Collected Quotes G - M
Things people have written or uttered that have inspired me, made me feel emotional, made me laugh, despair or face-palm, made me appreciate the irony, made me think, or perhaps made me wish that I could write as well as this or be glad that I don't. Internet comments have been left, grammatically, as found; bear in mind that some are undoubtedly examples of Poe's Law.
POE'S LAW: "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won't mistake for the genuine article." (Nathan Poe)
And obviously, just because I've quoted someone doesn't mean I endorse (or would ridicule) everything they have to say........
In no particular order except alphabetically by surname or pseudonym.
POE'S LAW: "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won't mistake for the genuine article." (Nathan Poe)
And obviously, just because I've quoted someone doesn't mean I endorse (or would ridicule) everything they have to say........
In no particular order except alphabetically by surname or pseudonym.
John Gabriel (Irish Pseudomathematician)
"The New Calculus is the greatest feat of human accomplishment. It is the first and only rigorous formulation of calculus in human history. Not worth one, but ten Abel prizes, given that no one before me was able to realise it." (John Gabriel)
"A useless arithmetic mean is one where it makes no sense to redistribute the values. Example: The arithmetic mean of student grades in a given class is a senseless calculation because students cannot share their marks." (John Gabriel)
"Asshole: I don't hate anyone because of what ethnic group they belong to. I hate conceited fucking assholes like you!!! You have lied and misrepresented anything and everything you could. You better be worried asshole because I promise you if there is anything I can do to get you for this slander and libel, I am going to make you eat shit! You pathetic Jewish cunt!!!" (John Gabriel)
"Mathematics was around long before the axioms and some goddam stupid Jews came along and obfuscated matters." (John Gabriel)
"The Greeks invented the integers. All else is the work of fools." (John Gabriel)
"The real numbers are not well defined." (John Gabriel)
"The New Calculus is the greatest feat of human accomplishment. It is the first and only rigorous formulation of calculus in human history. Not worth one, but ten Abel prizes, given that no one before me was able to realise it." (John Gabriel)
"A useless arithmetic mean is one where it makes no sense to redistribute the values. Example: The arithmetic mean of student grades in a given class is a senseless calculation because students cannot share their marks." (John Gabriel)
"Asshole: I don't hate anyone because of what ethnic group they belong to. I hate conceited fucking assholes like you!!! You have lied and misrepresented anything and everything you could. You better be worried asshole because I promise you if there is anything I can do to get you for this slander and libel, I am going to make you eat shit! You pathetic Jewish cunt!!!" (John Gabriel)
"Mathematics was around long before the axioms and some goddam stupid Jews came along and obfuscated matters." (John Gabriel)
"The Greeks invented the integers. All else is the work of fools." (John Gabriel)
"The real numbers are not well defined." (John Gabriel)
John Gray (1948- ; English philosopher)
"In the struggle for life, a taste for truth is a luxury – or else a disability: only tormented persons want truth." (John Gray)
"It is a strange fancy to suppose that science can bring reason to an irrational world, when all it can ever do is give another twist to the normal madness." (John Gray)
"We are not authors of our lives; we are not even part-authors of the events that mark us most deeply. Nearly everything that is most important in our lives is unchosen." (John Gray)
"The freest human being is not one who acts on reasons he as chosen for himself, but one who never has to choose. Rather than agonising over alternatives, he responds effortlessly to situations as they arise. He lives not as he chooses but as he must. Such a human being has the perfect freedom of a wild animal – or a machine." (John Gray)
"In the struggle for life, a taste for truth is a luxury – or else a disability: only tormented persons want truth." (John Gray)
"It is a strange fancy to suppose that science can bring reason to an irrational world, when all it can ever do is give another twist to the normal madness." (John Gray)
"We are not authors of our lives; we are not even part-authors of the events that mark us most deeply. Nearly everything that is most important in our lives is unchosen." (John Gray)
"The freest human being is not one who acts on reasons he as chosen for himself, but one who never has to choose. Rather than agonising over alternatives, he responds effortlessly to situations as they arise. He lives not as he chooses but as he must. Such a human being has the perfect freedom of a wild animal – or a machine." (John Gray)
Julien Green (1900-1998; American author)
"I enter the world called real as one enters a mist. Our life is a book that writes itself and whose principal themes sometimes escape us. We are like characters in a novel who do not always understand what the author wants of them. I don't want to go on playing in a world where everyone cheats. Where everyone cheats - not only men and women, but sometimes even God." (Julien Green)
"I knew that we counted little in comparison with the universe, I knew that we were nothing; but to be so immeasurably nothing seems in some way both to overwhelm and at the same time to reassure. Those figures, those dimensions beyond the range of human thought, are utterly overpowering. Is there anything whatsoever to which we can cling?" (Julien Green)
".........and at that point the church quietly articulated these words, which tell us something of the secret of old buildings: 'The worse I am threatened, the lovelier I become." (Julien Green)
"A dish which around which I see too many people doesn’t tempt me." (Julien Green)
"I enter the world called real as one enters a mist. Our life is a book that writes itself and whose principal themes sometimes escape us. We are like characters in a novel who do not always understand what the author wants of them. I don't want to go on playing in a world where everyone cheats. Where everyone cheats - not only men and women, but sometimes even God." (Julien Green)
"I knew that we counted little in comparison with the universe, I knew that we were nothing; but to be so immeasurably nothing seems in some way both to overwhelm and at the same time to reassure. Those figures, those dimensions beyond the range of human thought, are utterly overpowering. Is there anything whatsoever to which we can cling?" (Julien Green)
".........and at that point the church quietly articulated these words, which tell us something of the secret of old buildings: 'The worse I am threatened, the lovelier I become." (Julien Green)
"A dish which around which I see too many people doesn’t tempt me." (Julien Green)
Glenn Greenwald (1967- ; American lawyer and author)
"The First Amendment is actually not that complicated. It can be read from start to finish in about 10 seconds. It bars the government from abridging free speech rights. It doesn't have anything to do with whether you're free to say things without being criticized, or whether you can comment on blogs without being edited, or whether people can bar you from their private planes because they don't like what you've said." (Glenn Greenwald)
"..........nothing strengthens fascists and neo-fascists more than censorship. It turns them into martyrs, draws more attention and appeal to them. Every fascist group I've ever known loved being censored." (Glenn Greenwald)
"The First Amendment is actually not that complicated. It can be read from start to finish in about 10 seconds. It bars the government from abridging free speech rights. It doesn't have anything to do with whether you're free to say things without being criticized, or whether you can comment on blogs without being edited, or whether people can bar you from their private planes because they don't like what you've said." (Glenn Greenwald)
"..........nothing strengthens fascists and neo-fascists more than censorship. It turns them into martyrs, draws more attention and appeal to them. Every fascist group I've ever known loved being censored." (Glenn Greenwald)
Other G
"The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion." (Arnold H. Glasow)
"If there is no God, why do meteorites always land in the centre of craters?" (Internet commenter: Greg G)
"That than which nothing greater can be conceived is most likely an empty set. Draw conclusions accordingly." (Joel Grus)
“I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.” (Billy Graham)
"A subsistence farmer living on less than 2 dollars per day doesn’t need a western intellectual consigning him to a separate “epistemology of the South” and advocating “deep and profound civilisational changes”. He needs electricity so his children can do homework under a bulb." (Internet commenter: goldmund52)
"Claiming that a rejection of faith-based epistemology is still somehow a faith-based epistemology is as illogical as stating a rejection of gullibility is still somehow in of itself gullibility. Rejecting gullibility does not make it “A” gullibility in nothing, it’s just a rejection of gullibility." (Blogger: Godless Wolf)
“You could easily spot any religion of peace. Its extremist members would be extremely peaceful.” (Ricky Gervais)
“The validity of theoretical propositions in the sciences is in no way affected by factual evidence.” (Kenneth Gergen)
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." (John Kenneth Galbraith)
"In order for life to be sustained, living things must have other living things to ingest. What an odd thing for a mere cosmic coincidence to develop." (Carl Gallup)
“Here is a big tip make almost any woman stick to you like glue. That is, if this is what you want. The secret is to engage in REAL LIVE sexual intercourse. You read that correctly. It is penis in the vagina without condoms, without any so called “protection”, and inseminating her repeatedly. You see love is also hormonal and chemical. Your semen has hormones and chemicals that will make a woman love you. Inseminate them regularly and they will stick to you like glue.” (Internet commenter: goodsamaritan55)
"Ask yourself what grounds we have for believing that there are fairies at the bottom of the garden; consider what tests might be supposed to test the hypothesis that such things exist; ask yourself how reasonable it would be to organise your life on the supposition that such fairies exist. The evidential basis of belief in gods and other supernatural forces is no different from this." (A C Grayling)
"So let me get this straight, the unending, all-powerful force of creation that hand-made the universe funneled himself into the body of a human fetus and then teleported the fetus into the uterus of a married virgin. He then spent 30 years on earth walking around doing basically nothing and then one day rearranged reality to set in motion events that would lead to his own death.....effectively committing suicide. He does this because his death will, for some or other reason, clear humanity's sin tally (which he, himself is keeping up in heaven). And then after his plans to get himself killed fall into place, he looks around and asks himself why he has abandoned himself? Is that the basic gist of it?" (Hank Guerin)
"Lets be brutally frank about Einstein's theory. he imagined that the vacuum of space time is bent by the sun and the earth follows the local bent rails in the vacuum. No one has ever detected a shred of visible evidence for space time nor has anyone isolated or directly detected any gravity. Both Einstein and newton believed that static matter does enormous amounts of work bending the path of the Earth without changing anything about itself. This is nothing but a mathematical version of perpetual motion." (Internet commenter: godsriddle)
"However great a man's fear of life, suicide remains the courageous act, the clear-headed act of a mathematician. The suicide has judged by the laws of chance—so many odds against one that to live will be more miserable than to die. His sense of mathematics is greater than his sense of survival. But think how a sense of survival must clamor to be heard at the last moment, what excuses it must present of a totally unscientific nature." (Graham Greene)
"Believe those who seek the truth. Doubt those who find it." (André Gide)
"Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, surrounding yourself with assholes." (William Gibson)
"To me the most wondrous thing about science and physics in particular is the fact that through the power of thought and calculation and observation you can be led to conclusions vastly at odds with what you would think based on experience. I don't think there is anything more wondrous than that moment when you think the world is one way, and your equations, your math, your ideas, your theory begins to convince you it is another way." (Brian Greene)
"The sleep of reason produces monsters." (Francisco de Goya)
”I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” (Stephen J Gould)
"The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good." (Robert Graves)
"And Jesus did sayeth unto his followers, "whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me. Well, unless it's inconvenient for you, or lowers your standard of living, then you can just carry on. You know, volunteer at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving or something. Whatever helps you sleep at night."" (Mark Germano)
“If you have a society that grants religious privilege and exemption and you’re willing to give privilege and exemption to certain groups, then it’s unacceptable to give that only to people who believe in the supernatural.” (Lucien Greaves)
“Can God make a rock so heavy that hitting His head with it would explain the change in personality He underwent between the Old Testament and the New Testament? (Internet commenter: GubbaBumpkin)
“Modern Islamism is just a reaction to the fact that Israel has always been the tip of the US dick in the Middle East. How exactly do you politely explain that this is not my dick?” (Tige Gibson)
"If u have sex before marriage then in Gods eyes u are married to that person if a man rapes a woman in Gods eyes they are married it sucks for the girl but what can we do." (Internet commenter: God's soldier)
"The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion." (Arnold H. Glasow)
"If there is no God, why do meteorites always land in the centre of craters?" (Internet commenter: Greg G)
"That than which nothing greater can be conceived is most likely an empty set. Draw conclusions accordingly." (Joel Grus)
“I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.” (Billy Graham)
"A subsistence farmer living on less than 2 dollars per day doesn’t need a western intellectual consigning him to a separate “epistemology of the South” and advocating “deep and profound civilisational changes”. He needs electricity so his children can do homework under a bulb." (Internet commenter: goldmund52)
"Claiming that a rejection of faith-based epistemology is still somehow a faith-based epistemology is as illogical as stating a rejection of gullibility is still somehow in of itself gullibility. Rejecting gullibility does not make it “A” gullibility in nothing, it’s just a rejection of gullibility." (Blogger: Godless Wolf)
“You could easily spot any religion of peace. Its extremist members would be extremely peaceful.” (Ricky Gervais)
“The validity of theoretical propositions in the sciences is in no way affected by factual evidence.” (Kenneth Gergen)
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." (John Kenneth Galbraith)
"In order for life to be sustained, living things must have other living things to ingest. What an odd thing for a mere cosmic coincidence to develop." (Carl Gallup)
“Here is a big tip make almost any woman stick to you like glue. That is, if this is what you want. The secret is to engage in REAL LIVE sexual intercourse. You read that correctly. It is penis in the vagina without condoms, without any so called “protection”, and inseminating her repeatedly. You see love is also hormonal and chemical. Your semen has hormones and chemicals that will make a woman love you. Inseminate them regularly and they will stick to you like glue.” (Internet commenter: goodsamaritan55)
"Ask yourself what grounds we have for believing that there are fairies at the bottom of the garden; consider what tests might be supposed to test the hypothesis that such things exist; ask yourself how reasonable it would be to organise your life on the supposition that such fairies exist. The evidential basis of belief in gods and other supernatural forces is no different from this." (A C Grayling)
"So let me get this straight, the unending, all-powerful force of creation that hand-made the universe funneled himself into the body of a human fetus and then teleported the fetus into the uterus of a married virgin. He then spent 30 years on earth walking around doing basically nothing and then one day rearranged reality to set in motion events that would lead to his own death.....effectively committing suicide. He does this because his death will, for some or other reason, clear humanity's sin tally (which he, himself is keeping up in heaven). And then after his plans to get himself killed fall into place, he looks around and asks himself why he has abandoned himself? Is that the basic gist of it?" (Hank Guerin)
