“Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.”

-- Thomas Jefferson

“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

“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.”

-- Richard Dawkins

“An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.”

-- John Buchan

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."

-- Aldous Huxley

"Religion does three things quite effectively : Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people. "

-- Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish "

-- Unknown

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. "

-- Seneca the Younger

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion. "

-- Robert M. Pirsig

"Prayer has no place in the public schools, just like facts have no place in organized religion."

-- The Simpsons (Television!)

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?

Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing?

Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing?

Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing?

Then why call him God?

-- Epicurus

"The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality."

-- George Bernard Shaw

"Faith means not wanting to know what is true."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature."

-- Frank Lloyd Wright

"We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes."

-- Gene Roddenberry

If triangles had a God, He'd have three sides.

-- old proverb

"If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the best that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever."

-- Woody Allen

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

-- Albert Einstein

The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.

-- Richard Burton

(speaking on the foundations of religion) The few took advantage of the ignorant many. They pretended to have received messages from the Unknown. They stood between the helpless multitude and the gods. They were the carriers of flags of truce. At the court of heaven they presented the cause of man, and upon the labor of the deceived they lived.

-- Robert Ingersoll (Why Am I an Agnostic?, North American Review, December, 1889)

"Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us."

-- Neil deGrasse Tyson

“If there is a god, atheism must seem to him as less of an insult than religion."

-- Edmond de Goncourt

“It is an interesting and demonstrable fact, that all children are atheists and were religion not inculcated into their minds, they would remain so."

-- Ernestine Rose

“A religion without a goddess is halfway to atheism."

-- Dion Fortune

“I'm not an athiest. How can you not believe in something that doesn't exist? That's way too convoluted for me.”

-- A. Whitney Brown

“If atheism is a religion, then bald is a hair color”

-- Mark Schnitzius

“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.”

-- George Santayana

God has always resembled his creators. He hated and loved what they hated and loved and he was invariably found on the side of those in power. Most of the gods were pleased with sacrifice, and the smell of innocent blood has ever been considered a divine perfume

-- Robert G. Ingersoll

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says; he is always convinced that it says what he means.

-- George Bernard Shaw

It is better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

-- Carl Sagan

If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

-- Voltaire

Man is kind enough when he’s not excited by religion, but once the holy holies have got a grip on him he’s capable of almost anything. When a disciple from the wildcat religious asylum comes marching forth, get under the bed. It doesn’t matter whether he’s a Christian, Hindu, Jew, or Muslim. If he’s made up his mind that you need reforming, he will do it with anything handy — an ax, eight hundred years of witch burning or, if necessary, he’ll blow you up.

-- Mark Twain

I’m not intolerant. I just know what it says in the Scriptures.

-- Jesse Helms

People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

-- Dave Barry

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said, “Stop! Don’t do it! . . . There’s so much to live for!” He said, “Like what?” I said, “Well, are you religious or atheist?” He said, “Religious.” I said, “Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?” He said, “Christian.” I said, “Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?” He said, “Baptist!” I said, “Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?” He said, “Baptist Church of God!” I said, “Me too! Are you original Baptist Church of God, or Reformed Baptist Church of God?” He said, “Reformed Baptist Church of God!” I said, “Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?” He said, “Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!” I said, “Die, heretic scum,” and pushed him off.

-- Emo Philips

Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me.

-- Alice Walker

I was raised an atheist. Every Sunday, we went nowhere. We prayed for nothing. And all our prayers were answered.

-- Heidi Joyce

One of the things Jesus did was to step aside from the organized religion of his time because it had become corrupt and bogged down with rules. Rules became more important than feeding the hungry.

-- Corita Kent

When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, “Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don’t believe?”

-- Quentin Crisp

[The Bible is] an oral history. It was passed down, word of mouth, father to son, from Adam to Seth, from Seth to Enos, from Enos to Cainan, for forty generations, a growing, changing story . . . until Moses finally gets it down on lambskin. But lambskins wear out, and need to be recopied. Copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of an oral history passed down through forty generations. From Hebrew it’s translated into Arabic, from Arabic to Latin, from Latin to Greek, from Greek to Russian, from Russian to German, from German to an old form of English that you could not read. . . . You can’t put a grocery list through that many translations, copies, and retellings, and not expect to have some big changes in the dinner menu when the kids make it back from Kroger. And yet people are killing each other over this written word. Here’s a tip: if you’re killing someone in the name of God, you’re missing the message.

-- Nick Annis

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

-- The Dalai Lama

I'm what you call a teleological existential atheist. I believe there's an intelligence to the universe with the exception of certain parts of New Jersey.

-- Woody Allen

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow the teachings of the New, he would be insane.

-- Robert G. Ingersoll

Moral: a peerless maxim enumerated by God in his Holy Bible, such as that of Deut. 23.1: “If your testicles are crushed or your male member missing, you must never enter a sanctuary of the Lord.”

-- Donald Morgan

They were so strong in their beliefs that there came a time when it hardly mattered what exactly those beliefs were; they all fused into a single stubbornness.

-- Louise Erdrich

Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still for once on the face of the earth, let’s not speak in any language; let’s stop for a second, and not move our arms so much.

-- Pablo Neruda