Dr. Idel Dreimer

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top atheist quotes (total: 108)

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The conventional, hopeful construction of "God" requires a clinical re-assessment. It is claimed he created this world of ruthless predation -- where most life forms must survive by eating others. He then appears to the top predator, and -- in return for reverence, obsequious praise, and undying devotion -- offers a compensatory escape -- paradisal and eternal -- from the unsavoury cauldron. No -- not just yet -- only when you are -- conveniently -- dead. The gullible murmur "saviour." The narrative says "psychopath." (Observation #1996)		25
Belief in nonsense can be a powerful force. The lack of facts and logic requires an over-compensation in steely stubbornness and desperate determination. (Observation #1839)		25
Nobody has all the answers -- but questions are essential. Nothing further will be discovered by those who find truth in fantasy -- and stop asking questions. (Observation #1471)		25
Religion is such a boon! When you think you know the mind of God, you can put your own at rest. Then it can -- and often does -- remain happily inactive for a lifetime! (Observation #1377)		24
The atheist cannot prove that "God" does not exist -- but why should he have to? Surely it is up to those who insist that we respect God's infinite wisdom and perfect knowledge to perform the minimal comforting courtesy -- to make the token nod to reason -- by proving -- first -- that he does exist. (Observation #1379)		23
The development of varied, extraordinarily complex, conscious living creatures from inanimate matter is nothing less than miraculous. But there is nothing inherently moral about the process or the result. Most living creatures are caught up in a ruthless scheme of necessary murder -- and morality is a rather rare concept derived from the lives of a few of the most complex creatures who live in social groups. The great error of religion is to assume that what is miraculous must also be moral. It simply isn't. (Observation #1714)		22
Gods are created for our purposes -- to do our bidding. They are used to terrify, to justify, and to explain. Consistency is not a requirement. Sometimes we expect a god to be a beneficent purveyor of egalitarian mercy -- a comforting emotional haven -- a refuge from the real world. That world, of course, is simply the outcome and embodiment of the evolutionary principles of ruthless competition and necessary murder -- it is the very world he is assumed to have knowingly created in the first place. (Observation #1857)		22
Morality has no need of Gods -- it is socially derived -- a clause in every social contract. There is no practical morality for the lone castaway on a desert island -- for he can neither be sinned against nor sinning. (Observation #1428)		22
Many believe that without God, there can be no morality. But without men, there can be no Gods. Gods are mere reflectors -- they mirror the moralities of men. (Observation # 1386)		22
The choice is clear: to live with the uncomfortable truth -- that the universe is a great mystery whose origin and secrets we may never fully understand -- or to subscribe to a comforting lie -- that the universe was created solely for our benefit by a species-obsessed deity whose thoughts on every conceivable subject have been -- and continue to be -- accurately divined by self-proclaimed human intermediaries. It's a choice between reasonable calm -- pursuing the truth by sticking to the evidence -- and pathetic bluster -- the manufacturing of an unreasonable conclusion. (Observation # 1295)		22
Faith is the foundation stone of fanaticism. (Observation #1920)		21
The atheist has no preconceptions -- he reads the text of the universe as it appears -- and there are no explanatory footnotes. It is the theist who proposes an explanation; thus, he must bear the burden of proof. That proof is invariably what somebody said a long time ago. (Observation #1749)		21
Perfection is incompatible with change; there is a certain prudent practicality -- or unacknowledged irony -- in the religious notion that you have to be dead to experience it.(Observation #1341)		21
Religion is an imaginative construct -- a work of art, if you will -- but it differs from other narratives in its social impact. It gives hope of resurrection, salvation, and ultimate justice. It comforts with an anthropocentric view of an otherwise alien or even hostile universe. It soothes with repetition and communal ritual. Because it claims divine origin, it insulates itself -- and believers -- from mere mortal criticism. These elements create a powerful mythic cultural glue which enhances social unity -- and which -- historically -- has enabled tribal survival. At the heart of its power lies certainty -- which is both its inspirational strength and its moral weakness: while inspiring faith with claims of infallibility and moral purity -- it allows the commission of unconscionable evils in its promulgation and defence. Reason requires that, in the absence of evidence, religion should deny certainty -- but this is like asking the dictator to renounce power, the charlatan to proclaim his deceptions, the predator to give warning to its prey.(Observation #1922)		20
Certainty in the absence of evidence is the great inspirational strength -- and the great moral weakness -- at the heart of any religion. (Observation # 1421)		20
If God wanted to show us he's really there -- smart, caring, and an all round great guy to boot -- you'd think he could have hit on something a little less gruesome than the crucifixion of a close relative. (Observation #1750)		19
The universe -- call it God if you wish -- is creative, but amoral. Morality has its roots in tribal co-operation and is a function of tribal survival. (Observation #1394)		19
What is the true nature of God? Does he weep when evils are committed in his name? Or does he respond with bemused intellectual detachment -- savouring the irony? (Observation #1710)		18
