ATHEISM QUOTES IV

quotations about atheism

The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts:
Those with brains, but no religion,
And those with religion, but no brains.

ABU'L-'ALA' AL-MA'ARRI

attributed, Crusades Through Arab Eyes


It is not possible even to state the doctrine of an atheistic creation without using the language of theism in the statement.

LYMAN ABBOTT

Letters to Unknown Friends

Tags: Lyman Abbott


Sometimes when I'm faced with an atheist, I am tempted to invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner that one could ever serve, and when we have finished eating that magnificent dinner, to ask him if he believes there's a cook.

RONALD REAGAN

Speaking My Mind

Tags: Ronald Reagan, God


I don't think even the blackest atheist has an idea of what real separation [from God] will be. Outer darkness. What we live in you might call ... "inner darkness."

JOHN UPDIKE

Rabbit, Run

Tags: John Updike, God


By night an atheist half believes in God.

EDWARD YOUNG

Night Thoughts

Tags: Edward Young, night


It is not at all uncommon, even among ourselves, to hear persons and parties branded as atheistical, only because individuals who so stigmatize them have not been able, and perhaps are not in the least willing, to appreciate the sort of theism which they profess.

JOHN STUART BLACKIE

The Natural History of Atheism

Tags: John Stuart Blackie


Atheism ... that bugbear of women and fools ... is the very top and perfection of free-thinking. It is the grand arcanum to which a true genius naturally riseth, by a certain climax or gradation of thought, and without which he can never possess his soul in absolute liberty and repose.

GEORGE BERKELEY

Alciphron

Tags: George Berkeley


In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship--be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles--is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.

DAVID FOSTER WALLACE

O Magazine, Dec. 2006

Tags: David Foster Wallace


The big misconception about atheists and atheism is that we don't believe in anything, or that we have no morals and that's just not true. Most of us are very nice people.

HEATHER HENDERSON

"'We're Not Scary': Atheists Seek Understanding", NBC 7 San Diego, March 18, 2016


Fervid atheism is usually a screen for repressed religion.

WILHELM STEKEL

Autobiography

Tags: Wilhelm Stekel, religion


Religion assures us that our afflictions shall have an end; she comforts us, she dries our tears, she promises us another life. On the contrary, in the abominable worship of atheism, human woes are the incense, death is the priest, a coffin the altar, and annihilation the Deity.

FRANCOIS-RENE DE CHATEAUBRIAND

The Genius of Christianity

Tags: religion


It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. Without the sustaining influence of faith in a divine power we could have little faith in ourselves. We need to feel that behind us is intelligence and love. Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create. Faith is the great motive power, and no man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is a part of an unending plan.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

speech, Jul. 25, 1924

Tags: Calvin Coolidge


The philosophy of Atheism represents a concept of life without any metaphysical Beyond or Divine Regulator. It is the concept of an actual, real world with its liberating, expanding and beautifying possibilities, as against an unreal world, which, with its spirits, oracles, and mean contentment has kept humanity in helpless degradation.

EMMA GOLDMAN

Anarchism and Other Essays

Tags: Emma Goldman


Nothing enlarges more the gulf of atheism, than that wide passage, which lies between the faith and lives of men pretending to be Christians.

EDWARD STILLINGFLEET

Origines Sacrae

Tags: Christianity


With modern science or atheism, a new concept may be met with opposition, but once it becomes established, old texts and beliefs are scrapped and referenced for limited purposes.

SPENCER KASSIMIR

"Atheism: A new faith", Washington Times, March 23, 2016


Modern, post-Enlightenment atheism has a particular social function: it draws authority away from the clergy, towards the secular "priests" of science. In the ancient world, the conflict between science and religion did not exist, at least not in these terms. But it does not follow that nobody in antiquity ever questioned the traditional stories about the gods, which were often patently ridiculous.

EMILY WILSON

"Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World review -- disbelief has been around for 2,500 years", The Guardian, March 9, 2016


There are no atheists in foxholes.

WILLIAM THOMAS CUMMINGS

Field Sermon on Bataan


Agnostics are just atheists without balls.

STEPHEN COLBERT

I Am America


Nothing shall warp me from the belief that every man is a lover of truth. There is no pure lie, no pure malignity in nature. The entertainment of the proposition of depravity is the last profligacy and profanation. There is no skepticism, no atheism but that. Could it be received into common belief, suicide would unpeople the planet.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

lecture, Mar. 3, 1844

Tags: Ralph Waldo Emerson, suicide


You cannot fight Islamic terrorism from an atheistic standpoint because atheism is not a standpoint. It offers people nowhere to stand, just a floating platform where no one feels secure.

DONALD HANK

"There's only one way Europe can be saved", Renew America, March 25, 2016