Atheist quotes

Atheist

1.8K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

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Atheist quotes (page 26 of 93)

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Carl Sagan Astronomer, Astrophysicist
Atheist

"The Romans called the Christians atheists. Why? Well, the Christians had a god of sorts, but it wasn't a real god. They didn't believe in the divinity of apotheosized emperors or Olympian gods. They had a peculiar, different kind of god. So it was very easy to call people who believed in a different kind of god atheists. And that general sense that an atheist is anybody who doesn't believe exactly as I do prevails in our own time."

Real Christian Atheist
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Carl Sagan Astronomer, Astrophysicist
Atheist

"Since World War II, Japan has spawned enormous numbers of new religions featuring the supernatural.... In Thailand, diseases are treated with pills manufactured from pulverized sacred Scripture. Witches are today being burned in South Africa.... The worldwide TM [Transcendental Meditation] organization has an estimated valuation of $3 billion. For a fee, they promise to make you invisible, to enable you to fly."

War Numbers Atheist
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Chapman Cohen Philosopher
Atheist

"The defenders of godism are now shrieking against the growing number of Atheists, and there is a call to the religious world to enter upon a crusade against Atheism. The stage in which heresy meant little more than all exchange of one god for another has passed. It has become a case of acceptance or rejection of the idea of God, and the growth is with those who reject."

Religious Atheist Acceptance
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Charles Darwin Naturalist, Geologist
Atheist

"In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God ... I think that generally (& more and more so as I grow older) but not always, that an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind."

Thinking Mind Atheist
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Christopher Hitchens Author, Critic, Journalist
Atheist

"Those of us who write and study history are accustomed to its approximations and ambiguities. This is why we do not take literally the tenth-hand reports of frightened and illiterate peasants who claim to have seen miracles or to have had encounters with messiahs and prophets and redeemers who were, like them, mere humans. And this is also why we will never submit to dictation from those who display a fanatical belief in certainty and revelation."

Writing Hands Atheist
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Christopher Hitchens Author, Critic, Journalist
Atheist

"The atheist proposition is the following - most of the time - it may not be said that there is no god; it may be said that there is no reason to think that there is one."

Thinking May Atheist
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Christopher Hitchens Author, Critic, Journalist
Atheist

"I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves."

Thinking Long Atheist
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Christopher Hitchens Author, Critic, Journalist
Atheist

"Indeed, it's futile to try and use Holy Scripture to support any political position. I deeply distrust anyone who does. Just look at what an Islamic Republic is like."

Support Atheist Islamic
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Christopher Hitchens Author, Critic, Journalist
Atheist

"There are days when I miss my old convictions as if they were an amputated limb. But in general I feel better, and no less radical, and you will feel better too, I guarantee, once you leave hold of the doctrinaire and allow your chainless mind to do its own thinking."

Thinking Atheist Feel Better
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Albert Einstein Physicist
Atheist

"Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is of the same kind as the intolerance of the religious fanatics and comes from the same source."

Religious Kind Atheist
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Sarah Thornton Sociologist
Atheist

"(...) contemporary art has become a kind of alternative religion for atheists. (...) For many art world insiders and art aficionados of other kinds, concept-driven art is a kind of existencial channel through which they bring meaning to their lives. It demands leaps of faith, but it rewards the believer with a sense of consequence. Moreover, just as churches and other ritualistic meeting places serve a social function, so art events generate a sense of community around shared interests"

Art Community Atheist
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Richard Watson Philosopher, Writer
Atheist

"Atheist, in the strict and proper sense of the word, is one who does not believe in the existence of a god, or who owns no being superior to nature. It is compounded of the two terms ... signifying without God."

Believe Two Atheist
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Sigmund Freud Neurologist, Psychoanalyst
Atheist

"Religion belonged to the infancy of humanity. Now that humanity had come of age, it should be left behind."

Age Humanity Atheist
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