"Lets be brutally frank about Einstein's theory. he imagined that the vacuum of space time is bent by the sun and the earth follows the local bent rails in the vacuum. No one has ever detected a shred of visible evidence for space time nor has anyone isolated or directly detected any gravity. Both Einstein and newton believed that static matter does enormous amounts of work bending the path of the Earth without changing anything about itself. This is nothing but a mathematical version of perpetual motion." (Internet commenter: godsriddle)
"However great a man's fear of life, suicide remains the courageous act, the clear-headed act of a mathematician. The suicide has judged by the laws of chance—so many odds against one that to live will be more miserable than to die. His sense of mathematics is greater than his sense of survival. But think how a sense of survival must clamor to be heard at the last moment, what excuses it must present of a totally unscientific nature." (Graham Greene)
"Believe those who seek the truth. Doubt those who find it." (André Gide)
"Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, surrounding yourself with assholes." (William Gibson)
"To me the most wondrous thing about science and physics in particular is the fact that through the power of thought and calculation and observation you can be led to conclusions vastly at odds with what you would think based on experience. I don't think there is anything more wondrous than that moment when you think the world is one way, and your equations, your math, your ideas, your theory begins to convince you it is another way." (Brian Greene)
"The sleep of reason produces monsters." (Francisco de Goya)
”I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” (Stephen J Gould)
"The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good." (Robert Graves)
"And Jesus did sayeth unto his followers, "whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me. Well, unless it's inconvenient for you, or lowers your standard of living, then you can just carry on. You know, volunteer at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving or something. Whatever helps you sleep at night."" (Mark Germano)
“If you have a society that grants religious privilege and exemption and you’re willing to give privilege and exemption to certain groups, then it’s unacceptable to give that only to people who believe in the supernatural.” (Lucien Greaves)
“Can God make a rock so heavy that hitting His head with it would explain the change in personality He underwent between the Old Testament and the New Testament? (Internet commenter: GubbaBumpkin)
“Modern Islamism is just a reaction to the fact that Israel has always been the tip of the US dick in the Middle East. How exactly do you politely explain that this is not my dick?” (Tige Gibson)
"If u have sex before marriage then in Gods eyes u are married to that person if a man rapes a woman in Gods eyes they are married it sucks for the girl but what can we do." (Internet commenter: God's soldier)
N. Katherine Hayles (1943- ; American postmodernist literary critic)
“Whereas men have sex organs that protrude and become rigid, women have openings that leak menstrual blood and vaginal fluids. From this perspective it is no wonder that science has not been able to arrive at a successful model for turbulence. The problem of turbulent flow cannot be solved because the conceptions of fluids (and of women) have been formulated so as necessarily to leave unarticulated remainders.” (N. Katherine Hayles)
“Almost without exception, [physical] conservation laws were formulated, developed and experimentally tested by men. If conservation laws represent particular emphases and not inevitable facts, then people living in different kinds of bodies and identifying with different gender constructions might well have arrived at different models for [fluid] flow.” (N. Katherine Hayles)
“Whereas men have sex organs that protrude and become rigid, women have openings that leak menstrual blood and vaginal fluids. From this perspective it is no wonder that science has not been able to arrive at a successful model for turbulence. The problem of turbulent flow cannot be solved because the conceptions of fluids (and of women) have been formulated so as necessarily to leave unarticulated remainders.” (N. Katherine Hayles)
“Almost without exception, [physical] conservation laws were formulated, developed and experimentally tested by men. If conservation laws represent particular emphases and not inevitable facts, then people living in different kinds of bodies and identifying with different gender constructions might well have arrived at different models for [fluid] flow.” (N. Katherine Hayles)
Ken Ham (1951- ; Australian-American creationist)
“When we hear the term light-year, we need to realize it is not a measure of time but a measure of distance, telling us how far away something is. Distant stars and galaxies might be millions of light-years away, but that doesn’t mean that it took millions of years for the light to get here, it just means it is really far away!” (Ken Ham)
"The Bible makes it clear that Adam’s sin affected the whole universe. This means that any aliens would also be affected by Adam’s sin, but because they are not Adam’s descendants, they can’t have salvation." (Ken Ham)
“When we hear the term light-year, we need to realize it is not a measure of time but a measure of distance, telling us how far away something is. Distant stars and galaxies might be millions of light-years away, but that doesn’t mean that it took millions of years for the light to get here, it just means it is really far away!” (Ken Ham)
"The Bible makes it clear that Adam’s sin affected the whole universe. This means that any aliens would also be affected by Adam’s sin, but because they are not Adam’s descendants, they can’t have salvation." (Ken Ham)
Jack Handey (1949- ; American author)
"If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is ‘God is crying.’ And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is ‘Probably because of something you did.’" (Jack Handey)
"I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it." (Jack Handey)
"If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is ‘God is crying.’ And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is ‘Probably because of something you did.’" (Jack Handey)
"I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it." (Jack Handey)
Sam Harris (1967- ; American author, philosopher and neuroscientist)
"There is no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too reasonable." (Sam Harris)
"We can name plenty of religious hypotheses about the nature of the world that science disproved over time. Can we name the opposite?" (Sam Harris)
"Science is the one endeavor in which we have developed a refined methodology for separating what a person hopes is true from what he has good reason to believe. The methodology isn't perfect, and the history of science is riddled with abject failures of scientific objectivity. But that is just the point-these have been failures of science, discovered and corrected by-what, religion? No, by good science." (Sam Harris)
"George Bush says he speaks to god every day, and Christians love him for it. If George Bush said he spoke to god through his hair dryer, they would think he was mad. I fail to see how the addition of a hair dryer makes it any more absurd." (Sam Harris)
"If someone doesn’t value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide that proves someone should value it? If someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument could you invoke to show that they should value logic?" (Sam Harris)
“It is time we realized that to presume knowledge where one has only pious hope is a species of evil. Wherever conviction grows in inverse proportion to its justification, we have lost the very basis of human cooperation.” (Sam Harris)
"It is possible to be well educated, so well educated that you can be a neurosurgeon and still believe that you can get 72 virgins in paradise." (Sam Harris)
"Imagine a world in which generations of human beings come to believe that certain films were made by God or that specific software was coded by him. Imagine a future in which millions of our descendants murder each other over rival interpretations of Star Wars or Windows 98. Could anything - anything - be more ridiculous. And yet, this would be no more ridiculous than the world we are living in." (Sam Harris)
"There is no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too reasonable." (Sam Harris)
"We can name plenty of religious hypotheses about the nature of the world that science disproved over time. Can we name the opposite?" (Sam Harris)
"Science is the one endeavor in which we have developed a refined methodology for separating what a person hopes is true from what he has good reason to believe. The methodology isn't perfect, and the history of science is riddled with abject failures of scientific objectivity. But that is just the point-these have been failures of science, discovered and corrected by-what, religion? No, by good science." (Sam Harris)
"George Bush says he speaks to god every day, and Christians love him for it. If George Bush said he spoke to god through his hair dryer, they would think he was mad. I fail to see how the addition of a hair dryer makes it any more absurd." (Sam Harris)
"If someone doesn’t value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide that proves someone should value it? If someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument could you invoke to show that they should value logic?" (Sam Harris)
“It is time we realized that to presume knowledge where one has only pious hope is a species of evil. Wherever conviction grows in inverse proportion to its justification, we have lost the very basis of human cooperation.” (Sam Harris)
"It is possible to be well educated, so well educated that you can be a neurosurgeon and still believe that you can get 72 virgins in paradise." (Sam Harris)
"Imagine a world in which generations of human beings come to believe that certain films were made by God or that specific software was coded by him. Imagine a future in which millions of our descendants murder each other over rival interpretations of Star Wars or Windows 98. Could anything - anything - be more ridiculous. And yet, this would be no more ridiculous than the world we are living in." (Sam Harris)
Jim Harrison (1937- ; American author)
"I've got a copy of an old French prayer around here someplace that asks the Virgin Mary's aid in healing a farmer's ailing mules. That's what real religion is like on the hoof." (Jim Harrison)
"Liberals tolerate inequality if it leads to growth......conservatives tolerate economic stagnation if it maintains inequality." (Jim Harrison)
"If we're going to execute people, we ought to at least insist that the jury form the firing squad and the judge load the rifles. The prosecutor can mop up the blood afterwards." (Jim Harrison)
"The Nazis lost: America's slavers merely suffered a setback. Which is why their descendants exercise huge political power to this day." (Jim Harrison)
"I've got a copy of an old French prayer around here someplace that asks the Virgin Mary's aid in healing a farmer's ailing mules. That's what real religion is like on the hoof." (Jim Harrison)
"Liberals tolerate inequality if it leads to growth......conservatives tolerate economic stagnation if it maintains inequality." (Jim Harrison)
"If we're going to execute people, we ought to at least insist that the jury form the firing squad and the judge load the rifles. The prosecutor can mop up the blood afterwards." (Jim Harrison)
"The Nazis lost: America's slavers merely suffered a setback. Which is why their descendants exercise huge political power to this day." (Jim Harrison)
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018; English physicist and cosmologist)
"Not only does God play dice but.......he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen." (Stephen Hawking)
"Whenever I hear Schrodinger's cat, I reach for my pistol." (Stephen Hawking)
"The intelligent beings in these regions should therefore not be surprised if they observe that their locality in the universe satisfies the conditions that are necessary for their existence. It is a bit like a rich person living in a wealthy neighbourhood not seeing any poverty." (Stephen Hawking)
"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." (Stephen Hawking)
"You can't afford to be disabled in spirit as well as physically. People won't have time for you." (Stephen Hawking)
"Quiet people have the loudest minds." (Stephen Hawking)
"Not only does God play dice but.......he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen." (Stephen Hawking)
"Whenever I hear Schrodinger's cat, I reach for my pistol." (Stephen Hawking)
"The intelligent beings in these regions should therefore not be surprised if they observe that their locality in the universe satisfies the conditions that are necessary for their existence. It is a bit like a rich person living in a wealthy neighbourhood not seeing any poverty." (Stephen Hawking)
"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." (Stephen Hawking)
"You can't afford to be disabled in spirit as well as physically. People won't have time for you." (Stephen Hawking)
"Quiet people have the loudest minds." (Stephen Hawking)
Sadegh Hedayat (1903-1951; Iranian novelist)
“I passed through many streets without any predetermined destination and, distraughtly walked by the rabble who, with greedy faces, were in pursuit of money and lust. In fact, I did not need to see them to know them; one was enough to represent the rest. They were all like one big mouth leading to a wad of guts, terminating in a sexual organ.” (Sadegh Hedayat)
"What relationship could exist between the lives of the fools and healthy rabble who were well, who slept well, who performed the sexual act well, who had never felt the wings of death on their face every moment—what relationship could exist between them and one like me who has arrived at the end of his rope and who knows that he will pass away gradually and tragically?" (Sadegh Hedayat)
“I passed through many streets without any predetermined destination and, distraughtly walked by the rabble who, with greedy faces, were in pursuit of money and lust. In fact, I did not need to see them to know them; one was enough to represent the rest. They were all like one big mouth leading to a wad of guts, terminating in a sexual organ.” (Sadegh Hedayat)
"What relationship could exist between the lives of the fools and healthy rabble who were well, who slept well, who performed the sexual act well, who had never felt the wings of death on their face every moment—what relationship could exist between them and one like me who has arrived at the end of his rope and who knows that he will pass away gradually and tragically?" (Sadegh Hedayat)
Robert A Heinlein (1907-1988; American science fiction author)
"Anyone who can worship a trinity and insist that his religion is a monotheism can believe anything. Just give him enough time to rationalize it" (Robert A. Heinlein)
"I've never understood how God could expect his creatures to pick the one true religion by faith — it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a Universe." (Robert A. Heinlein)
"God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent - it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks please. Cash and in small bills." (Robert A. Heinlein)
"Anyone who can worship a trinity and insist that his religion is a monotheism can believe anything. Just give him enough time to rationalize it" (Robert A. Heinlein)
"I've never understood how God could expect his creatures to pick the one true religion by faith — it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a Universe." (Robert A. Heinlein)
"God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent - it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks please. Cash and in small bills." (Robert A. Heinlein)
Coel Hellier (English astrophysicist)
"..........theologians are generally sufficiently wily not to hold any beliefs about observational statements that are vulnerable to being disconfirmed. All the action tends to take place in non-observable places such as heaven and hell, precisely to get round this problem." (Coel Hellier)
"Anyone saying that they believe in free speech "except when it crosses the line to being offensive" does not believe in free speech. Indeed, it is only speech that someone objects to that needs protection." (Coel Hellier)
"..........theologians are generally sufficiently wily not to hold any beliefs about observational statements that are vulnerable to being disconfirmed. All the action tends to take place in non-observable places such as heaven and hell, precisely to get round this problem." (Coel Hellier)
"Anyone saying that they believe in free speech "except when it crosses the line to being offensive" does not believe in free speech. Indeed, it is only speech that someone objects to that needs protection." (Coel Hellier)
David Hilbert (1862-1943; German mathematician)
"Taking the principle of the excluded middle from the mathematician would be the same, say, as proscribing the telescope to the astronomer or to the boxer the use of his fists. To prohibit existence statements and the principle of excluded middle is tantamount to relinquishing the science of mathematics altogether." (David Hilbert)
"Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom. That may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself." (David Hilbert)
"Taking the principle of the excluded middle from the mathematician would be the same, say, as proscribing the telescope to the astronomer or to the boxer the use of his fists. To prohibit existence statements and the principle of excluded middle is tantamount to relinquishing the science of mathematics altogether." (David Hilbert)
"Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom. That may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself." (David Hilbert)
Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011; English-American author)
"It could be that all existence is a pointless joke, but it is not in fact possible to live one's everyday life as if this were so." (Christopher Hitchens)
"I have been called arrogant in my time, and hope to earn the title again, but to claim that I am privy to the secrets of the universe and its creator - that's beyond my conceit." (Christopher Hitchens)
"A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humour, parenthood, literature and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called meaningless." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out arguments and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence." (Christopher Hitchens)
"I am more inclined to doubt something if its truth would suit me." (Christopher Hitchens)
"What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody—not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms—had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species, and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge (as well as for comfort, reassurance, and other infantile needs). Today the least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Nothing optional from homosexuality to adultery is ever made punishable unless those who do the prohibiting (and exact the fierce punishment) have a repressed desire to participate." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal; the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse." (Christopher Hitchens)
"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." (Christopher Hitchens)
"The religion which treats its flock as a credulous plaything offers one of the cruelest spectacles that can be imagined; a human being in fear and doubt who is openly exploited to believe in the impossible." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Here is my challenge. Name one ethical statement made, or one ethical action performed, by a believer that could not have been uttered or done by a nonbeliever. And here is my second challenge. Can any reader think of a wicked statement made, or an evil action performed, precisely because of religious faith? The second question is easy to answer, is it not? The first - I have been asking it for some time - awaits a convincing reply. By what right, then, do the faithful assume this irritating mantle of righteousness? They have as much to apologize for as to explain." (Christopher Hitchens)
"How much vanity must be concealed - not to effectively at that - in order to pretend that one is the personal object of a divine plan?" (Christopher Hitchins)
"The man who prays is the one who thinks that God has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that he can instruct God how to put them right." (Christopher Hitchens)
"It could be that all existence is a pointless joke, but it is not in fact possible to live one's everyday life as if this were so." (Christopher Hitchens)
"I have been called arrogant in my time, and hope to earn the title again, but to claim that I am privy to the secrets of the universe and its creator - that's beyond my conceit." (Christopher Hitchens)
"A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humour, parenthood, literature and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called meaningless." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out arguments and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence." (Christopher Hitchens)
"I am more inclined to doubt something if its truth would suit me." (Christopher Hitchens)
"What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody—not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms—had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species, and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge (as well as for comfort, reassurance, and other infantile needs). Today the least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Nothing optional from homosexuality to adultery is ever made punishable unless those who do the prohibiting (and exact the fierce punishment) have a repressed desire to participate." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal; the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse." (Christopher Hitchens)
"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." (Christopher Hitchens)
"The religion which treats its flock as a credulous plaything offers one of the cruelest spectacles that can be imagined; a human being in fear and doubt who is openly exploited to believe in the impossible." (Christopher Hitchens)
"Here is my challenge. Name one ethical statement made, or one ethical action performed, by a believer that could not have been uttered or done by a nonbeliever. And here is my second challenge. Can any reader think of a wicked statement made, or an evil action performed, precisely because of religious faith? The second question is easy to answer, is it not? The first - I have been asking it for some time - awaits a convincing reply. By what right, then, do the faithful assume this irritating mantle of righteousness? They have as much to apologize for as to explain." (Christopher Hitchens)
"How much vanity must be concealed - not to effectively at that - in order to pretend that one is the personal object of a divine plan?" (Christopher Hitchins)
"The man who prays is the one who thinks that God has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that he can instruct God how to put them right." (Christopher Hitchens)
Sabine Hossenfelder (1976- ; German theoretical physicist)
“Either the laws of nature will break down unpredictably or they won’t. If they do, there’s nothing we can do about it. If they don’t, it would be stupid not to use predictions to improve our lives.” (Sabine Hossenfelder)
"Look, go and write down the standard model of particle physics and then try to figure out what you want to change about it in order to give consciousness to particles. I am telling you there is nothing you can change about it without ruining the model's power to explain data. I understand that this is inconvenient for you, but I think you should face this problem." (Sabine Hossenfelder)
"Post-empirical science is an oxymoron." (Sabine Hossenfelder)
"Religious explanation is an oxymoron. Religion is what people draw upon if they don't want to admit they have no explanation." (Sabine Hossenfelder)
"Everyone knows there's no reason that a scientific explanation must appeal to the human sense of beauty. Right? Doesn't everyone know this? Science is about explaining observations, regardless of whether we like these explanations..........Arguments from beauty are additional assumptions, and they are unnecessary to make a theory work." (Sabine Hossenfelder)
“Either the laws of nature will break down unpredictably or they won’t. If they do, there’s nothing we can do about it. If they don’t, it would be stupid not to use predictions to improve our lives.” (Sabine Hossenfelder)
"Look, go and write down the standard model of particle physics and then try to figure out what you want to change about it in order to give consciousness to particles. I am telling you there is nothing you can change about it without ruining the model's power to explain data. I understand that this is inconvenient for you, but I think you should face this problem." (Sabine Hossenfelder)
"Post-empirical science is an oxymoron." (Sabine Hossenfelder)
"Religious explanation is an oxymoron. Religion is what people draw upon if they don't want to admit they have no explanation." (Sabine Hossenfelder)
"Everyone knows there's no reason that a scientific explanation must appeal to the human sense of beauty. Right? Doesn't everyone know this? Science is about explaining observations, regardless of whether we like these explanations..........Arguments from beauty are additional assumptions, and they are unnecessary to make a theory work." (Sabine Hossenfelder)
Kent Hovind (1953- ; American preacher and convicted fraudster)
"The God of the Bible being the creator of the universe must be true, not because it has been proven in the laboratory, but because otherwise it would be necessary to believe that there are other Gods." (Kent Hovind)
"The Earth is billions of years old. The geologic column is the way to interpret it, and Charles Darwin's evolution is right. That is what they teach in order to be a good communist." (Kent Hovind)
"The God of the Bible being the creator of the universe must be true, not because it has been proven in the laboratory, but because otherwise it would be necessary to believe that there are other Gods." (Kent Hovind)
"The Earth is billions of years old. The geologic column is the way to interpret it, and Charles Darwin's evolution is right. That is what they teach in order to be a good communist." (Kent Hovind)
Rodney Howard-Browne (1961 -; South African-American preacher and evangelist)
"At the highest level, the people that rule the planet worship Lucifer. These people perform human sacrifices and drink blood. I don't care what you believe. We've got all the documentation on it." (Rodney Howard-Browne)
"They sacrifice children at the highest levels in Hollywood. They drink the blood of young kids. This is a fact. The human sacrifice and the cannibalism has been going on for years." (Rodney Howard-Browne)
"At the highest level, the people that rule the planet worship Lucifer. These people perform human sacrifices and drink blood. I don't care what you believe. We've got all the documentation on it." (Rodney Howard-Browne)
"They sacrifice children at the highest levels in Hollywood. They drink the blood of young kids. This is a fact. The human sacrifice and the cannibalism has been going on for years." (Rodney Howard-Browne)
Nicholas Humphrey (1943- ; English psychologist)
"........it originates with what is, arguably, one of the most remarkable confidence tricks our culture has played on us. This has been to persuade people that there is a deep connection between believing in the possibility of psychic forces and being a gracious, honest, upright, trustworthy member of society." (Nicholas Humphrey)
"In a dangerous world there will always be more people around whose prayers for their own safety have been answered than those whose prayers have not." (Nicholas Humphrey)
"........it originates with what is, arguably, one of the most remarkable confidence tricks our culture has played on us. This has been to persuade people that there is a deep connection between believing in the possibility of psychic forces and being a gracious, honest, upright, trustworthy member of society." (Nicholas Humphrey)
"In a dangerous world there will always be more people around whose prayers for their own safety have been answered than those whose prayers have not." (Nicholas Humphrey)
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963; English author)
"Rational and kindly behaviour tends to produce good results and these results remain good even when the behaviour which produced them was itself produced by a pill." (Aldous Huxley)
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." (Aldous Huxley)
“You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion..... Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat's meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough." (Aldous Huxley)
"Rational and kindly behaviour tends to produce good results and these results remain good even when the behaviour which produced them was itself produced by a pill." (Aldous Huxley)
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." (Aldous Huxley)
“You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion..... Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat's meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough." (Aldous Huxley)
Other H
"Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fantasies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing. The child mind accepts and believes them, and only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after years relieved of them." (Hypatia of Alexandria)
"I divide my officers into four groups. There are clever, diligent, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and diligent – their place is the General Staff. The next lot are stupid and lazy – they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the intellectual clarity and the composure necessary for difficult decisions. One must beware of anyone who is stupid and diligent – he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always cause only mischief." (Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord)
"People these days don't know how good they have it. Back in my day you had to spend weeks reading Erich von Däniken, Charles Berlitz, or Hal Lindsay, to become a living embodiment of the phrase "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing". Now you can just check Facebook and Wikipedia." (James Huber)
"That which can be destroyed by the truth should be." (P C Hodgell)
"If no thought your mind does visit, make your speech not too explicit." (Piet Hein)
"All religions, including Buddhism, stem from our narcissistic wish to believe that the universe was created for our benefit, as a stage for our spiritual quests. In contrast, science tells us that we are incidental, accidental. Far from being the raison d'être of the universe, we appeared through sheer happenstance, and we could vanish in the same way. This is not a comforting viewpoint, but science, unlike religion, seeks truth regardless of how it makes us feel. Buddhism raises radical questions about our inner and outer reality, but it is finally not radical enough to accommodate science's disturbing perspective. The remaining question is whether any form of spirituality can." (John Horgan)
"Tell me this since you believe we evolved from a rock. If someone were to smash a stone with a sledgehammer, would you consider that murder?" (Internet commenter: Heavens Janitor)
“Whatever the God implied by evolutionary theory may be like, He is not the Protestant God of waste not, want not. He is also not a loving God who cares about his productions. He is not even the awful God portrayed in the book of Job. The God of the Galapagos is careless, wasteful, indifferent, almost diabolical. He is certainly not the sort of God to whom anyone would be inclined to pray.” (David Hull)
"Irrationality is the square root of all evil." (Douglas Hofstadter)
"Address the rational with reason, and the irrational with ridicule." (Madison S Hughes)
"Separation of church and state is necessary because there is no separation of religion and ignorance." (Richard Halasz)
"There are only two ways we know of to make extremely complicated things, one is by engineering, and the other is evolution. And of the two, evolution will make the more complex." (Danny Hillis)
“Find out what people believe to be sacred, and when you look around there you will find rampant irrationality.” (Jonathan Haidt)
"Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction." (Adolf Hitler)
"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: one is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing and you should save it for someone you love." (Butch Hancock)
"If you view crossing the finish line as the measure of your life, you're heading for personal disaster." (Chris Hadfield)
"One thing I learned from engaging with Christian apologists is that they can easily defend the proposition that God exists, as long as the definition of 'God' is sufficiently nebulous and the definition of 'exists' is sufficiently metaphysical. Wrestling with that claim on those terms is like wrestling a jellyfish. Another thing I learned is that it's not necessary to wrestle a jellyfish." (Adam Hazzard)
"Arguing that God exists because all people are moral is like arguing that Cupid exists because all people fall in love." (Tommy Holland)
"The only way that sexuality is not disordered is in marriage between a man and a woman whose sexual act is open to the possibility of making a baby. ANY OTHER sexual activity is gravely disordered (puts the person into mortal sin). That means that any other sexual activity of any kind, by definition, is gravely disordered and the person or persons involved, hetero or gay, male or female, elderly or newly pubesecent are guilty." (Tom Hanson)
"Physics does not require a mind, and things do not need to be told to be what they are. A mind is only needed to label and conceptualise observation. If a tree falls in a forest and there are no minds to think about it, it is still a fallen tree." (David Eriol Hickman)
"Unthinking faith is a curious offering to be made to the creator of the human mind." (John A Hutchinson)
"Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous." (David Hume)
"In theology it is a mistake to be born before Darwin." (J Rendel Harris)
"Naïveté in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity, it is indistinguishable from stupidity." (Eric Hoffer)
"The difference between faith and insanity is that faith is the ability to hold firmly to a conclusion that is incompatible with the evidence whereas insanity is the ability to hold firmly to a conclusion that is incompatible with the evidence." (William Harwood)
"Eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God's infinite love." (Bill Hicks)
"Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours." (Hermann Hesse)
“Like most people, I like to think that if I had been transported back to 1920’s Germany as a baby and placed with an average family that I would have grown up opposing the Nazi regime. Sadly though it seems likely I would have grown up a Nazi.” (Robin Herbert)
"Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fantasies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing. The child mind accepts and believes them, and only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after years relieved of them." (Hypatia of Alexandria)
