Monthly Archives: August 2017

Here is a collection of my favorite quotes about atheism and religion. They're in no particular order: "I would challenge anyone here to think of a question upon which we once had a scientific answer, however inadequate, but for which now the best answer is a religious one. Now, you can think of an uncountable number of questions that run the other way, where we once had a religious answer and now the authority of religion has been battered and nullified by science, and by moral progress, and by secular progress generally. And I think thats not an accident." -- Sam Harris

"Why should I allow that same God to tell me how to raise my kids, who had to drown His own?" -- Robert G. Ingersoll

"If god doesn't like the way I live, Let him tell me, not you." -- Unknown

Eskimo: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" Priest: "No, not if you did not know." Eskimo: "Then why did you tell me?" -- Annie Dillard, 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek'

"Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions." -- Frater Ravus

"'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.'" -- Douglas Adams

"A man without religon is like a fish without a bicycle" -- Unknown

"Without God, life is everything." -- Rev. Ron

"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." -- Superintendent Chalmers, The Simpsons

"Deaths in the Bible. God - 2,270,365 not including the victims of Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the many plagues, famines, fiery serpents, etc because no specific numbers were given. Satan - 10" -- Unknown

"The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the tree of knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on." -- Frank Zappa

"The Christian god makes man human, then burns him when he acts like one." -- HSM

"Blasphemy is a victimless crime" -- Anonymous

"Why would some all powerful being create creatures capable of reason and then demand that they act in a manner contrary to their creation?" -- Josh Charles

"I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world." -- Richard Dawkins

"Do I think Im going to paradise? Of course not; I wouldnt go if I was asked. I dont want to live in some fucking celestial North Korea, for one thing, where all I get to do is praise the Dear Leader from dawn till dusk. I dont want this; it would be hell for me." -- Christopher Hitchens

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

"It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living." - Sinclair Lewis

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." -- Stephen Henry Roberts

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." -- Blaise Pascal

"Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence." -- Anonymous

"If God wants us to do a thing he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will wait till he has done this before paying much attention to him." -- Samuel Butler

"I cannot believe in a God who has neither humor nor common sense." -- W. Somerset Maugham

"Question: How do you know you're God? Answer: Simple. When I pray to him, I find I'm talking to myself." -- Peter O'Toole

"Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?" -- James Madison

"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

"Gullibility and credulity are considered undesireable qualities in every department of human life -- except religion ... Why are we praised by godly men for surrendering our 'godly gift' of reason when we cross their mental thresholds?" -- Christopher Hitchens

"If this is your God, he's not very impressive. He has so many psychological problems; he's so insecure. He demands worship every seven days. He goes out and creates faulty humans and then blames them for his own mistakes. He's a pretty poor excuse for a Supreme Being." -- Gene Roddenberry

"Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nation, in order to deny the fact of death, which is the only fact we have." -- James Baldwin

"I would believe any religion that could prove it had existed since the beginning of the world. But when I see Socrates, Plato, Moses, and Mohammed I do not think there is such a one. All religions owe their origin to man." -- Napoleon Bonaparte

"The existence of a world without God seems to me less absurd than the presence of a God, existing in all of his perfection, creating imperfect man in order to make him run the risk of Hell." -- Armand Salacrou

"It is an insult to God to believe in God. For on the one hand it is to suppose that he has perpetrated acts of incalculable cruelty. On the other, it is to suppose that he has perversely given his human creatures an instrument -- their intellect -- which must inevitably lead them, if they are dispassionate and honest, to deny his existence. It is tempting to conclude that if he exists, it is the atheists and agnostics that he loves best, among those with any pretensions to education. For they are the ones who have taken him most seriously." -- Galen Strawson

"The Way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason." -- Benjamin Franklin

"Once miracles are admitted, every scientific explanation is out of the question." -- Johannes Kepler

"None of the miracles with which ancient histories are filled, occurred under scientific conditions. Observation never once contradicted, teaches us that miracles occur only in periods and countries in which they are believed in and before persons disposed to believe in them." -- Ernest Renan

"Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctual wishful impulses." -- Sigmund Freud

"Only the atheist realizes how morally objectionable it is for survivors of a catastrophe to believe themselves spared by a loving God while this same God drowned infants in their cribs." -- Sam Harris

"If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers? If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him?" -- Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" -- Douglas Adams

"Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?" -- Epicurus

"Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned." -- Anonymous

"You believe in a book which has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd, and primitive stories; and you say that I am the one who is mentally ill?" -- Dan Barker

