Archive

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“It renders the heart torpid…”

“Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is none more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself, than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid, or produces only atheists and fanatics.”

Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (Part II), published 1795

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What are you so afraid of?

“What are you so afraid of? That’s my question. Gay people getting married? What is so scary about that? It’s complicated. You grow up in a religion like that and you try to pray the gay away. I feel sadness for people like that. This is where people start short-circuiting—instead of being brave and questioning their beliefs, they are afraid and feel that they have to defend them. I don’t mind a world with religion in it. There are some beautiful tenets within all religions. What I get hot about is when they start dictating how other people must live. People suffer because of it. They are spreading misery.”

- Brad Pitt

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Science has done more

‎”Science has done more for the development of Western civilization in 100 years than Christianity did in 1,800 years.”

- John Burroughs

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911

“From the first moment I looked into that horror on September 11th, into that fireball, into that explosion of horror, I knew it, I recognized an old companion. I recognized religion.”
-Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete (1941-)

“I’m not convinced that faith can move mountains, but I’ve seen what it can do to skyscrapers.” 
- William Gascoyne

“On Tuesday September 11, 2001, at least 35 000 people died from the worst possible death, starvation. Somewhere around 85% of these starvation deaths occur in children 5 years of age or younger. Starvation doesn’t just happen on Tuesday September 11, 2001, it happens everyday, 365 days per year, 24 hours per day, it never stops” 
- Jarek Loovali

“Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.”
-Victor Stenger

“Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where’s the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let’s now stop being so damned respectful!”
- Richard Dawkins

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An atheist in the woods

An atheist was taking a walk through the woods, admiring all that “the accident of evolution” had created.

“What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!”

… the man said to himself.

As he was walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him.

As he turned to look, he saw a 7-foot grizzly charge towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. He hooked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing in on him. He tried to run even faster, so scared that tears were coming to his eyes. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. His heart was pumping frantically as he tried to run even faster, but he tripped and fell to the ground.

He rolled over to pick himself up and saw the bear right on top of him raising his paw to kill him.

At that instant he cried out,

“Oh my God!”

Just then. time stopped. The bear froze, the forest was silent, the river even stopped moving.

A bright light shone upon the man, and a voice came out of the sky saying,

“You deny my existence all of these years, teach others I don’t exist and even credit my creation to a cosmic accident and now do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?”

The atheist, ever so proud, looked into the light and said,

“It would be rather hypocritical to ask to be a Christian after all these years…but could you make the bear a Christian?”

“Very well,”

… said  the voice. As the light went out, the river ran, and the sounds of the forest continued,

the bear put his paw down.

The bear then brought both paws together, bowed his head and said,

“Lord, I thank you for this food that I am about to receive.”

(Sent to me by a religious Twitter follower.  Hope you don’t mind the posting.)

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In Italy …

‎”In Italy, the Inquisition was condemning people to death until the end of the eighteenth century, and inquisitional torture was not abolished in the Catholic Church until 1816. The last bastion of support for the reality of witchcraft and the necessity of punishment has been the Christian churches.”

Carl Sagan (1934-1996), The Demon-Haunted World, page 413

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Slay the Dragon

‎”It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.” - Bertrand Russell