"I divide my officers into four groups. There are clever, diligent, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and diligent – their place is the General Staff. The next lot are stupid and lazy – they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the intellectual clarity and the composure necessary for difficult decisions. One must beware of anyone who is stupid and diligent – he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always cause only mischief." (Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord)
"People these days don't know how good they have it. Back in my day you had to spend weeks reading Erich von Däniken, Charles Berlitz, or Hal Lindsay, to become a living embodiment of the phrase "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing". Now you can just check Facebook and Wikipedia." (James Huber)
"That which can be destroyed by the truth should be." (P C Hodgell)
"If no thought your mind does visit, make your speech not too explicit." (Piet Hein)
"All religions, including Buddhism, stem from our narcissistic wish to believe that the universe was created for our benefit, as a stage for our spiritual quests. In contrast, science tells us that we are incidental, accidental. Far from being the raison d'être of the universe, we appeared through sheer happenstance, and we could vanish in the same way. This is not a comforting viewpoint, but science, unlike religion, seeks truth regardless of how it makes us feel. Buddhism raises radical questions about our inner and outer reality, but it is finally not radical enough to accommodate science's disturbing perspective. The remaining question is whether any form of spirituality can." (John Horgan)
"Tell me this since you believe we evolved from a rock. If someone were to smash a stone with a sledgehammer, would you consider that murder?" (Internet commenter: Heavens Janitor)
“Whatever the God implied by evolutionary theory may be like, He is not the Protestant God of waste not, want not. He is also not a loving God who cares about his productions. He is not even the awful God portrayed in the book of Job. The God of the Galapagos is careless, wasteful, indifferent, almost diabolical. He is certainly not the sort of God to whom anyone would be inclined to pray.” (David Hull)
"Irrationality is the square root of all evil." (Douglas Hofstadter)
"Address the rational with reason, and the irrational with ridicule." (Madison S Hughes)
"Separation of church and state is necessary because there is no separation of religion and ignorance." (Richard Halasz)
"There are only two ways we know of to make extremely complicated things, one is by engineering, and the other is evolution. And of the two, evolution will make the more complex." (Danny Hillis)
“Find out what people believe to be sacred, and when you look around there you will find rampant irrationality.” (Jonathan Haidt)
"Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction." (Adolf Hitler)
"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: one is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing and you should save it for someone you love." (Butch Hancock)
"If you view crossing the finish line as the measure of your life, you're heading for personal disaster." (Chris Hadfield)
"One thing I learned from engaging with Christian apologists is that they can easily defend the proposition that God exists, as long as the definition of 'God' is sufficiently nebulous and the definition of 'exists' is sufficiently metaphysical. Wrestling with that claim on those terms is like wrestling a jellyfish. Another thing I learned is that it's not necessary to wrestle a jellyfish." (Adam Hazzard)
"Arguing that God exists because all people are moral is like arguing that Cupid exists because all people fall in love." (Tommy Holland)
"The only way that sexuality is not disordered is in marriage between a man and a woman whose sexual act is open to the possibility of making a baby. ANY OTHER sexual activity is gravely disordered (puts the person into mortal sin). That means that any other sexual activity of any kind, by definition, is gravely disordered and the person or persons involved, hetero or gay, male or female, elderly or newly pubesecent are guilty." (Tom Hanson)
"Physics does not require a mind, and things do not need to be told to be what they are. A mind is only needed to label and conceptualise observation. If a tree falls in a forest and there are no minds to think about it, it is still a fallen tree." (David Eriol Hickman)
"Unthinking faith is a curious offering to be made to the creator of the human mind." (John A Hutchinson)
"Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous." (David Hume)
"In theology it is a mistake to be born before Darwin." (J Rendel Harris)
"Naïveté in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity, it is indistinguishable from stupidity." (Eric Hoffer)
"The difference between faith and insanity is that faith is the ability to hold firmly to a conclusion that is incompatible with the evidence whereas insanity is the ability to hold firmly to a conclusion that is incompatible with the evidence." (William Harwood)
"Eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God's infinite love." (Bill Hicks)
"Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours." (Hermann Hesse)
“Like most people, I like to think that if I had been transported back to 1920’s Germany as a baby and placed with an average family that I would have grown up opposing the Nazi regime. Sadly though it seems likely I would have grown up a Nazi.” (Robin Herbert)
Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899; American lawyer, politician and author)
"You have no right to erect your tollgate upon the highways of thought." (Robert Ingersoll)
"If I owe Smith ten dollars and God forgives me, that doesn't pay Smith." (Robert Ingersoll)
"Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself." (Robert Ingersoll)
"If the Bible be true, the supreme and infinite God was once a savage." (Robert Ingersoll)
“Can you imagine anything more absurd than an infinite intelligence in infinite nothing wasting an eternity?” (Robert Ingersoll)
"You have no right to erect your tollgate upon the highways of thought." (Robert Ingersoll)
"If I owe Smith ten dollars and God forgives me, that doesn't pay Smith." (Robert Ingersoll)
"Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself." (Robert Ingersoll)
"If the Bible be true, the supreme and infinite God was once a savage." (Robert Ingersoll)
“Can you imagine anything more absurd than an infinite intelligence in infinite nothing wasting an eternity?” (Robert Ingersoll)
Other I
"We eat well, we drink well, we live well. But we do not have good dreams." (Michael Ignatieff)
"When we landed on the moon, that was the point where god should have come up and said 'hello'. Because if you invent some creatures, put them on the blue one and they make it to the grey one, you fucking turn up and say 'well done'." (Eddie Izzard)
“I believe in the separation of church and planet.” (Eric Idle)
"All of science is completely wrong and all of religion is completely correct." (Internet commenter: idpnsd)
"School is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is." (Ivan Illich)
“I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution to someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag.” (Molly Ivins)
"The only thing I don't like about them is they sell foreign language versions of the KJB. I don't think that's right. We know the only true translation is the 1600's version in English. It's too risky for anybody to translate that into other languages. Mistakes can creep in..........and that can lead to heresy. True Christians should only read English. (Internet commenter: Ieyenda)
"We eat well, we drink well, we live well. But we do not have good dreams." (Michael Ignatieff)
"When we landed on the moon, that was the point where god should have come up and said 'hello'. Because if you invent some creatures, put them on the blue one and they make it to the grey one, you fucking turn up and say 'well done'." (Eddie Izzard)
“I believe in the separation of church and planet.” (Eric Idle)
"All of science is completely wrong and all of religion is completely correct." (Internet commenter: idpnsd)
"School is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is." (Ivan Illich)
“I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution to someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag.” (Molly Ivins)
"The only thing I don't like about them is they sell foreign language versions of the KJB. I don't think that's right. We know the only true translation is the 1600's version in English. It's too risky for anybody to translate that into other languages. Mistakes can creep in..........and that can lead to heresy. True Christians should only read English. (Internet commenter: Ieyenda)
Alex Jones (1974- ; American radio host and conspiracy theorist)
"Let me tell you, the big real secret is the real KKK at the mid-level is a bunch of racist black people who hate black people." (Alex Jones)
"I grew up in Dallas, Texas, drinking sodium fluoridated water. All the scientific studies show my IQ has been reduced by at least 20 points." (Alex Jones)
"I'm like a chimpanzee, in a tree, jumping up and down, warning other chimpanzees when I see a big cat coming through the woods.........I'm the weirdo?" (Alex Jones)
"The reason there are so many gay people now is because it's a chemical warfare operation. I have the government documents where they said they're going to encourage homosexuality with chemicals so people don't have children." (Alex Jones)
"Magellan is a lot COOLER than Justin Bieber. He circumnavigated with one ship the entire planet! He was killed by wild natives before they got back to Portugal. And when they got back there was only like eleven people alive of the two hundred and something crew and the entire ship was rotting down to the waterline! That's destiny! That's will! That's striving!" (Alex Jones)
"What do you think tap water is? It's a gay bomb...........And I'm not saying people didn't naturally have homosexual feelings.........Do you think I'm like, shocked by it, so I'm up here bashing it because I don't like gay people? I don't like 'em putting chemicals in the water that TURN THE FREAKIN' FROGS GAY! Do you understand that. I'm sick of being socially engineered, it's not funny!" (Alex Jones)
"There are aliens in this room right now." (Alex Jones)
"The army came to my door. They told me not to talk to you anymore." (Alex Jones)
"Hillary Clinton has personally murdered children. I just can't hold back the truth anymore." (Alex Jones)
"Let me tell you, the big real secret is the real KKK at the mid-level is a bunch of racist black people who hate black people." (Alex Jones)
"I grew up in Dallas, Texas, drinking sodium fluoridated water. All the scientific studies show my IQ has been reduced by at least 20 points." (Alex Jones)
"I'm like a chimpanzee, in a tree, jumping up and down, warning other chimpanzees when I see a big cat coming through the woods.........I'm the weirdo?" (Alex Jones)
"The reason there are so many gay people now is because it's a chemical warfare operation. I have the government documents where they said they're going to encourage homosexuality with chemicals so people don't have children." (Alex Jones)
"Magellan is a lot COOLER than Justin Bieber. He circumnavigated with one ship the entire planet! He was killed by wild natives before they got back to Portugal. And when they got back there was only like eleven people alive of the two hundred and something crew and the entire ship was rotting down to the waterline! That's destiny! That's will! That's striving!" (Alex Jones)
"What do you think tap water is? It's a gay bomb...........And I'm not saying people didn't naturally have homosexual feelings.........Do you think I'm like, shocked by it, so I'm up here bashing it because I don't like gay people? I don't like 'em putting chemicals in the water that TURN THE FREAKIN' FROGS GAY! Do you understand that. I'm sick of being socially engineered, it's not funny!" (Alex Jones)
"There are aliens in this room right now." (Alex Jones)
"The army came to my door. They told me not to talk to you anymore." (Alex Jones)
"Hillary Clinton has personally murdered children. I just can't hold back the truth anymore." (Alex Jones)
JustFineThanks (internet commenter)
"Revelation is straightforward and easy to understand. In fact, just ask the full Preterists, the partial preterists, the Futurists, the historicists, the Post-tribunal premillennialists, the dispentional premillennialists, the revival postmillennialists, the reconstructionist postmillennialists, and the amillennialists. They’ll tell you the simple, straightforward, and easy to understand message of revelation: something about the future, or possibly the past, or whatever." (Internet commenter: JustFineThanks)
"It was a smart move on God’s part to make all the parts of the Bible that could render Christianity incoherent and/or demonstrably false mere “metaphor”……………Otherwise, Christianity might appear to objective observers like a jumbled mass of absurdities kept aloft by a tangled network of ad hoc rationalizations." (internet commenter: JustFineThanks)
"Revelation is straightforward and easy to understand. In fact, just ask the full Preterists, the partial preterists, the Futurists, the historicists, the Post-tribunal premillennialists, the dispentional premillennialists, the revival postmillennialists, the reconstructionist postmillennialists, and the amillennialists. They’ll tell you the simple, straightforward, and easy to understand message of revelation: something about the future, or possibly the past, or whatever." (Internet commenter: JustFineThanks)
"It was a smart move on God’s part to make all the parts of the Bible that could render Christianity incoherent and/or demonstrably false mere “metaphor”……………Otherwise, Christianity might appear to objective observers like a jumbled mass of absurdities kept aloft by a tangled network of ad hoc rationalizations." (internet commenter: JustFineThanks)
Other J
"Death is very likely the single best invention of life" (Steve Jobs)
"My friend told me that he is God and that he made the world by accident when he sneezed. So I asked him what happened before he was born, and he didn't have an answer. But just because he didn't have an answer doesn't mean he's not telling the truth." (Jonathan Juel-Beer)
"If there were that great a commonality between chimps and humans it ought to be relatively easy to breed chimps and come up with a human being, or by genetic engineering to change a chimp into a human. We ought to see humans occasionally being born to chimps or perhaps chimps being born into human families." (Phillip Johnson)
“I have a question for you filthy Athiest trash: if we evolved from apes like Charles Darwin said, then that would mean that people and monkeys are the same species, right? Well, if people and monkeys are the same species, then why can't a human impregnate a monkey, or vice-versa?” (Internet commenter: James)
"If evolution was real humans, and animals alike would not need reproductive organs." (Internet commenter: James)
"you have to ask, after life came from nothingness from the matter that came from nothing how it survived a huge explosion making the universe." (Internet commenter: JustThinkAboutIt)
“The facts are simple. The earth is flat. Wherever you find people with a great reservoir of common sense……….they don't believe idiotic things such as the earth spinning around the sun. Reasonable, intelligent people have always recognized that the earth is flat.” (Charles K Johnson)
"Hey, picture the baby in a nappy, just able to get on his feet and he fiddles with the buttons on your dvd player. You shout at him that he must not do it. He turns his head towards you, smiles but carries on doing what his not supposed to do. Sound familiar? where did he learn that......The seed of sin is already in him!!!! (Internet commenter: JCSM)
“I was at an arts fair last weekend. I would estimate 43% of the attendees were homosexual. But it's not like I'm counting. CCW, a Murnak FIST holster and Glock 19 means you never have to worry about it. So this artsy guy with a straw hat and sandals, you know the type, is slowly walking along the booths, pretending to eye the merchandise. Of course, I know what he's really eying. So I position my self among several tents, to maximize my public visibility, and when "he" comes along I engage him, "What exactly are you doing here?" "I was hoping to find some pictures for my daughter's new apartment", he says. "Well, just keep hoping" I say, letting the bulge under my vest show prominently. He got the picture. I checked with law enforcement later and they had no complaints of homosexual harassment at the fair that day.” (Internet commenter: jaytkay)
"You call it circular reasoning, we Christians call it faith." (Internet commenter: James2ko)
"What Orwell failed to predict was that we'd buy the cameras ourselves and that our biggest fear would be that no-one was watching." (Keith Lowell Jensen)
"Anytime you have an entire population defined by homogeneity, you're almost asking for a virulent virus to wipe it out...........I wrote satire/fake news (take your pick; unless you're the Onion, they basically mean the same thing) for a while in the lead up to the 2016 election. The one thing that struck me was that fake news intended for left-wingers never went anywhere. We'd always have left-wingers calling us out and debunking it. But when we wrote it for the right wing? The people debunking it in the comments were left-wingers still. So long as it matched the beliefs of the audience, our right-wing consumers would eat up anything we gave them." (Internet commenter: (((J_Enigma32))))
