Atheist Quotations

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

Women priests. Great, great. Now there's priests of both sexes I don't listen to.

We live in a highly polarized society. We need to try to understand each other in respectful ways. To that end, I believe that we should make room for both spiritual atheists and thinking believers.

Born again?! No, I'm not. Excuse me for getting it right the first time.

Now I have to say I'm a complete atheist, I have no religious views myself and no spiritual views, except very watered down humanistic spiritual views, and consciousness is just a fact of life, it's a natural fact of life.

It is usually when men are at their most religious that they behave with the least sense and the greatest cruelty.

Monkeys are superior to men in this: when a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey.

God's only excuse is that he does not exist.

When you walk away from God, and you walk away from Christ, you're basically uprooting the very foundations of being. So I don't think there is an easy way to do that. Even for the guy who becomes an atheist out of it, it's messy. It ain't pretty.

I think everything I write is from an atheist perspective. I mean, it's partly from an atheist perspective because I'm an atheist, and I'm just not really interested in religious-based questions.

The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.

No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism.

An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident.

Humans: become atheists each and all! God will nevertheless welcome you with all his heart!

If only I wasn't an atheist, I could get away with anything. You'd just ask for forgiveness and then you'd be forgiven. It sounds much better than having to live with guilt.

I am a sworn atheist and therefore from my point of view the Talmud or the Koran don't constitute works of political philosophy but rather writings that stand in utter contradiction to concepts like logic, freedom, feminism, secularism, brotherhood - which are my ideals.

People are always surprised when I say that I'm an atheist.

The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.

I consider myself a spiritual atheist. I certainly believe there are forces bigger than ourselves, and that we should be searching, individually, for meaning in our lives. But I don't believe there's a supreme being, an intelligence that created everything.

My parents were secular. I am an atheist.

Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that the Ten Commandments are a historical document that contains moral, ethical, and legal truisms that any person of any religion or even an atheist can recognize and appreciate.

Religion, to me, is a bureaucracy between man and God that I don't need.

To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy.

Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist that there is no God.

In no instance have... the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.

The new soft totalitarianism that is advancing on the left wants to have a state religion. It is an atheist, nihilistic religion - but it is a religion that is obligatory for all

I enjoy being Jewish, but I'm an atheist... I hate fundamentalism in all its forms. Jews, Catholics, Baptists, I think they are all potty and capable of destroying the world.

Questioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always. It's because I'm not quite an atheist and it worries me. There's that little bit that holds on: 'Well, I'm almost an atheist. Give me a couple of months.'

I believe that pluralistic secularism, in the long run, is a more deadly poison than straightforward persecution.

An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer said. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanished, war eliminated.

I don't know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn't.

I know of no wars started by anyone to impose lack of religion on someone else. We have lethal Sunni v Shia, Catholic against Protestant, but no agnostic suicide bombers attack crowded atheist pubs.

When we go to war I will not ask the White Racist next to me what is he Christian or Atheist? I will only expect him or her to kill the enemy as I will.

Isn't an agnostic just an atheist without balls?

I am not an atheist; I believe in God. But my religion ends there. I have my own personal belief system that is so strong it allows me to do what I do. I dont have to worry about going to Hell because of Slayer, you know? Everyone has a personal belief system and believes in life somehow.

I talk about the gods, I am an atheist. But I am an artist too, and therefore a liar. Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth.

Surely the immutable laws of the universe can teach more impressive and exalted lessons than the holy books of all the religions on earth.

I suspect that here theists and atheists would agree: Human beings have within them the ability to choose evil or good. We wake up each day facing the age-old struggle of good and evil. In some situations, mental illness clouds our judgment.

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

I'm sickened by all religions. Religion has divided people. I don't think there's any difference between the pope wearing a large hat and parading around with a smoking purse and an African painting his face white and praying to a rock.

I grew up Jewish, became an atheist and a Marxist, and 28 years ago, at age 26, became a Christian.

Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every stage of human history than any other single idea.

Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.

It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God - but to create him.

I always have a quotation for everything - it saves original thinking.

I don't bill myself as an atheist but as a naturalist. Naturalism is a belief system. A lot of scientists bristle at that. We all have to believe we can find the truth. Evidence is my guide. I rely on observation, experimentation and verification.

I don't have any real spirituality in my life - I'm kind of an atheist - but when music can take me to the highest heights, it's almost like a spiritual feeling. It fills that void for me.