"The continually progressive change to which the meaning of words is subject, the want of a universal language which renders translation necessary, the errors to which translations are again subject, the mistakes of copyists and printers, together with the possibility of willful alteration, are themselves evidences that human language, whether in speech or print, cannot be the vehicle of the Word of God." -- Thomas Paine

"As to the book called the Bible, it is blasphemy to call it the word of God. It is a book of lies and contradictions, and a history of bad times and bad men. There are but a few good characters in the whole book." -- Thomas Paine

"One's convictions should be proportional to one's evidence." -- Sam Harris

"Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; give him a religion, and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish." -- Anonymous

"A faith which cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets." -- Arthur C. Clarke

"The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer." -- Anonymous

"Wherever morality is based on theology, wherever the right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established." -- Ludwig Feuerbach

"I cannot see why we should expect an infinite God to do better in another world than he does in this." -- Robert G. Ingersoll

Is your favorite quote missing from here? E-mail it to atheistapologist@gmail.com and I'll add it!

See the original post here:
Atheist Apologist: My Favorite Atheism Quotes

KUALA LUMPUR: Some Malay atheists in Malaysia are worried and fearful in recent days there was a call by a minister to track them down while a Muslim cleric issued a reminder that the penalty for apostasy under Islam is death.

I am worried. I have already accepted that something might happen to me that I might be killed, Halim (not his real name), told Channel NewsAsia.

I say this because I see how extreme people have become, how my Facebook friends (could) turn into real-life threats for me with their comments that it is halal (permitted) to kill atheists, apostates how eager they are to kill to gain merits in heaven, he said.

Another self-professed atheist, Chaidir (not his real name), expressed worry for his friends who are less fortunate. I worry for them because they are poor and have no connections. That makes them so much more vulnerable. At least for me, I come from the middle class and have more access to help, he said.

According to Chaidir, he still fasts during the holy month of Ramadan when he is with his parents as he does not want them to know he is an atheist.

Both Halim and Chaidir stressed that they do not preach their atheist beliefs to anyone. A persons belief is a private matter. We dont believe in proselytising what we believe in, said Halim.

On Tuesday (Aug 8), Minister in the Prime Ministers Department Shahidan Kassim said the government should track down atheists. I suggest we track them down and identify each of them. After that, we have to bring them back to the right path, he said. This is a religious country. We have Islam, we have other religions - Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism - there is no one without a religion."

The Negri Sembilan state Mufti Mohd Yusof Ahmad was quoted by Malay daily Sinar Harian as saying Islam prescribes death against Muslims who leave the religion for atheism, if they are stubborn and refuse to repent.

However, he conceded that Shariah courts in the country cannot implement such punishments, and said religious authorities must then redouble their efforts to curb the spread of atheism.

Deputy Home Affairs Minister Mohamed Nur Jazlan told Channel NewsAsias Sumisha Naidu that the issue needs to be handled with care. "Apostasy is a matter that I think would need to be dealt with care," said Nur Jazlan.

Asked whether there will be a campaign against atheists, he said: "I wouldn't encourage it."

Analysts expressed concern over the calls to hunt down atheists.

Unfortunately the minister's comments reflect a steadily growing intolerance within the Malay community over religious matters, Professor Zachary Abuza of the National War College in Washington DC told Channel NewsAsia.

This was a reflection that many see Malaysia's ethnic and religious minorities as a roadblock to the full implementation of sharia law (in the country), said Prof Abuza, who specialises in Southeast Asia politics and security.

Malaysia isn't the moderate state that it used to be. There have been profound societal changes, and minorities should be very concerned, Prof Abuza added.

Counter-terrorism expert and Islamic scholar, Ahmad el-Muhammady, expressed concern over the calls to hunt down atheists as well. Asked whether the violent fringe would be provoked by the comments to attack atheists, Ahmad said: Yes, this opinion can be taken wronglyby extremists To me, it is not a well-thought-out remark that can be easily misunderstood by uneducated minds.

But thus far, there is no indications (of violence). The intelligence agencies are monitoring, he said.

This was confirmed by Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, head of counter-terrorism of Special Branch, the intelligence arm of the Royal Malaysian Police. He told Channel NewsAsia there was no intel on potential attacks.

Malaysia has recorded at least one case where a militant, the late Zainuri Kamaruddin, tried to kill a young Muslim woman accused of converting to Christianity. Zainuri died in an air strike in Syria earlier this year where he was fighting alongside the Islamic State (IS).

According to constitutional law expert Shad Saleem Faruqi, professor of Law at Universiti Malaya, the Federal Contitution does not criminalise atheism.

