Religion should have exactly the same controls and restrictions ....

Fiction

25 Dec 2009, 12:37PM

Religion should have exactly the same controls and restrictions as alcohol and pornography, i.e. kept well from children

Top Atheist T Shirts

source: via http://www.facebook.com/dariusz.andersen?ref=nf
More T Shirts... mostly amusing. Great selection at AtheistTShirts.co.uk.

Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence. - Richard Dawkins

There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence for it, but you can't prove that there aren't any, so shouldn't we be agnostic with respect to fairies? - Richard Dawkins

A universe with a God would look quite different from a universe without one. A physics, a biology where there is a God is bound to look different. So the most basic claims of religion are scientific. Religion is a scientific theory. Richard Dawkins

Religion teaches the dangerous nonsense that death is not the end. - Richard Dawkins

By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out. Richard Dawkins

A believer states everything must have a creator but fails to say how he was created

A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it. - David Stevens

A man full of faith is simply one who has lost the capacity for clear and realistic thought. - Henry Mencken

All religions have been made by men. - Napoleon Bonaparte

All the biblical miracles will at last disappear with the progress of science. - Matthew Arnold

An agnostic is an atheist that doesn't want to admit that he is an atheist because he is afraid that if he does God will strike him dead.

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

An idea does not gain truth as it gains followers - Amanda Bloom

Another godless atheist for peace and world harmony

Atheism is a non-prophet organization. - George Carlin

Atheists will celebrate life, while you’re in church celebrating death.

Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination. - Edward Abbey

Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color. - Don Hirschberg

Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world. - Voltaire

HASSNERS.org highlights

HASSNERS.org comments

This work by crabsallover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Quotes

Here's a few quotes I picked up:

“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind.” (Thomas Paine: The Age of Reason)

“Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.” Carl Sagan

“That man is the product of causes which had no pre-vision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his hopes and fears, his loves and beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins – all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.” Bertrand Russell

Phil

Quotes of the week - on Slavery, faith schools, secularism

reposted from: Newsline 19 October 2007
Chris Street comments are in bright green; highlights in blockquotes (yellow).

Quotes of the week
"Whether I like it or not, I belong to the Church which participated in the transatlantic slave trade. The actions of my forebears are my actions. I can't distance myself from the terrible things that the Anglican Church did to my brothers and sisters who were sold as slaves and for that I deeply apologise."
(John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, in a speech at the University of the West Indies)

"Unless we create a system where all children have equal access to a good education, millions of children will be denied a fair start in life,'
(Bob Reitemeier, chief executive, Children's Society, commenting on news that 23% of parents would lie about their beliefs to get their children into a "faith school".)

"If people want to believe in God, the Great Pumpkin, or a Jesus who lives in Missouri, that's up to them. But religion has no place in the public life of a democracy. None."
(Ted Rall, Yahoo News)

Quotations blog

reposted from: NSS Newsline 5th October

Quotes of the week
"One of the cornerstones of the democratic process is that discussion should be rational and that the bases upon which decisions are reached should be accessible to everyone. Religious beliefs do not fall into that category."
(Brian Eno, Observer)

"From a Muslim point of view, it is imperative that we take God out of politics. The plague of contemporary Muslim political discourse is to inject God and religion into all aspects of politics, turning people off God altogether."
(Ed Hussain, Observer)

"I didn't understand this idea of a God who says, 'You have to acknowledge me. You have to say that I'm the best, and then I'll give you eternal happiness. If you won't, then you don't get it!' It seemed to be about ego. I can't see God operating from ego, so it made no sense to me."
(Brad Pitt, Parade magazine)

Quotations

reposted from: http://www.samharris.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8127

Teach Science, not Superstition! - hampsteadpete

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." -Phillip K. Dick

"The differences between the Abrahamic religions are insignificant when compared to their similarities." - Carl Sagan

I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.

I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.

Rita Mae Brown
US author and social activist

Quotes of the Week

"You are living, dear reader, at a watershed in human history. This is the century during which, after 2,000 years of what has been a pretty bloody marriage, faith and reason must agree to part, citing irreconcilable differences. So block your ears to the cooing voices on Thought for the Day, and choose your side."
(Matthew Parris, Times)

"I simply laugh when I read the Koran, with its endless prohibitions on sex and its corrupt promise of infinite debauchery in the life to come."
(Christopher Hitchens, in his new book God is not Great)

"The Pope used to be in the Hitler youth. He's left all that behind him now. These days he stands on a balcony addressing cheering crowds."
(Nick Doody, Comedian)

reposted from: NSS Newsline 6th April 2007
my: highlights / emphasis / key points / comments