No god ever gave any man anything, nor ever answered any prayer at any time - nor ever will.

The Internet has helped atheists and agnostics coalesce as never before.

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

We all dream. We dream vividly, depending on our nature. Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we're atheist.

I became an atheist because, as a graduate student studying quantum physics, life seemed to be reducible to second-order differential equations. Mathematics, chemistry and physics had it all. And I didn't see any need to go beyond that.

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

People who commit crimes should be responsible for those crimes. It doesn't matter whether they're priests or ministers or atheists.

I am atheist in a very religious mould. I'm always asking myself the big questions. Where did we come from? Is there a meaning to all of this? When I find myself in church, I edit the hymns as I sing them.

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?

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.

I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.

The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.

Lincoln said you cannot be President without spending some item on your knees. I have repeated that and a bunch of Atheists got all over me. Wait a minute. Does that mean that you cannot be President if you are an Atheist? I say yea that does mean that.

A Muslim fanatic and a Christian fanatic, a Jewish fanatic, a secular fanatic, an atheist fanatic, a communist fanatic - all of them are the same. The thinking that, 'If you don't think like me, that if you are not with me, then you are against me;' this is something to condemn.

I want three words: Woman, Atheist, Anarchist. That's me.

I'm a very hard-line, angry atheist. Yet I am fascinated by the concept of devotion.

I hope for the day when everyone can speak again of God without embarrassment.

All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.

As an atheist, I am angry that we live in a society in which the plain truth cannot be spoken without offending 90% of the population.

You happen to be talking to an agnostic. You know what an agnostic is? A cowardly atheist.

The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.

A god who let us prove his existence would be an idol.

I find myself by default an atheist but fairly unhappily so. It would be bloody marvelous if there was a god.

Evolution is a bankrupt speculative philosophy, not a scientific fact. Only a spiritually bankrupt society could ever believe it. Only atheists could accept this Satanic theory.

Even Helen Keller, who was born blind and deaf, could see God. No doubt, in her silent darkness, every fragrant flower, every ray of the warm sun, every taste that touched her tongue told her that there was a God who created all things. Jodie Foster shouldn't therefore be surprised that people are surprised that she's an atheist.

Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.

A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.

The atheist, by merely being in touch with reality, appears shamefully out of touch with the fantasy life of his neighbors.

It is unfair to label me anti-Islam. I am an atheist and a secular humanist.

My father is an atheist. My mother is Buddhist. They encouraged my siblings and me to take the best part of other religions to make our own belief system.

Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.

Since I was an atheist for many years and came to believe in God through my studies in science, it frustrated me to see students and parents who viewed faith and science as enemies.

A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.

I suppose I'm a lapsed Catholic. You would consider me an atheist or agnostic.

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up - they have no holidays.

I consider myself spiritual and I'm married to a man who is both an atheist and a humanist, and my kids have been raised with the traditions of different religions, but they do not go to church or temple. My feeling is that everyone should be able to believe what they want or need to believe.

I went through the standard scientific atheist phase when I was about 14. I bought into that package deal of science equals atheism.

Those religions that are oppressive to women are also against democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression.

In theater or movies you see either 'I'm religious' or 'I'm an atheist.' I've never seen too much discussion of 'I believe there's a higher power but I'm hesitant to reach out to him because I don't know if I'm worthy of his attention.

Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination.

The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.

No one can be an unbeliever nowadays. The Christian apologists have left one nothing to disbelieve.

Now, I'm an atheist. I really don't believe for a moment that our moral sense comes from a god.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist.

When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives.

When I go to Iran, I see... that there are all different shades and colors in Iran, from atheist to religious zealot. So Iran is no different than any other country. I mean, they are connected with the rest of the world.

I count religion but a childish toy, and hold there is no sin but ignorance.

I think flying planes into a building was a faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder.

Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions.

I'm a praying atheist. When I hear an ambulance siren, I ask for a blessing for those people in trouble, knowing that no one's listening. I think it's just a habit of mindfulness.

You have two choices with Obama. You either believe that he is a man of Christ... or you think he's a liar. And I'm surprised by the number of atheist free thinkers that support Obama, and their argument is essentially, 'He's lying about being religious 'cause you have to do that to get elected.' It's a horrible reason to like somebody.

I am surprised that anyone can profess to be an atheist.

Again, I was influenced by my father, who was very much an atheist and took pride in combating the traditional or orthodox forms of Judaism, which his parents and which my mother's parents were very steeped in.