"We dualists don’t really need an argument to say that consciousness doesn’t fit into the physicalist world. It’s just intuitively obvious." (Frank Jackson)
"Let me see you take Hydrogen, and oxygen to make water? God can. But the smartest man ever to live can't." (Internet commenter: JRS)
"One can refuse the type of explanation offered by myths or magic. But one cannot deny to them unit and coherence because, without the least hesitation, they answer any question and solve any difficulty by a simple and single a-priori argument." (Françoise Jacob)
"How do you expect to learn any real science when the curriculum is dictated by practicing scientists and expert educators and you use textbooks that don’t have “Bible” on the cover?" (Nathaniel Jeanson)
"For most wearers of white coats, philosophy is to science as pornography is to sex; it is cheaper, easier, and some people seem, bafflingly, to prefer it. Outside of psychology it plays almost no part in the functions of the research machine." (Steve Jones)
“Many of my highly educated, academic friends—philosophers and non-philosophers alike—participate in the Santa Claus deception. These are people who unequivocally condemn the lies told by the rich and powerful to manipulate the poor and powerless, who unequivocally endorse the ethic of respect for persons, and who applaud the practice of speaking truth to power. But when it comes to telling their kids about Santa, these principles seem to vanish like melting snowflakes. Ask them why they think it's OK for adults to lie to their offspring about Santa Claus and suddenly it becomes acceptable, or even entertaining, for the big powerful folks to pull the wool over the eyes of the small vulnerable ones.” (David Kyle Johnson)
"I can sum it all up in three words: Evolution is a lie." (Internet commenter: JohnR7)
"I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." (Lyndon B Johnson)
"Death is very likely the single best invention of life" (Steve Jobs)
"My friend told me that he is God and that he made the world by accident when he sneezed. So I asked him what happened before he was born, and he didn't have an answer. But just because he didn't have an answer doesn't mean he's not telling the truth." (Jonathan Juel-Beer)
"If there were that great a commonality between chimps and humans it ought to be relatively easy to breed chimps and come up with a human being, or by genetic engineering to change a chimp into a human. We ought to see humans occasionally being born to chimps or perhaps chimps being born into human families." (Phillip Johnson)
“I have a question for you filthy Athiest trash: if we evolved from apes like Charles Darwin said, then that would mean that people and monkeys are the same species, right? Well, if people and monkeys are the same species, then why can't a human impregnate a monkey, or vice-versa?” (Internet commenter: James)
"If evolution was real humans, and animals alike would not need reproductive organs." (Internet commenter: James)
"you have to ask, after life came from nothingness from the matter that came from nothing how it survived a huge explosion making the universe." (Internet commenter: JustThinkAboutIt)
“The facts are simple. The earth is flat. Wherever you find people with a great reservoir of common sense……….they don't believe idiotic things such as the earth spinning around the sun. Reasonable, intelligent people have always recognized that the earth is flat.” (Charles K Johnson)
"Hey, picture the baby in a nappy, just able to get on his feet and he fiddles with the buttons on your dvd player. You shout at him that he must not do it. He turns his head towards you, smiles but carries on doing what his not supposed to do. Sound familiar? where did he learn that......The seed of sin is already in him!!!! (Internet commenter: JCSM)
“I was at an arts fair last weekend. I would estimate 43% of the attendees were homosexual. But it's not like I'm counting. CCW, a Murnak FIST holster and Glock 19 means you never have to worry about it. So this artsy guy with a straw hat and sandals, you know the type, is slowly walking along the booths, pretending to eye the merchandise. Of course, I know what he's really eying. So I position my self among several tents, to maximize my public visibility, and when "he" comes along I engage him, "What exactly are you doing here?" "I was hoping to find some pictures for my daughter's new apartment", he says. "Well, just keep hoping" I say, letting the bulge under my vest show prominently. He got the picture. I checked with law enforcement later and they had no complaints of homosexual harassment at the fair that day.” (Internet commenter: jaytkay)
"You call it circular reasoning, we Christians call it faith." (Internet commenter: James2ko)
"What Orwell failed to predict was that we'd buy the cameras ourselves and that our biggest fear would be that no-one was watching." (Keith Lowell Jensen)
"Anytime you have an entire population defined by homogeneity, you're almost asking for a virulent virus to wipe it out...........I wrote satire/fake news (take your pick; unless you're the Onion, they basically mean the same thing) for a while in the lead up to the 2016 election. The one thing that struck me was that fake news intended for left-wingers never went anywhere. We'd always have left-wingers calling us out and debunking it. But when we wrote it for the right wing? The people debunking it in the comments were left-wingers still. So long as it matched the beliefs of the audience, our right-wing consumers would eat up anything we gave them." (Internet commenter: (((J_Enigma32))))
"We dualists don’t really need an argument to say that consciousness doesn’t fit into the physicalist world. It’s just intuitively obvious." (Frank Jackson)
"Let me see you take Hydrogen, and oxygen to make water? God can. But the smartest man ever to live can't." (Internet commenter: JRS)
"One can refuse the type of explanation offered by myths or magic. But one cannot deny to them unit and coherence because, without the least hesitation, they answer any question and solve any difficulty by a simple and single a-priori argument." (Françoise Jacob)
"How do you expect to learn any real science when the curriculum is dictated by practicing scientists and expert educators and you use textbooks that don’t have “Bible” on the cover?" (Nathaniel Jeanson)
"For most wearers of white coats, philosophy is to science as pornography is to sex; it is cheaper, easier, and some people seem, bafflingly, to prefer it. Outside of psychology it plays almost no part in the functions of the research machine." (Steve Jones)
“Many of my highly educated, academic friends—philosophers and non-philosophers alike—participate in the Santa Claus deception. These are people who unequivocally condemn the lies told by the rich and powerful to manipulate the poor and powerless, who unequivocally endorse the ethic of respect for persons, and who applaud the practice of speaking truth to power. But when it comes to telling their kids about Santa, these principles seem to vanish like melting snowflakes. Ask them why they think it's OK for adults to lie to their offspring about Santa Claus and suddenly it becomes acceptable, or even entertaining, for the big powerful folks to pull the wool over the eyes of the small vulnerable ones.” (David Kyle Johnson)
"I can sum it all up in three words: Evolution is a lie." (Internet commenter: JohnR7)
"I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." (Lyndon B Johnson)
Sarah Kendzior (American anthropologist and author)
"When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatise those who let people die, not those who struggle to live." (Sarah Kendzior)
""But it worked out for me." This is the refrain of the tenured to the adjunct, the staff to the freelancer, the rich to the poor: "But it worked out for me; the system is fine, it worked out for me."" (Sarah Kendzior)
"When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatise those who let people die, not those who struggle to live." (Sarah Kendzior)
""But it worked out for me." This is the refrain of the tenured to the adjunct, the staff to the freelancer, the rich to the poor: "But it worked out for me; the system is fine, it worked out for me."" (Sarah Kendzior)
Ruhollah Khomeini (1902-1989; Iranian theologian and politician)
"A man can have sex with animals such as sheep, cows, camels and so on. However, he should kill the animal after he has his orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in his own village, however selling the meat to the next door village should be fine." (Ayotolla Khomeini)
"A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby. However, he should not penetrate, sodomising the child is OK. If the man penetrates and damages the child then he should be responsible for her subsistence all her life. This girl, however, does not count as one of his four permanent wives." (Ayotolla Khomeini)
"It is better for a girl to marry in such a time when she would begin menstruation at her husband's house rather than her father's home. Any father marrying his daughter so young will have a permanent place in Heaven." (Ayotolla Khomeini)
"A man can have sex with animals such as sheep, cows, camels and so on. However, he should kill the animal after he has his orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in his own village, however selling the meat to the next door village should be fine." (Ayotolla Khomeini)
"A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby. However, he should not penetrate, sodomising the child is OK. If the man penetrates and damages the child then he should be responsible for her subsistence all her life. This girl, however, does not count as one of his four permanent wives." (Ayotolla Khomeini)
"It is better for a girl to marry in such a time when she would begin menstruation at her husband's house rather than her father's home. Any father marrying his daughter so young will have a permanent place in Heaven." (Ayotolla Khomeini)
Other K
"So God says, “You are guys are really, really special.” How does his saying it make us special? “But you see, he gave us a soul.” How does our having a soul make us special? Whatever answer you give, you could always say..........“What’s so special about that?" (Shelly Kagan)
"Anyone who has spent much time wading through the pious, obscurantist, jargon-filled cant that now passes for 'advanced' thought in the humanities knew it was bound to happen sooner or later: some clever academic, armed with the not-so-secret passwords ('hermeneutics', 'transgressive', 'Lacanian', 'hegemony', to name a few) would write a completely bogus paper, submit it to an au courant journal, and have it accepted - Sokal's piece uses all the right terms. It cites all the best people. It whacks sinners (white men, the 'real world'), applauds the virtuous (women, general metaphysical lunacy) - And it is complete, unadulterated bullshit - a fact that somehow escaped the attention of the high-powered editors of Social Text, who must now be experiencing that queasy sensation that afflicted the Trojans the morning after they pulled that nice big gift horse into their city." (Gary Kamiya)
"Denying a person is female because they superficially look male is like saying a person can't sing well because they don't look artistic." (Internet commenter: kermit)
"The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear." (Jiddu Krishnamurti)
"The only way to solve the problem of contraception is to solve the problem of infallibility." (Hans Küng)
"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir?" (John Maynard Keynes)
".....the purpose of education is not to validate ignorance but to overcome it." (Lawrence Krauss)
"The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent." (Stanley Kubrick)
"When people tell me, ‘God has blessed you with the gift of music’, you’re damn right I get offended. I did not practice hours a day for eighteen years to have my success attributed to a myth." (Alex Krob)
“It is the Godfather, not God the Father, who makes you an offer you can’t refuse.” (Peter Kreeft)
"By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The non-existent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired." (Franz Kafka)
"It's really awesome how easily religious people can see through the fraud of other religions. If you have four Napoleons in a mental home, each of them easily see through the other three as obvious frauds." (Stefan Kaitschick)
"Faith is a wondrous thing; it is not only capable of moving mountains, but also of making you believe that a herring is a race horse." (Arthur Koestler)
“Intuitional truth doesn’t require a defense—a justification of the steps that brought one to this knowledge—because this kind of truth isn’t a result of reasoning by steps to a conclusion. It’s an obvious truth that no rational person who understands the nature of the issue would deny.” (Gregg Koukl)
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." (Alan Kay)
"If we break free of materialism, we have a better view of reality. Life is 3 dimensional. An embryo develops in 3 dimensions, while the information in DNA is 2 dimensional. Therefore we know, or should know, that DNA is not the ultimate blueprint for life." (Faigel Katz)
"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." (Joe Klaas)
"The wealthy working people have earned their right to live in the city. They went out, got an education, work hard, and earned it. I shouldn’t have to worry about being accosted. I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless people to and from my way to work every day." (Justin Keller)
"Fundamentalism in the Southern Baptist Form is incompatible with higher education. In fundamentalism, you have all the truths. In education, you're searching for truths." (David W Key)
“Astrology gives us answers to questions that science simply can’t. Ask a scientist what your horoscope is and they simply can’t do it.” (Internet commenter: Kabbor)
"So God says, “You are guys are really, really special.” How does his saying it make us special? “But you see, he gave us a soul.” How does our having a soul make us special? Whatever answer you give, you could always say..........“What’s so special about that?" (Shelly Kagan)
"Anyone who has spent much time wading through the pious, obscurantist, jargon-filled cant that now passes for 'advanced' thought in the humanities knew it was bound to happen sooner or later: some clever academic, armed with the not-so-secret passwords ('hermeneutics', 'transgressive', 'Lacanian', 'hegemony', to name a few) would write a completely bogus paper, submit it to an au courant journal, and have it accepted - Sokal's piece uses all the right terms. It cites all the best people. It whacks sinners (white men, the 'real world'), applauds the virtuous (women, general metaphysical lunacy) - And it is complete, unadulterated bullshit - a fact that somehow escaped the attention of the high-powered editors of Social Text, who must now be experiencing that queasy sensation that afflicted the Trojans the morning after they pulled that nice big gift horse into their city." (Gary Kamiya)
"Denying a person is female because they superficially look male is like saying a person can't sing well because they don't look artistic." (Internet commenter: kermit)
"The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear." (Jiddu Krishnamurti)
"The only way to solve the problem of contraception is to solve the problem of infallibility." (Hans Küng)
"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir?" (John Maynard Keynes)
".....the purpose of education is not to validate ignorance but to overcome it." (Lawrence Krauss)
"The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent." (Stanley Kubrick)
"When people tell me, ‘God has blessed you with the gift of music’, you’re damn right I get offended. I did not practice hours a day for eighteen years to have my success attributed to a myth." (Alex Krob)
“It is the Godfather, not God the Father, who makes you an offer you can’t refuse.” (Peter Kreeft)
"By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The non-existent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired." (Franz Kafka)
"It's really awesome how easily religious people can see through the fraud of other religions. If you have four Napoleons in a mental home, each of them easily see through the other three as obvious frauds." (Stefan Kaitschick)
"Faith is a wondrous thing; it is not only capable of moving mountains, but also of making you believe that a herring is a race horse." (Arthur Koestler)
“Intuitional truth doesn’t require a defense—a justification of the steps that brought one to this knowledge—because this kind of truth isn’t a result of reasoning by steps to a conclusion. It’s an obvious truth that no rational person who understands the nature of the issue would deny.” (Gregg Koukl)
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." (Alan Kay)
"If we break free of materialism, we have a better view of reality. Life is 3 dimensional. An embryo develops in 3 dimensions, while the information in DNA is 2 dimensional. Therefore we know, or should know, that DNA is not the ultimate blueprint for life." (Faigel Katz)
"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." (Joe Klaas)
"The wealthy working people have earned their right to live in the city. They went out, got an education, work hard, and earned it. I shouldn’t have to worry about being accosted. I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless people to and from my way to work every day." (Justin Keller)
"Fundamentalism in the Southern Baptist Form is incompatible with higher education. In fundamentalism, you have all the truths. In education, you're searching for truths." (David W Key)
