#theism

If I convert it's because it's better that a believer dies than that an atheist does. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#atheism #atheist #christianity #death #god

Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity. ↗

— Stephen Greenblatt

#christianity #faith #religion #war #faith

I was perplexed by the failure of teachers at school to address what seemed the most urgent matter of all: the bewildering, stomach-churning insecurity of being alive. The standard subjects of history, geography, mathematics, and English seemed perversely designed to ignore the questions that really mattered. As soon as I had some inkling of what 'philosophy' meant, I was puzzled as to why we were not taught it. And my skepticism about religion only grew as I failed to see what the vicars and priests I encountered gained from their faith. They struck me either as insincere, pious, and aloof or just bumblingly good-natured. (p. 10) ↗

— Stephen Batchelor

#buddhism #education #design

I always got a bit pissed off with those broadsheet sceptics who make their living being passionately angry about homeopathy, God, synchronicity or whatever, because it's as if they can't get past their emotions, and in their rage they become as faith-driven as the beliefs they criticise. I always said they give scientists a bad name. After all, science has to be about asking unthinkable questions, not closing down debate. ↗

— Scarlett Thomas

#religion #scepticism #sceptics #skepticism #skeptics

I have a great love and respect for religion, great love and respect for atheism. What I hate is agnosticism, people who do not choose. ↗

— Orson Welles

#atheism #choose #great #great love #hate

All writers of the Chaldaean period associate monotheism in the closest way with unity of worship. ↗

— Julius Wellhausen

#closest #monotheism #period #unity #way

Selfishness is the only real atheism; unselfishness the only real religion. ↗

— Israel Zangwill

#only #real #real religion #religion #selfishness

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

— Edmond de Goncourt

#god #him #insult #less #must

I was raised thinking that moral and ethical standards are universals that apply equally to everyone. And these values aren't easily compatible with the kind of religion that posits a Creator. To my way of thinking, an omnipotent being who sets up a universe in which thinking beings proliferate, grow old, and die (usually in agony, alone, and in fear) is a cosmic sadist. ↗

— Charles Stross

#cosmic-sadist #death #everything #life #religion

To you, I'm an atheist. To God, I'm the loyal opposition. ↗

— Woody Allen

#atheism #humor #humor