Interestingly, neither (Bill) Gates nor (Warren) Buffett

seems motivated by the possibility of being rewarded in heaven

for his good deeds on earth. Gates told a Time interviewer,

"There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning"

than going to church. Put them together with Andrew Carnegie,

famous for his freethinking, and three of the four greatest

American philanthropists have been atheists or agnostics. (The

exception is John D. Rockefeller.) In a country in which 96 percent

of the population say they believe in a supreme being, that's a

striking fact. It means that in one sense, Gates and Buffett

are probably less self-interested in their charity than

someone like Mother Teresa, who as a pious Roman Catholic

believed in reward and punishment in the afterlife.

from "On Giving" by Peter Singer

New York Times Magazine/December 17, 2006

 

 

To be an atheist you have to have 10,000 times

more imagination than if you are a religious

fundamentalist. You must take the responsibility

to acquire information, digest and use it

to understand what you can.

Peter Greenaway

 

Prayer is translation. A man translates himself

into a child asking for all there is

in a language he has barely mastered.

Leonard Cohen

 

Religion I found to be without any tendency

to inspire, promote, or confirm morality, serves

principally to divide us & make us unfriendly

to one another.

Benjamin Franklin

 

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe

in one fewer gods than you do. When you understand

why you dismiss all the other possible gods,

you will understand why I dismiss yours.

Stephen F. Roberts

 

I can understand why the pure of heart are

religious people. If you believed that

there was a fanlight in your mind, through which

an old man with a beard was perpetually

peering, taking down notes, you would think

twice abouth throwing orgies in there.

David Lodge

 

Man is quite insane.

He wouldn't know how to create a maggot,

yet he creates gods by the dozen.

Michel de Montaigne

 

All gods are homemade,

and it is we who pull their strings, and so,

give them the power to pull ours.

Aldous Huxley

 

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.

Give a man a religion and he'll starve to death

while praying for a fish.

Anonymous

 

God made me an atheist.

Who are you to question his wisdom?

Anonymous

 

I find enough mystery in mathematics to satisfy

my spiritual needs. I think, for example, that

pi is mysterious enough (don't get me started!) without

having to worry about god. Or if pi isn't enough,

how about fractals or quantum mechanics?

Tom Lehrer

 

He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife.

Then he realized there was a contradiction involved

here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.

Douglas Adams

 

The fact that a believer is happier than a

skeptic is no more to the point than the

fact that a drunken man is happier

than a sober one.

George Bernard Shaw

 

In the Beginning, the universe was created.

This has made a lot of people very angry and

has been widely regarded as a bad move.

Douglas Adams

 

On going to war over religion:

You're basically killing each other to see who's got

the better imaginary friend.

Rich Jeni

 

 

Oh random fluctuations in the space time continuum!

atheist's curse - Terry Pratchett

 

 

My theology, briefly, is that the universe was

dictated but not signed.

Christopher Morley

 

 

The more I study religions, the more I am convinced that

man never worshipped anything but himself.

Sir Richard F. Burton

 

 

To you, I'm an atheist,

to God I'm the loyal opposition.

Woody Allen

 

 

There is a theory that states that if ever anybody

discovers exactly what the universe is for and why

it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced

by something even more bizarre and inexplicable...

 

There is another theory that states that this

has already happened.

Douglas Adams

 

 

With or without religion, good people can

behave well and bad people can do evil;

but for good people to do evil -

that takes religion.

Steven Weinberg

 

 

The trouble with born-again Christians is that they

are an even bigger pain the second time around.

Herb Caen

 

 

I have too much respect for the idea of God to make

it responsible for such an absurd world.

Georges Duhamel

 

 

I don't know if God exists, but it would be

better for his reputation if he didn't.

Jules Renard

 

 

I am determined that my children shall be

brought up in their father's religion,

if they can find out what it is.

Charles Lamb

 

 

 

Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I always think that the

chances of finding out what is really going on

are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is

to say hang the sense of it and just

keep yourself occupied.

Douglas Adams

 

 

Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists

have certainty without any proof.

Ashley Montague

 

 

I'm still an atheist ... thank god!

Luis Bunuel

 

 

There is no god and Murphy is his prophet.

Unknown

 

 

 

 

 

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