“Astrology gives us answers to questions that science simply can’t. Ask a scientist what your horoscope is and they simply can’t do it.” (Internet commenter: Kabbor)
C S Lewis (1898-1963; English author and theologian)
"I still think the argument from design the weakest possible ground for Theism, and what may be called the argument from un-design the strongest for Atheism." (C S Lewis)
“Nothing is more dangerous to one’s own faith than the work of an apologist.” (C S Lewis)
"I still think the argument from design the weakest possible ground for Theism, and what may be called the argument from un-design the strongest for Atheism." (C S Lewis)
“Nothing is more dangerous to one’s own faith than the work of an apologist.” (C S Lewis)
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799; German scientist and author)
"When a book and a head collide and there is a hollow sound, does the hollow sound always emanate from the book?" (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)
"A book is like a mirror: if a fool looks in, do not expect an apostle to look out." (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)
"When a book and a head collide and there is a hollow sound, does the hollow sound always emanate from the book?" (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)
"A book is like a mirror: if a fool looks in, do not expect an apostle to look out." (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)
James Lindsay (American mathematician)
"How many miracle claims have a stamp of approval not coming from a religious body that has a vested interest in stamping them for approval?" (James Lindsay)
"Math is way more abstract and less concerned with physical reality than physics. We're content to live in our axiomatic playground, and if physicists, etc., can make use of it, great. If not, meh." (James Lindsay)
"How many miracle claims have a stamp of approval not coming from a religious body that has a vested interest in stamping them for approval?" (James Lindsay)
"Math is way more abstract and less concerned with physical reality than physics. We're content to live in our axiomatic playground, and if physicists, etc., can make use of it, great. If not, meh." (James Lindsay)
H P Lovecraft (1890-1937; American author)
"Someday the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." (H P Lovecraft)
"Bunch together a group of people deliberately chosen for strong religious feelings, and you have a practical guarantee of dark morbidities expressed in crime, perversion, and insanity" (H P Lovecraft)
"Someday the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." (H P Lovecraft)
"Bunch together a group of people deliberately chosen for strong religious feelings, and you have a practical guarantee of dark morbidities expressed in crime, perversion, and insanity" (H P Lovecraft)
Other L
"That is the only god I could imagine believing in, a god whose passion is not a redemption, who saves nothing, fulfills no purpose - a god who simply is." (Stanislaw Lem)
"If you're going to start by saying "nothing is impossible to God", what the hell is the use of investigating the possibility of anything?" (Dave Luckett)
"The Bible says Muslims will always be the enemy of God's people. Certainly a true prophesy." (Steve Lira)
"Nobody dies because they don't have access to health care." (Raúl Labrador)
“Capitalism is religion. Banks are churches. Bankers are priests. Wealth is heaven. Poverty is hell. Rich people are saints. Poor people are sinners. Commodities are blessings. Money is God." (Miguel D Lewis)
"I've got the solution to most crime in America. From this day forward, somebody propose it, liberals should not be allowed to buy guns. It's just that simple. Liberals should have their speech controlled and not be allowed to buy guns. I mean if we want to get serious about this, if we want to face this head on, we're gonna have to openly admit, liberals should not be allowed to buy guns, nor should they be allowed to use computer keyboards or typewriters, word processors or e-mails, and they should have their speech controlled. If we did those three or four things, I can't tell you what a sane, calm, civil, fun-loving society we would have." (Rush Limbaugh)
"That's the beauty of heaven......we can leave our brains behind." (Internet commenter: Lainy68)
"There are spiritual storytellers and there are soulful storytellers. I hope to be a soulful storyteller. I see the two kinds as two different directions. Spiritual is ascending. Sky, God and all that. I hope my storytelling is going down into the earth, is wetter, has more moisture." (Jackie Leven)
"If there was no such thing as science, you'd be right." (Sean Lock)
"Unlike mathematical theorems, scientific results can't be proved. They can only be tested again and again, until only a fool would not believe them. I cannot prove that electrons exist..........if you don't believe in them I have a high voltage cattle prod I'm willing to apply as an argument on their behalf. Electrons speak for themselves." (Seth Lloyd)
“Nothing I believe in is based on minimal understanding, except Faith itself.” (Internet commenter Lord Sector)
"I read on Woman's Day magazine a while back that 95% of the Europeans, Latinos and Mexicans didn't have their babies boys cut when they were little. It is a known fact that uncircumcised males abuse themselves a lot more than the normal ones. No wonder those Mexicans are so poor, they spend all their money on detergent. God said he wanted his male children cut and that's just the way it should be. We had our boys clipped extra close when the doctor said the more skin we had cut off the less sensitivity they'd have down there. It was the Christian thing to do." (Internet commenter: Lynelle)
“I watched Hell-Raiser 2 last night and well... hell looks BAD. Trust me... you don't want to go there for ETERNITY.” (Internet commenter: Livin'4Christ)
"You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people that you do." (Anne Lamott)
"Gay and religious? Fight your perverse inclinations and unclean thoughts. It can be done. You were not born religious." (Weston Lockley)
"Only the most reckless poet would attempt to describe the sensation of an orgasm under LSD." (Timothy Leary)
"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." (Abraham Lincoln)
"Clearly, in the first few chapters of Genesis, we have a historical account of the creation of the world and life on it from the most reliable eyewitness, God himself." (Jean Lightner)
“When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled “made in Germany”; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism.”’ (Halford E. Luccock)
"The sailor does not pray for wind, he learns to sail." (Gustaf Lindborg)
"Our son brought this book home from college over holiday break and I must say I was disgusted with it. It's a shame that our youth is being brainwashed against their own Christian beliefs in college now. People like this author who freely push this garbage down our children's throats should burn in Hell. Since they don't believe in Hell, I hope they die a slow miserable death death, then rot. Thanks so much for brainwashing our son into this fairy-tale garbage." (Internet commenter: LilDev69)
"There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages." (Richard Lederer)
"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." (Sinclair Lewis)
"When I have in public spoken to religious people who tell me that, "I used to be an atheist too, just like you!" Inever ask these people what convinced them that atheism was wrong or incorrect. I ask them what persuaded them that atheism was correct at the time they were an atheist. Their responses have been enlightening to me in that they demonstrate that they gave little thought to their previous positions. Most were not atheists in an intellectual sense, they were merely hedonists." (Joseph Langston)
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera." (Dorothea Lange)
"There are 6 admonishments in the Bible concerning homosexual activity and our enemies are always throwing them up to us usually in a vicious way and very much out of context. What they don't want us to remember is that there are 362 admonishments in the Bible concerning heterosexual activity. I don't mean to imply by this that God doesn't love straight people, only that they seem to require a great deal more supervision." (Lynn Lavner)
"Keep in mind that just because there may be a phenomenon to which we do not have an answer is not a reason to accept whatever explanation someone pulls out of their ass." (Steve Lundquist)
"Believers: Take a couple of minutes and think about all the things you would do if you were God. After you have accomplished that task, contemplate the fact that you worship a God who hasn't." (Tiger C. Lewis)
"God is the condition of the possibility of anything existing at all." (Damon Linker)
"To the West, it seems hardly imaginable that the relationship between man and man (morality) could be maintained without reference to a Supreme Being, while to the Chinese it is equally amazing that men should not, or could not, behave toward one another as decent beings without thinking of their indirect relationship through a third party." (Yu Tang Lin)
“Yes, I suppose it’s sometimes odd that atheists sometimes say Jesus and Oh My God. But odder than the religious saying “let’s be reasonable?”” (Hugh Laurie)
"We should always be disposed to believe that which appears to us to be white is really black, if the hierarchy of the church so decides." (Ignatius Loyola)
"There are lots of claimed "miracles", but none is verifiable. That's why nobody who goes to Lourdes leaves behind a glass eye or an extra chromosome." (Quentin Langley)
"There is talk of a new astrologer who wants to prove that the earth moves and goes around instead of the sky, the sun, the moon, just as if somebody were moving in a carriage or ship might hold that he was sitting still and at rest while the earth and the trees walked and moved. But that is how things are nowadays: when a man wishes to be clever he must........invent something special, and the way he does it must needs be the best! The fool wants to turn the whole art of astronomy upside-down. However, as Holy Scripture tells us, so did Joshua bid the sun to stand still and not the earth." (Martin Luther)
"It has to be understood that there are no innocent people in Gaza. Everyone is affiliated with Hamas." (Avigdor Lieberman)
“What is there? Everything. So what isn’t there? Nothing.” (Norman Levitt)
"It has been argued that complete objectivity is impossible, since scholars are human beings, with their own loyalties and biases. This is no doubt true, but does not affect the issue. To borrow an analogy, any surgeon will admit that complete asepsis is also impossible, but one does not, for that reason, perform surgery in a sewer." (Bernard Lewis)
"Saying that ex nihilo creation of concrete objects is possible with enough power is like saying that barfing up a missed lunch is possible with a sufficiently strenuous dry heave.” (Felipe Leon)
"That is the only god I could imagine believing in, a god whose passion is not a redemption, who saves nothing, fulfills no purpose - a god who simply is." (Stanislaw Lem)
"If you're going to start by saying "nothing is impossible to God", what the hell is the use of investigating the possibility of anything?" (Dave Luckett)
"The Bible says Muslims will always be the enemy of God's people. Certainly a true prophesy." (Steve Lira)
"Nobody dies because they don't have access to health care." (Raúl Labrador)
“Capitalism is religion. Banks are churches. Bankers are priests. Wealth is heaven. Poverty is hell. Rich people are saints. Poor people are sinners. Commodities are blessings. Money is God." (Miguel D Lewis)
"I've got the solution to most crime in America. From this day forward, somebody propose it, liberals should not be allowed to buy guns. It's just that simple. Liberals should have their speech controlled and not be allowed to buy guns. I mean if we want to get serious about this, if we want to face this head on, we're gonna have to openly admit, liberals should not be allowed to buy guns, nor should they be allowed to use computer keyboards or typewriters, word processors or e-mails, and they should have their speech controlled. If we did those three or four things, I can't tell you what a sane, calm, civil, fun-loving society we would have." (Rush Limbaugh)
"That's the beauty of heaven......we can leave our brains behind." (Internet commenter: Lainy68)
"There are spiritual storytellers and there are soulful storytellers. I hope to be a soulful storyteller. I see the two kinds as two different directions. Spiritual is ascending. Sky, God and all that. I hope my storytelling is going down into the earth, is wetter, has more moisture." (Jackie Leven)
"If there was no such thing as science, you'd be right." (Sean Lock)
"Unlike mathematical theorems, scientific results can't be proved. They can only be tested again and again, until only a fool would not believe them. I cannot prove that electrons exist..........if you don't believe in them I have a high voltage cattle prod I'm willing to apply as an argument on their behalf. Electrons speak for themselves." (Seth Lloyd)
“Nothing I believe in is based on minimal understanding, except Faith itself.” (Internet commenter Lord Sector)
"I read on Woman's Day magazine a while back that 95% of the Europeans, Latinos and Mexicans didn't have their babies boys cut when they were little. It is a known fact that uncircumcised males abuse themselves a lot more than the normal ones. No wonder those Mexicans are so poor, they spend all their money on detergent. God said he wanted his male children cut and that's just the way it should be. We had our boys clipped extra close when the doctor said the more skin we had cut off the less sensitivity they'd have down there. It was the Christian thing to do." (Internet commenter: Lynelle)
“I watched Hell-Raiser 2 last night and well... hell looks BAD. Trust me... you don't want to go there for ETERNITY.” (Internet commenter: Livin'4Christ)
"You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people that you do." (Anne Lamott)
"Gay and religious? Fight your perverse inclinations and unclean thoughts. It can be done. You were not born religious." (Weston Lockley)
"Only the most reckless poet would attempt to describe the sensation of an orgasm under LSD." (Timothy Leary)
"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." (Abraham Lincoln)
"Clearly, in the first few chapters of Genesis, we have a historical account of the creation of the world and life on it from the most reliable eyewitness, God himself." (Jean Lightner)
“When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled “made in Germany”; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism.”’ (Halford E. Luccock)
"The sailor does not pray for wind, he learns to sail." (Gustaf Lindborg)
"Our son brought this book home from college over holiday break and I must say I was disgusted with it. It's a shame that our youth is being brainwashed against their own Christian beliefs in college now. People like this author who freely push this garbage down our children's throats should burn in Hell. Since they don't believe in Hell, I hope they die a slow miserable death death, then rot. Thanks so much for brainwashing our son into this fairy-tale garbage." (Internet commenter: LilDev69)
"There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages." (Richard Lederer)
"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." (Sinclair Lewis)
"When I have in public spoken to religious people who tell me that, "I used to be an atheist too, just like you!" Inever ask these people what convinced them that atheism was wrong or incorrect. I ask them what persuaded them that atheism was correct at the time they were an atheist. Their responses have been enlightening to me in that they demonstrate that they gave little thought to their previous positions. Most were not atheists in an intellectual sense, they were merely hedonists." (Joseph Langston)
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera." (Dorothea Lange)
"There are 6 admonishments in the Bible concerning homosexual activity and our enemies are always throwing them up to us usually in a vicious way and very much out of context. What they don't want us to remember is that there are 362 admonishments in the Bible concerning heterosexual activity. I don't mean to imply by this that God doesn't love straight people, only that they seem to require a great deal more supervision." (Lynn Lavner)
"Keep in mind that just because there may be a phenomenon to which we do not have an answer is not a reason to accept whatever explanation someone pulls out of their ass." (Steve Lundquist)
"Believers: Take a couple of minutes and think about all the things you would do if you were God. After you have accomplished that task, contemplate the fact that you worship a God who hasn't." (Tiger C. Lewis)
"God is the condition of the possibility of anything existing at all." (Damon Linker)
"To the West, it seems hardly imaginable that the relationship between man and man (morality) could be maintained without reference to a Supreme Being, while to the Chinese it is equally amazing that men should not, or could not, behave toward one another as decent beings without thinking of their indirect relationship through a third party." (Yu Tang Lin)
“Yes, I suppose it’s sometimes odd that atheists sometimes say Jesus and Oh My God. But odder than the religious saying “let’s be reasonable?”” (Hugh Laurie)
"We should always be disposed to believe that which appears to us to be white is really black, if the hierarchy of the church so decides." (Ignatius Loyola)