The Federal Constitution is silent on apostasy. It nowhere bans apostasy nor does it permit it. Neither does the Penal Code punish apostasy, though insulting religion is an offence under section 298 of the Penal Code, said Prof Faruqi.

The issue is complicated because states are allowed to pass laws to punish offences against the precepts of Islam. Nine out of the 14 states (have) enactments (that) criminalises apostasy, he added.

Prof Faruqi said some view apostasy as a heinous crime in Islam. The alternative view that it is a sin, not a crime, that Prophet Muhammad in the Treaty of Hudabiyah permitted Muslim apostates to live in peace is not heeded."

See the original post:
Malaysia's atheists fearful following calls by a minister to 'track them down' - Channel NewsAsia

The Atheist Republic (Twitter,Facebook, andwebsite) is the largest public atheist Facebook page.The page has more than 1.7 million likes, which makes the Atheist Republic the most popular atheist community on any social network. The Atheist Republic hasconsulatesthroughout the globe in the major cities of the world. Its founder, Armin Navabi, is a friend and colleague. Here is the series of interviews with the consulates of the Atheist Republic: Atheist Republic Brisbane Consulate.

*Audio interview edited for clarity and readability.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen:Wasthere a background in atheism,familially?

Geoff Speakman: My parents never spoke either for or against religion. I formed my own opinions about religion and the existence of gods.

Jacobsen: Within that family background, was there a surrounding culture that brought forth a critical mindset towards religion? If so, how? If not, why not?

Speakman: Not really. Mine was a normal childhood minus religion. We were migrants who came from England to Australia, which may have insulated me from cultural and family ties to religion.

Jacobsen: Through these threads of family and surrounding culture, what made for the pivotal moments in development as an atheist?

Speakman: There was no pivotal moment. I have always been free of religious indoctrination.

Jacobsen: Also, a- as a prefix in atheism means many things because it is both denial and affirmation. What is affirmed there to you? What is denied to you?

Speakman: I have chosen the description atheist to best describe mynonbeliefin religious teaching. I am considering changing my description to anti-theist due to the bloodshed that religious division causes worldwide.

Jacobsen: How did you find the Atheist Republic? What do you do for them?What are your tasks and responsibilities?

Speakman: I came acrossthe Atheist Republicon Facebook. I was asked by them to be an administrator of the Brisbane Consulate where I approve applications to join and keep a watch for hateful or bigoted posts.

Jacobsen: How does an Atheist Republic consulate work? What are its daily operations? How do you make sure the operations function smoothly?

Speakman:The Atheist Republicis simply a Facebook group oflike-mindedpeople worldwide.

Jacobsen: Why volunteer for them? What meaning comes from it?

Speakman: I volunteered because I believe that communication and the sharing of ideasarethe way to overcome division,mistrust, and conflict. The internet provides such communication. The internet is a revolution that will unite the people of the world.

Jacobsen:How doesthe Atheist Republic, in your own experience and in conversing with others, give back to the atheist community and provide a platform for them even to simply vent from social and political conventions that hold them either in contempt or in begrudging silence for fear of loss of life quality?

Speakman:The Atheist Republicprovides a place where atheists can find each other, have a feeling of belonging andorganizethemselves.

Jacobsen:What do you hope for the future of atheism? What are the movements next steps?

Speakman: Ideally the internet will expose theists to ideas that will convert them into rational, peace loving citizens. I hope that United Atheist Republic Consulates can assist in bringing about peace in the world.

Jacobsen:Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

Speakman:These are critical times for the future of our planet and for mankind. Tough decisions need to be made regardingstabilizinghuman population and preserving our environment. Theists mustrealizethat the future of our planet is not in the hands of gods and that they must take responsibility for the making of their own future.

Jacobsen:Thank you for your time,Geoff.

Speakman:Youre welcome.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen founded In-Sight Publishing and In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. He works as an Associate Editor and Contributor for Conatus News, Editor and Contributor to The Good Men Project, a Board Member, Executive International Committee (International Research and Project Management) Member, and as the Chair of Social Media for the Almas Jiwani Foundation, Executive Administrator and Writer for Trusted Clothes, and Councillor in the Athabasca University Students Union. He contributes to the Basic Income Earth Network, The Beam, Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Check Your Head, Conatus News, Humanist Voices, The Voice Magazine, and Trusted Clothes. If you want to contact Scott: [emailprotected]; website: http://www.in-sightjournal.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/InSight_Journal.

View post:
Geoff Speakman, Atheist Republic Brisbane Consulate - The Good Men Project (blog)