Library - Theology - Anti-theism

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I am not even an atheist so much as an anti-theist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful. Reviewing the false claims of religion I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith, I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually true... There may be people who wish to live their lives under cradle-to-grave divine supervision, a permanent surveillance and monitoring, but I cannot imagine anything more horrible or grotesque.: -- Christopher Hitchens

An anti-theist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence. Because God can be relegated to remote times and places and to ultimate causes, we would have to know a great deal more about the universe than we do now to be sure that no such God exists. To be certain of the existence of God and to be certain of the nonexistence of God seem to me to be the confident extremes in a subject so riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire very little confidence indeed.: -- Carl Sagan, "Conversations with Carl Sagan"

What has "theology" ever said that is of the smallest use to anybody? When has "theology" ever said anything that is demonstrably true and is not obvious? What makes you think that "theology" is a subject at all?: -- Richard Dawkins

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.: -- Baruch Spinoza

Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy are only ridiculous.: -- David Hume

Enjoy the solace of your freedom to think independently. To the deluded you may be pre-judged as "crazy," but why should you have to live up to their expectations? Fighting for freedom is a worthwhile endeavor because it benefits everyone (including you). You don't have to win arguments with your family, but beware that they have no avenue of attack against you as an atheist since atheism is the "absence of belief in deities and supernatural agents" classification that carries no burden of proof, for it makes no claims and is not a position (anti-theism is a position).: -- Fidem Turbare, the non-existent atheist goddess (April 19th, 2013)

For the assertion that "There is no God" is just as much a claim to knowledge as is the assertion that "There is a God." Therefore, the former assertion requires justification just as the latter does.: -- William Lane Craig, "Reasonable Faith"

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.: -- Bertrand Russell

A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable.: -- Carl Sagan

Some of you say religion makes people happy; so does laughing gas.: -- Clarence Darrow

Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow.: -- Friedrich Nietzsche

I was thinking about how people seem to read The Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me: they're cramming for their final exam.: -- George Carlin

It is Hell, of course, that makes priests powerful, not Heaven, for after thousands of years of so-called civilization, fear remains one common denominator of mankind.: -- H.L. Mencken

I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing Hell, or fearing Heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of Hell, I think the boredom of Heaven would be even worse.: -- Isaac Asimov

Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.: -- Karl Marx

My only wish is ... to transform friends of God into friends of man, believers into thinkers, devotees of prayer into devotees of work, candidates for the hereafter into students of the world, Christians who, by their own procession and admission, are "half animal, half angel," into persons -- into whole persons.: -- Ludwig Feuerbach

On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from mroal principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning, and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.: -- Thomas Jefferson