"There are lots of claimed "miracles", but none is verifiable. That's why nobody who goes to Lourdes leaves behind a glass eye or an extra chromosome." (Quentin Langley)
"There is talk of a new astrologer who wants to prove that the earth moves and goes around instead of the sky, the sun, the moon, just as if somebody were moving in a carriage or ship might hold that he was sitting still and at rest while the earth and the trees walked and moved. But that is how things are nowadays: when a man wishes to be clever he must........invent something special, and the way he does it must needs be the best! The fool wants to turn the whole art of astronomy upside-down. However, as Holy Scripture tells us, so did Joshua bid the sun to stand still and not the earth." (Martin Luther)
"It has to be understood that there are no innocent people in Gaza. Everyone is affiliated with Hamas." (Avigdor Lieberman)
“What is there? Everything. So what isn’t there? Nothing.” (Norman Levitt)
"It has been argued that complete objectivity is impossible, since scholars are human beings, with their own loyalties and biases. This is no doubt true, but does not affect the issue. To borrow an analogy, any surgeon will admit that complete asepsis is also impossible, but one does not, for that reason, perform surgery in a sewer." (Bernard Lewis)
"Saying that ex nihilo creation of concrete objects is possible with enough power is like saying that barfing up a missed lunch is possible with a sufficiently strenuous dry heave.” (Felipe Leon)
Rollo May (1909-1994; American psychologist)
"Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we do not experience it." (Rollo May)
"......compulsive and rigid moralism arises in given persons precisely as the result of a lack of sense of being. Rigid moralism is a compensatory mechanism by which the individual persuades himself to take over the external sanctions because he has no fundamental assurance that his own choices have any sanction of their own." (Rollo May)
"Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we do not experience it." (Rollo May)
"......compulsive and rigid moralism arises in given persons precisely as the result of a lack of sense of being. Rigid moralism is a compensatory mechanism by which the individual persuades himself to take over the external sanctions because he has no fundamental assurance that his own choices have any sanction of their own." (Rollo May)
Hemant Mehta (1983- ; American author)
“For anyone to slam atheists as dull because we rely on evidence and reason to decipher the truth is hardly a criticism at all. It’s a sign that the best your side has to offer is creative fiction.” (Hemant Mehta)
“How fucked up do you have to be to convince kids that they’re one secular move away from an eternity of torture?” (Hemant Mehta)
“For anyone to slam atheists as dull because we rely on evidence and reason to decipher the truth is hardly a criticism at all. It’s a sign that the best your side has to offer is creative fiction.” (Hemant Mehta)
“How fucked up do you have to be to convince kids that they’re one secular move away from an eternity of torture?” (Hemant Mehta)
H L Mencken (1880-1956; American author)
"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true." (H L Mencken)
"The men that American people admire the most extravagantly are the most daring liars. The men they detest the most violently are those who try to tell them the truth" (H L Mencken)
"Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing." (H L Mencken)
"One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms." (H L Mencken)
"As democracy is perfected, the office of President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." (H L Mencken)
"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true." (H L Mencken)
"The men that American people admire the most extravagantly are the most daring liars. The men they detest the most violently are those who try to tell them the truth" (H L Mencken)
"Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing." (H L Mencken)
"One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms." (H L Mencken)
"As democracy is perfected, the office of President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." (H L Mencken)
Jean Meslier (1664-1729; French priest and secret atheist)
"Theology is but a pretended science . Theology rests itself on principles which are contestable, and are hazardous suppositions, conceived in ignorance, propagated by enthusiasm or bad intention, adopted by timid credulity, and preserved by habit." (Jean Meslier)
"Anxious meditations upon God, an object impossible to grasp, and which, however, is supposed to be very important to him, can but put a man into bad humor, and produce in his brain dangerous transports. When interest, vanity, and ambition are joined to such a morose disposition, society necessarily becomes troubled." (Jean Meslier)
"How I suffered when I had to preach to you those pious lies that I detest in my heart. What remorse your credulity caused me! A thousand times I was on the point of breaking out publicly and opening your eyes, but a fear stronger than myself held me back, and forced me to keep silence until my death." (Jean Meslier)
"If religion was clear, it would have fewer attractions for the ignorant. They need obscurity, mysteries, fables, miracles, incredible things, which keep their brains perpetually at work. Romances, idle stories, tales of ghosts and witches, have more charms for the vulgar than true narrations." (Jean Meslier)
"By metaphysics, God is made a pure spirit, but has modern theology advanced one step further than the theology of the barbarians?" (Jean Meslier)
"Ask a barbarian what causes a clock to move, he will answer, "a spirit!" Ask our philosophers what moves the universe, they will tell you "it is a spirit."" (Jean Meslier)
"God of modern theology is a sterile being. According to his supposed nature he can neither occupy any place, nor move matter, nor produce a visible world, nor propagate either men or Gods. The metaphysical God is a workman without hands; he is able but to produce clouds, suspicions, reveries, follies, and quarrels." (Jean Meslier)
"The intelligence of man no more proves the intelligence of God than the malice of men proves the malice of this God." (Jean Meslier)
"A being who has no equals, can not be susceptible of glory. Glory can result but from the comparison of his own excellence with that of others." (Jean Meslier)
I see the human race continually occupied in protecting itself from the wicked tricks of this Providence, which is said to be busy with the care of their happiness." (Jean Meslier)
"God rather resembles those unnatural mothers who, forgetting the unfortunate fruits of their illicit amours, abandon their children as soon as they are born; and who, pleased to have conceived them, expose them without mercy to the caprices of fate." (Jean Meslier)
"Theology is but a pretended science . Theology rests itself on principles which are contestable, and are hazardous suppositions, conceived in ignorance, propagated by enthusiasm or bad intention, adopted by timid credulity, and preserved by habit." (Jean Meslier)
"Anxious meditations upon God, an object impossible to grasp, and which, however, is supposed to be very important to him, can but put a man into bad humor, and produce in his brain dangerous transports. When interest, vanity, and ambition are joined to such a morose disposition, society necessarily becomes troubled." (Jean Meslier)
"How I suffered when I had to preach to you those pious lies that I detest in my heart. What remorse your credulity caused me! A thousand times I was on the point of breaking out publicly and opening your eyes, but a fear stronger than myself held me back, and forced me to keep silence until my death." (Jean Meslier)
"If religion was clear, it would have fewer attractions for the ignorant. They need obscurity, mysteries, fables, miracles, incredible things, which keep their brains perpetually at work. Romances, idle stories, tales of ghosts and witches, have more charms for the vulgar than true narrations." (Jean Meslier)
"By metaphysics, God is made a pure spirit, but has modern theology advanced one step further than the theology of the barbarians?" (Jean Meslier)
"Ask a barbarian what causes a clock to move, he will answer, "a spirit!" Ask our philosophers what moves the universe, they will tell you "it is a spirit."" (Jean Meslier)
"God of modern theology is a sterile being. According to his supposed nature he can neither occupy any place, nor move matter, nor produce a visible world, nor propagate either men or Gods. The metaphysical God is a workman without hands; he is able but to produce clouds, suspicions, reveries, follies, and quarrels." (Jean Meslier)
"The intelligence of man no more proves the intelligence of God than the malice of men proves the malice of this God." (Jean Meslier)
"A being who has no equals, can not be susceptible of glory. Glory can result but from the comparison of his own excellence with that of others." (Jean Meslier)
I see the human race continually occupied in protecting itself from the wicked tricks of this Providence, which is said to be busy with the care of their happiness." (Jean Meslier)
"God rather resembles those unnatural mothers who, forgetting the unfortunate fruits of their illicit amours, abandon their children as soon as they are born; and who, pleased to have conceived them, expose them without mercy to the caprices of fate." (Jean Meslier)
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873; English philosopher and parliamentarian)
"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question." (John Stuart Mill)
"Conservative people are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservative." (John Stuart Mill)
"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question." (John Stuart Mill)
"Conservative people are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservative." (John Stuart Mill)
Tim Minchin (1975- ; Australian comedian, actor and musician)
"But evolution is only a theory!” Which is true. I mean, it is only a theory, it’s good that they say that. I think, it gives you hope, doesn’t it? That.........that maybe they feel the same way about the theory of gravity, and they might just float the fuck away." (Tim Minchin)
"I am a tiny, insignificant, ignorant bit of carbon. I have but one life and it is short and unimportant, but thanks to recent scientific advances, I get to live twice as long as my great, great, great, great uncles and aunts. Twice as long to live this life of mine, twice as long to love this wife of mine, twice as many years of friends and wine." (Tim Minchin)
"Throughout history, every mystery ever solved has turned out to be not magic." (Tim Minchin)
"If you just close your eyes and block your ears to the accumulated knowledge of the last 2000 years, then morally, guess what? You're off the hook, just thank Christ you only have to read one book." (Tim Minchin)
"It’s quite hard being right in the face of people who are wrong without sounding like a fuckwit. People go “do you think the vast majority of the world is wrong”, well yes. I don’t know how to say that nicely, but yes." (Tim Minchin)
"Isn't this enough, just this world?" (Tim Minchin)
"I don't know what it is about "magic happens"-stickers on cars but every time I see one I wanna get out my permanent marker and sneak over and write underneath it "so does cot death"." (Tim Minchin)
“Arts degrees are awesome. They give meaning where there is none. And believe me, there is none”. (Tim Minchin)
"But evolution is only a theory!” Which is true. I mean, it is only a theory, it’s good that they say that. I think, it gives you hope, doesn’t it? That.........that maybe they feel the same way about the theory of gravity, and they might just float the fuck away." (Tim Minchin)
"I am a tiny, insignificant, ignorant bit of carbon. I have but one life and it is short and unimportant, but thanks to recent scientific advances, I get to live twice as long as my great, great, great, great uncles and aunts. Twice as long to live this life of mine, twice as long to love this wife of mine, twice as many years of friends and wine." (Tim Minchin)
"Throughout history, every mystery ever solved has turned out to be not magic." (Tim Minchin)
"If you just close your eyes and block your ears to the accumulated knowledge of the last 2000 years, then morally, guess what? You're off the hook, just thank Christ you only have to read one book." (Tim Minchin)
"It’s quite hard being right in the face of people who are wrong without sounding like a fuckwit. People go “do you think the vast majority of the world is wrong”, well yes. I don’t know how to say that nicely, but yes." (Tim Minchin)
"Isn't this enough, just this world?" (Tim Minchin)
"I don't know what it is about "magic happens"-stickers on cars but every time I see one I wanna get out my permanent marker and sneak over and write underneath it "so does cot death"." (Tim Minchin)
“Arts degrees are awesome. They give meaning where there is none. And believe me, there is none”. (Tim Minchin)
Ashley Montague (1905-1999; English-American anthropologist)
"We flatter ourselves that we can make machines that think like human beings, but omit to observe that we can also make human beings who think like machines." (Ashley Montague)
"Man is a mythmaking animal who prefers to embrace the myths that keep him comfortable rather than inquire into the facts that enjoin him to think." (Ashley Montague)
"We flatter ourselves that we can make machines that think like human beings, but omit to observe that we can also make human beings who think like machines." (Ashley Montague)
"Man is a mythmaking animal who prefers to embrace the myths that keep him comfortable rather than inquire into the facts that enjoin him to think." (Ashley Montague)
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592; French author)
"I don't break the law made for crooks, when I take away my own property - thus I am not obliged to conform to the law made for murderers when I deprive myself of my own life." (Michel de Montaigne)
"Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, but he will make gods by the dozen." (Michel de Montaigne)
"I don't break the law made for crooks, when I take away my own property - thus I am not obliged to conform to the law made for murderers when I deprive myself of my own life." (Michel de Montaigne)
"Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, but he will make gods by the dozen." (Michel de Montaigne)
Larry Moran (American biochemist)
"………no matter how you define knowledge, philosophers haven't been very successful at adding to our knowledge base. They're good at questions………but not so good at answers. Thus, it's reasonable to claim that science (broad definition) is the only proven method of acquiring knowledge. If that's scientism then I think it's a good working hypothesis." (Larry Moran)
"I get the distinct impression that almost all philosophers of science have reached the same conclusions and they support those (mostly false) conclusions by referencing each other instead of going back to the scientific literature." (Larry Moran)
"………no matter how you define knowledge, philosophers haven't been very successful at adding to our knowledge base. They're good at questions………but not so good at answers. Thus, it's reasonable to claim that science (broad definition) is the only proven method of acquiring knowledge. If that's scientism then I think it's a good working hypothesis." (Larry Moran)
"I get the distinct impression that almost all philosophers of science have reached the same conclusions and they support those (mostly false) conclusions by referencing each other instead of going back to the scientific literature." (Larry Moran)
Haruki Murakami (1949- ; Japanese author)
If you think God's there, He is. If you don't, he isn't. And if that's what God's like, I wouldn't worry about it." (Haruki Murakami)
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” (Haruki Murakami)
If you think God's there, He is. If you don't, he isn't. And if that's what God's like, I wouldn't worry about it." (Haruki Murakami)
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” (Haruki Murakami)
Other M
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." (Delos B. McKown)
"When you're saved by grace and good works are as "filthy rags", what does it matter what you do? That's the stinking rot of what mainstream American Christian dogma has degenerated to. Millions and millions of unaccountable people whose measure of morality is whether you believe something is true or not." (Benjamin Muller)
"Any Christian who denies getting a little smile on their god loving face when any news comes out about a threat against their precious Israel is a liar." (Jimmy Mallett)
"Isn't it possible that deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and divine command philosophy are really just attempts to rationalize emotional states and empathy, just as Randian objectivism is trying to rationalize greed and selfishness, and that the philosophy is irrelevant to the humanity of good actions? Damn. Questioning philosophy is practicing philosophy itself. There's no way out of that trap." (P Z Myers)
"Casinos treat gambling addicts with more decorum, honesty, and integrity than apologists treat their downline." (Cassidy McGillicuddy)
"Fideism can be described as the refusal to take any ethical stance on one's inner actions whatsoever. It involves a lack of inner decency................you have already given up on the whole idea of an ethics for inner action." (Thomas Metzinger)
"If, as evolutionists claim, all of mankind evolved from the same primitive life-source, then how did we end up with 7,000 different languages?" (Donald J Morrison)
"Just because it’s turtles all the way down, doesn’t mean it’s turtles all the way up." (Kevin Mitchell)
