Curses, Min, you beat me to the General Sedgwick one! Great minds and all that!
Never mind, though. I've still got a few from my favourite quotable nonbeliever, Colonel Robert Ingersoll (incidentally, Min, that was a real beauty you quoted; I'd not seen that one before):
Then there's Sir Terry Pratchett, a man who knows that gods do not play dice with the Universe - they prefer Snakes and Ladders with real snakes and greased rungs:
and the aforementioned Isaac Asimov:
A couple of anonymous ones (no, not the hacktivists):
Finally. one from me - call it a freebie:
Never mind, though. I've still got a few from my favourite quotable nonbeliever, Colonel Robert Ingersoll (incidentally, Min, that was a real beauty you quoted; I'd not seen that one before):
Quote:"We are satisfied that there can be but little liberty on Earth while men worship a tyrant in Heaven."
Quote:"Theological thunder has lost its lightning - it is nothing now but noise, pleasing those who make it and amusing those who hear."
Quote:"The man who believes in eternal torment, in the justice of endless pain, is suffering from at least two diseases - petrifaction of the heart and putrefaction of the brain."
Quote:"If there be an infinite Being, he does not need our help -- we need not waste our energies in his defense."
Quote:"The mechanic, when a wheel refuses to turn, never thinks of dropping on his knees and asking the assistance of some divine power. He knows there is a reason. He knows that something is too large or too small; that there is something wrong with his machine; and he goes to work and he makes it larger or smaller, here or there, until the wheel will turn."
Quote:"In all ages hypocrites, called priests, have put crowns on the heads of thieves, called kings."
Quote:"Ministers say that they teach charity. This is natural. They live on alms. All beggars teach that others should give."
Then there's Sir Terry Pratchett, a man who knows that gods do not play dice with the Universe - they prefer Snakes and Ladders with real snakes and greased rungs:
Quote:"Give a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set fire to him, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
and the aforementioned Isaac Asimov:
Quote:"The most practical and dramatic victory of science over religion occurred in the 17th Century, when churches began to put up lightning conductors."
A couple of anonymous ones (no, not the hacktivists):
Quote:"For god so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in him would believe in anything."
Quote:"Faith is to the human what sand is to the ostrich"
Finally. one from me - call it a freebie:
Quote:"I seriously wish there was a god, because I would take extreme pleasure in kicking its arse straight to hell."
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
