#theism

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

Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#atheism #cats #dogs #food #god

Hundreds of hysterical persons must confuse these phenomena with messages from the beyond and take their glory to the bishop rather than the eye doctor. ↗

— James Thurber

#humour #james-thurber #religion #religion

We aim in the domain of politics at republicanism; in the domain of economics at socialism; in the domain of what is today called religion, at atheism. ↗

— August Bebel

#atheism #called #domain #economics #politics

All theory of modernity in sociology suggests that the more modernity there is, the less religion. In my theory we can realize that this is wrong: atheism is only one belief system among many. ↗

— Ulrich Beck

#atheism #belief #less #many #modernity

Religion used to be the opium of the people. To those suffering humiliation, pain, illness, and serfdom, religion promised the reward of an after life. But now, we are witnessing a transformation, a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, we are not going to be judged. ↗

— Czesław Miłosz

#karl-marx #opium-of-the-people #religion #death

It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#history #lincoln #religion

If atheism is to be used to express the state of mind in which God is identified with the unknowable, and theology is pronounced to be a collection of meaningless words about unintelligible chimeras, then I have no doubt, and I think few people doubt. ↗

— Leslie Stephen

#atheism #collection #doubt #express #few

En ningún momento de la historia, en ningún lugar del planeta, las religiones han servido para que los seres humanos se acerquen unos a los otros. Por el contrario, sólo han servido para separar, para quemar, para torturar. No creo en dios, no lo necesito y además soy buena persona. ↗

— José Saramago

#saramago #religion

A man without reason is no better than a mad dog, and mad dogs must be put down for the good of everyone. ↗

— James L. Sutter

#religion #death