“For decades, the patent offices in the U.S. and Britain were deluged with submissions for patents on perpetual motion machines—contraptions that would produce more energy than was put into them, and thus solve all of humanity’s energy needs forever. Such a device is highly dubious, if not impossible, given what we know about the laws of nature. After wasting countless frustrating hours reviewing these proposals only to reject them, the patent offices adopted a new policy. They ruled that no more patents applications for perpetual motion machines would be accepted. We should draw the same lesson about God.” (Matt McCormick)
“Obama is not clinically insane but has been specifically programmed by his Communist handlers along with his Muslim allies to take America over the cliff………..Obama is totally controlled as an authentic Manchurian Candidate.” (Austin Miles)
“One must note the feature of religion that keeps it on the front page and on prime time: it kills.” (Martin Marty)
"That this span is brief, that consciousness is an accidental gift of blind processes, makes our existence all the more precious and our responsibilities for it all the more profound." (Ian McKewan)
"It is not acceptable to have a religion where the alternative to faith is punishment - that’s how you train dogs, not develop people." (Deng Ming-Dao)
"The first question any sane, self-loving woman would ask upon realizing that the vast majority of males are rapists is how to keep those rapists away from girls and women. The fact that so many women instead ask how to keep the males from being rapists is a manifestation of feminine masochism." (Internet commenter: Margaret)
“Einstein was only a genius in his own mind. what did he do that was so great other than invent the light bulb? who cares about that anyway.” (Internet commenter: Mr McGoo)
"Pedophiles who pay children for sex are not really rapists, because the child consents, then performs the act, indicating they understand the nature of the contract." (Tom Martin)
"Life has to be given a meaning because of the obvious fact that it has no meaning.” (Henry Miller)
"Aliens are NOT demons? Puhleeze.........now that is crazy talk. How do they explain reports of when people use the name Jesus the Aliens run?" (Internet commenter: MROD)
"Some suggest that 'acting responsibly' means not saying anything that you know will provoke other people into acting violently. Salman Rushdie was irresponsible because he knew that The Satanic verses would provoke riots. Charlie Hebdo was irresponsible because it knew its cartoons would cause trouble. Think of the logic of this argument: that those most willing to be provoked, or to threaten, should be the ones who effectively decide what can and cannot be said. Rather than fingering the perpetrators of violence for being irresponsible, it puts the onus on the victims to act responsibly.......It is also an argument that turns the notion of tolerance on its head. Tolerance used to mean the willingness to accept things being said with which one did not agree. Now, it is the insistence that one should keep silent about things with which others disagree. Tolerance, in other words, is no longer about opening up society. It's about closing it down. If you want an open, plural society, if you want to challenge bigotry, if you want to defend freedom of religion, if you want to question power, you need to defend the right to give offence. Full stop. No buts." (Kenan Malik)
“The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.” (Bernard Meltzer)
"I am first a man and only then a Frenchman.....because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French." (Charles de Montesquieu)
"If we came from monkies, then we would have proof already because then the monkies we have in captivity would turn into a human." (Internet commenter: Jolie Monique)
"To say that atheism requires faith is as dim-witted as saying that disbelief in pixies or leprechauns takes faith. Even if Einstein himself told me there was an elf on my shoulder, I would still ask for proof and I wouldn't be wrong to ask." (George Mather)
"The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church." (Ferdinand Magellan)
"There are no atheists in foxholes" isn't an argument against atheism, it's an argument against foxholes." (James Morrow)
"Where it is a duty to worship the sun it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat." (John Morley)
"Let's face it; God has a big ego problem. Why do we always have to worship him?" (Bill Maher)
"There is a soft drink company, believe it may be Pepsi, that is using aborted baby cells to flavor pop. When you think they have hit bottom.......look out.........the bottom is still a ways to go." (Internet commenter: Mom2ten)
"From my rotting body flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity." (Edvard Munch)
"I don’t want to fly in a plane built on faith and poetry." (Diane MacPherson)
"Without an omnipotent being, there would be no way for there to be anything but maximum entropy. Thus, the fact that entropy is increasing is - in and of itself - proof of God's existance." (Internet commenter: MarioFanaticXV)
"To rebut creationism you pretty much have to be a biologist, chemist, geologist, philosopher, lawyer and historian all rolled into one. While to advocate creationism, you just have to be an idiot." (Tom Morris)
“Consider what theistic religions offer as God’s actual purpose for our lives: glorifying him and enjoying his presence forever. Surely we can ask - I hereby do ask - ‘What’s so great about that?” (Stephen Maitzen)
“When you look at all the groups who have given prophecies at various times, they have one thing in common: they all failed. For most of us, this is a history of successive groups with failed prophecies. But for the groups themselves, prophecy never fails…” (Gordon Melton)
"A psychopath may make many morally horrendous choices, but they will not include choosing the brain of a psychopath." (Raoul Martinez)
"Female reproductive organs rely on gravity of one falling egg, which is massive, and a male relies on charged rise at a penis, which ejaculates multiple excited sperm. A pivotal puffball egg replicates a massive accretion, while a dense sperm replicates an atom in an accretion. Other female and male features of fall or rise, and curvature or sharpness also apply. Synchronization with our epicycle is by massive daily to monthly cycles for estrogen ovulation and charged daily to yearly cycles for testosterone arousal. As in physics, females tend to hold and explode life from real origins of a home nucleus, often with ignorance of the world. Males sort continually as an edge to a world to ideal ends of a home nucleus, often with violence in a world." (Marcus David Morgan)
"Isaac Newton famously said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” I like that approach. Meanwhile, creationists are off in the corner threatening that their giant is going to beat us up if we don’t accept what they’re telling us." (David MacMillan)
"A popular Auschwitz guard with a long marriage is the very definition of mental health. Moral considerations do not form the basis of mental heath – a compliant Nazi is considered more ‘healthy’ than an outcast one. This form of ‘social ethics’ is largely due to the Jewish influence over psychology." (Stefan Molyneux)
"George Boole was the inventor of the typical TRUE / FALSE logic used all over today. He lived in the first half of the 1800’s, dying at the age of 49 after succumbing to a bad case of the false.” (Internet commenter: Michael)
“Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.” (Herman Melville)
“It does seem to me increasingly that the two markers of a civilised society are bicycles and doctor-assisted suicide.” (Henry Marsh)
“In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.” (Toni Morrison)
"Religious people claim that it's just the fundamentalists' of each religion that cause problems - there's got to be something wrong with the religion itself if those who strictly adhere to its most fundamental principles are violent bigots and sexists." (David McAfee)
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." (Delos B. McKown)
"When you're saved by grace and good works are as "filthy rags", what does it matter what you do? That's the stinking rot of what mainstream American Christian dogma has degenerated to. Millions and millions of unaccountable people whose measure of morality is whether you believe something is true or not." (Benjamin Muller)
"Any Christian who denies getting a little smile on their god loving face when any news comes out about a threat against their precious Israel is a liar." (Jimmy Mallett)
"Isn't it possible that deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and divine command philosophy are really just attempts to rationalize emotional states and empathy, just as Randian objectivism is trying to rationalize greed and selfishness, and that the philosophy is irrelevant to the humanity of good actions? Damn. Questioning philosophy is practicing philosophy itself. There's no way out of that trap." (P Z Myers)
"Casinos treat gambling addicts with more decorum, honesty, and integrity than apologists treat their downline." (Cassidy McGillicuddy)
"Fideism can be described as the refusal to take any ethical stance on one's inner actions whatsoever. It involves a lack of inner decency................you have already given up on the whole idea of an ethics for inner action." (Thomas Metzinger)
"If, as evolutionists claim, all of mankind evolved from the same primitive life-source, then how did we end up with 7,000 different languages?" (Donald J Morrison)
"Just because it’s turtles all the way down, doesn’t mean it’s turtles all the way up." (Kevin Mitchell)
“For decades, the patent offices in the U.S. and Britain were deluged with submissions for patents on perpetual motion machines—contraptions that would produce more energy than was put into them, and thus solve all of humanity’s energy needs forever. Such a device is highly dubious, if not impossible, given what we know about the laws of nature. After wasting countless frustrating hours reviewing these proposals only to reject them, the patent offices adopted a new policy. They ruled that no more patents applications for perpetual motion machines would be accepted. We should draw the same lesson about God.” (Matt McCormick)
“Obama is not clinically insane but has been specifically programmed by his Communist handlers along with his Muslim allies to take America over the cliff………..Obama is totally controlled as an authentic Manchurian Candidate.” (Austin Miles)
“One must note the feature of religion that keeps it on the front page and on prime time: it kills.” (Martin Marty)
"That this span is brief, that consciousness is an accidental gift of blind processes, makes our existence all the more precious and our responsibilities for it all the more profound." (Ian McKewan)
"It is not acceptable to have a religion where the alternative to faith is punishment - that’s how you train dogs, not develop people." (Deng Ming-Dao)
"The first question any sane, self-loving woman would ask upon realizing that the vast majority of males are rapists is how to keep those rapists away from girls and women. The fact that so many women instead ask how to keep the males from being rapists is a manifestation of feminine masochism." (Internet commenter: Margaret)
“Einstein was only a genius in his own mind. what did he do that was so great other than invent the light bulb? who cares about that anyway.” (Internet commenter: Mr McGoo)
"Pedophiles who pay children for sex are not really rapists, because the child consents, then performs the act, indicating they understand the nature of the contract." (Tom Martin)
"Life has to be given a meaning because of the obvious fact that it has no meaning.” (Henry Miller)
"Aliens are NOT demons? Puhleeze.........now that is crazy talk. How do they explain reports of when people use the name Jesus the Aliens run?" (Internet commenter: MROD)
"Some suggest that 'acting responsibly' means not saying anything that you know will provoke other people into acting violently. Salman Rushdie was irresponsible because he knew that The Satanic verses would provoke riots. Charlie Hebdo was irresponsible because it knew its cartoons would cause trouble. Think of the logic of this argument: that those most willing to be provoked, or to threaten, should be the ones who effectively decide what can and cannot be said. Rather than fingering the perpetrators of violence for being irresponsible, it puts the onus on the victims to act responsibly.......It is also an argument that turns the notion of tolerance on its head. Tolerance used to mean the willingness to accept things being said with which one did not agree. Now, it is the insistence that one should keep silent about things with which others disagree. Tolerance, in other words, is no longer about opening up society. It's about closing it down. If you want an open, plural society, if you want to challenge bigotry, if you want to defend freedom of religion, if you want to question power, you need to defend the right to give offence. Full stop. No buts." (Kenan Malik)
“The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.” (Bernard Meltzer)
"I am first a man and only then a Frenchman.....because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French." (Charles de Montesquieu)
"If we came from monkies, then we would have proof already because then the monkies we have in captivity would turn into a human." (Internet commenter: Jolie Monique)
"To say that atheism requires faith is as dim-witted as saying that disbelief in pixies or leprechauns takes faith. Even if Einstein himself told me there was an elf on my shoulder, I would still ask for proof and I wouldn't be wrong to ask." (George Mather)
"The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church." (Ferdinand Magellan)
"There are no atheists in foxholes" isn't an argument against atheism, it's an argument against foxholes." (James Morrow)
"Where it is a duty to worship the sun it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat." (John Morley)
"Let's face it; God has a big ego problem. Why do we always have to worship him?" (Bill Maher)
"There is a soft drink company, believe it may be Pepsi, that is using aborted baby cells to flavor pop. When you think they have hit bottom.......look out.........the bottom is still a ways to go." (Internet commenter: Mom2ten)
"From my rotting body flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity." (Edvard Munch)
"I don’t want to fly in a plane built on faith and poetry." (Diane MacPherson)
"Without an omnipotent being, there would be no way for there to be anything but maximum entropy. Thus, the fact that entropy is increasing is - in and of itself - proof of God's existance." (Internet commenter: MarioFanaticXV)
"To rebut creationism you pretty much have to be a biologist, chemist, geologist, philosopher, lawyer and historian all rolled into one. While to advocate creationism, you just have to be an idiot." (Tom Morris)
“Consider what theistic religions offer as God’s actual purpose for our lives: glorifying him and enjoying his presence forever. Surely we can ask - I hereby do ask - ‘What’s so great about that?” (Stephen Maitzen)
“When you look at all the groups who have given prophecies at various times, they have one thing in common: they all failed. For most of us, this is a history of successive groups with failed prophecies. But for the groups themselves, prophecy never fails…” (Gordon Melton)
"A psychopath may make many morally horrendous choices, but they will not include choosing the brain of a psychopath." (Raoul Martinez)
"Female reproductive organs rely on gravity of one falling egg, which is massive, and a male relies on charged rise at a penis, which ejaculates multiple excited sperm. A pivotal puffball egg replicates a massive accretion, while a dense sperm replicates an atom in an accretion. Other female and male features of fall or rise, and curvature or sharpness also apply. Synchronization with our epicycle is by massive daily to monthly cycles for estrogen ovulation and charged daily to yearly cycles for testosterone arousal. As in physics, females tend to hold and explode life from real origins of a home nucleus, often with ignorance of the world. Males sort continually as an edge to a world to ideal ends of a home nucleus, often with violence in a world." (Marcus David Morgan)
"Isaac Newton famously said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” I like that approach. Meanwhile, creationists are off in the corner threatening that their giant is going to beat us up if we don’t accept what they’re telling us." (David MacMillan)
"A popular Auschwitz guard with a long marriage is the very definition of mental health. Moral considerations do not form the basis of mental heath – a compliant Nazi is considered more ‘healthy’ than an outcast one. This form of ‘social ethics’ is largely due to the Jewish influence over psychology." (Stefan Molyneux)
"George Boole was the inventor of the typical TRUE / FALSE logic used all over today. He lived in the first half of the 1800’s, dying at the age of 49 after succumbing to a bad case of the false.” (Internet commenter: Michael)
“Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.” (Herman Melville)
“It does seem to me increasingly that the two markers of a civilised society are bicycles and doctor-assisted suicide.” (Henry Marsh)
“In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.” (Toni Morrison)
"Religious people claim that it's just the fundamentalists' of each religion that cause problems - there's got to be something wrong with the religion itself if those who strictly adhere to its most fundamental principles are violent bigots and sexists." (David McAfee)