"If you love god, burn a church" - [Jello Biafra]
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"Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were
achieving; his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and beliefs
, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; no fire, no
heroism, no intensity of though and feeling, can preserve an individual life
beyond the grave."
[Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) "Why I Am Not a Christian"]
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"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers."
[Oscar Wilde]
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"Why should the residence of a preacher be untaxed? Useful citizens must pay
taxes on their homes. Yet the Preacher -- actually and notoriously the least
useful member of the community -- lives in a tax-free dwelling.
[E. Haldeman-Julius, "The Church Is a Burden,
Not a Benefit, In Social Life"]
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"Whenever I think of how religion started, I picture some frustrated old man
making out a list of all the ways he could gain power, until he finally came
up with the great solution of constant fear and guilt, then he leaped up and
started planning a new wardrobe." Steve Blakeslea of an incarnation of God is
absurd:
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"They know that it is human nature to take up causes whereby a man may oppress
his neighbor, no matter how unjustly. ... Hence they have had no trouble in
finding men who would preach the damnability and heresy of the new doctrine
from the very pulpit..." [Galileo Galilei, 1615]
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"To hate man and worship god seems to be the sum of all the creeds." [Robert
G. Ingersoll]
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"I refuse to be labeled immoral merely because I am godless." [Peter Walker on
alt.atheism]
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"The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history" [Noam Chomsky]
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"It is a just retribution for improper sexual misconduct" [Mother Teresa, on
AIDS]
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"The Bible is the authoritative Word of God and contains all truth." [Pres.
Bill Clinton, at a prayer breakfast]
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"Evolution is a bankrupt speculative philosophy, not a scientific fact. Only
a spiritually bankrupt society could ever believe it. ... Only atheists could
accept this Satanic theory." [Rev. Jimmy Swaggart]
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"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." - Stephen Roberts
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"Gods are fragile things, they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose
of common sense." -- Chapman Cohen
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"I don't believe in God for the same reason I don't believe in Mother
Goose."--Clarence Darrow
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"To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as
to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin." - Cardinal Bellarmine, 1615,
during the trial of Galileo
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Faith: not wanting to know what is true.
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We won't move into a better future until we debunk religiosity, the most
regressive force now operating in society.
--J. R.
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