#atheism

"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."

"A preoccupation with the next world clearly shows an inability to cope credibly with this one."

"I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves."

"There was a time when religion ruled the world. It is known as the Dark Ages."

"If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it."

"I have always considered "Pascal's Wager"a questionable bet to place, since any God worth believing in would prefer an honest agnostic to a calculating hypocrite."

"I feel that we should stop wasting our time trying to please the supernatural and concentrate on improving the welfare of human beings. I think that, uh, we should use our energy and our initiative to solve our problems, and stop relying on prayer and wishful thinking. If we have faith in ourselves, we won't have to have faith in gods."

"If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion."

"My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests."

"Religion doesn't just cloud our minds. It asks us to deliberately deceive ourselves-- to replace reason with its opposite, faith. And when men operate on faith, they can no longer be reasoned with, which makes them more dangerous than any sane man, good or evil."

"The faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence."

"All children are atheists, they have no idea of God."

"To judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude that God created most men simply with a view to crowding hell."

"Even now, there are still days so beautiful, I almost believe in God."

"It is easier for a Russian to become an Atheist, than for any other nationality in the world. And not only does a Russian 'become an Atheist,' but he actually BELIEVES IN Atheism, just as though he had found a new faith, not perceiving that he has pinned his faith to a negation. Such is our anguish of thirst!"

"And fragile is thy tenure of this worldStill haunted by the monstrous ghost of God.("To Science")"

"I have been called arrogant myself in my time, and hope to earn the title again, but to claim that I am privy to the secrets of the universe and its creator - that's beyond my conceit."

"The Bible has noble poetry in it... and some good morals and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies."

"If every trace of any single religion were wiped out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again."

"I want to put on the table, not why 85% of the members of the National Academy of Sciences reject God, I want to know why 15% of the National Academy don’t."