God's "perfection" is the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card. Is God contradictory, unreliable, and uncaring? Are his motivations muddled, his creation cruel, and his second coming inordinately delayed? Don't worry -- his wisdom his infinite -- yours temporal and flawed. Tolerance of the perfection evasion varies according to the need for a comforting illusion. (Observation #1604)		18
"God" represents the attempt to tame the unfathomable, bizarre mystery of the universe -- to give it a comforting "human" face. (Observation #1603)		18
Complex things do not begin with complexity, but with simplicity; that is why "God" is an unconvincing ultimate first cause for the universe -- he is never described as simple -- but always in terms of a powerful "divine" complexity. (Observation #1321)		18
Religion represents an early imaginative explanation of the workings of the universe and a powerful tribal glue considered -- usefully -- too "sacred" for criticism. As more facts about the universe have been discovered, a significant dichotomy has appeared -- between the still tribally entranced and the newly freed -- whose thinking has sensibly advanced. (Observation #1886)		17
Religious hypotheses are unverifiable by the living -- the only "evidence" is ancient personal assertion -- or mythic "facts" woefully lacking in credibility. But fantasy is its own protection: it is a unifying realm beyond the fractious quibbles of intellect. Religion provides a sense of certainty, assures moral superiority, and comforts believers with a sense of community through repeated shared rituals. We should never underestimate the power of stupidity that is reassuringly communal. (Observation #1861)		17
The God hypothesis -- a patriarchal and very human alpha male as Creator-in-Chief -- seems weak -- but perhaps understandable among primitive tribes with few facts and active imaginations. When the theory is embellished and developed by religions -- which suggest that God -- managing his vast universe -- or universes -- has nothing better to do than anguish about the affairs of mankind -- and that certain special, chosen human beings know exactly what he is thinking -- "absurdity" and "idiocy" are words insufficient to the descriptive challenge. (Observation #1756)		17
Fear and ignorance are the foundation stones of religion. (Observation # 1532)		17
Religion is a kind of formalized insanity in which suppositions are transformed into facts. The trouble is -- any insanity sufficiently common and widespread is viewed as completely normal. (Observation #1063)		17
Religion has always been the "secret police" of human culture: God is the spy in the sky -- the omniscient and omnipotent enforcer of social norms. (Observation #1739)		16
Religion -- a kind of alternative insanity which allows the afflicted to make absurd irrational claims without fear of corrective treatment or loss of social standing. (Observation #1567)		16
"God" is a thought experiment -- an essay of the creative imagination. The theist confuses hypothesis with fact, and confidently proclaims that he has discovered truth. (Observation #1561)		16
The chief concern of religion -- the most potent force in tribalism -- has always been power; its aim is to instil, as the mainspring of human action, the imagined preferences of the God or Gods. When behaviour is firmly premised on fantasy, it is resistant to reason, and is susceptible to manipulation by those who can most convincingly interpret the "desires" of Divinity. (Observation #1738)		15
Religious certainty: an ancient mountain range of complacent superstition -- much eroded by the elements -- the scourings of doubt, investigation, and truth. Of course -- a rocky archipelago remains -- teeming with determined limpet believers -- but the tides of science, knowledge, and social realism continue to encroach, and, persistently, rise. (Observation #1790)		14
Preponderance of Evidence Isn't it odd -- This thing about God? -- Brief sparks of benevolence Mid his routine malevolence. (Observation #1670)		14
Those preoccupied with God's benevolence ignore -- conveniently -- a foundational and essential principle of his creation: most living things are locked in a scheme of necessary murder. (Observation #1596)		13
What the atheist asks is the ability to describe things as the evidence suggests, and to respond in a rational fashion. Speculations about how things came to be -- no matter how interesting -- lack an evidentiary basis and are ultimately irrelevant to daily life. Speculations about how things should be -- the conduct of society -- these are the subjects of moral philosophy. Religion -- which claims both a human-like originator and a detailed knowledge of his moral conclusions -- is fantasy posing as fact -- and should be valued accordingly. (Observation #1868)		12
Your view of religion will depend on how much you value truth, and how much you value strategies for avoiding it. (Observation # 1691)		12
The universe is a great mystery. You can make up as many happy and flattering stories about the mystery as you want. They are still just stories -- and the mystery is still a mystery. Observation # 502)		11
Where there are gaps in knowledge, religion tends to seep in.		10
The universe is a great mystery -- but there seems to be an irresistible impulse to explain it in human terms -- with distinctly human Gods inordinately preoccupied with their precious human creations. Objectively, this inclination seems to betray an infantile self-absorption. Why should the universe care more about homo sapiens than elephants, or jaguars, or some other life form elsewhere in its undefined vastness? Isn't it about time we grew up? (Observation #791)		8
Religion is superstition made respectable by tradition.		8
Religion may be reasonably benign when seen as a comforting -- but temporary and occasional -- flirtation with fantasy -- and as an acknowledgment that life has many unanswered questions. It can be quite dangerous as a permanent delusion -- a conclusion that all the questions have been answered. (Observation # 1222)		7
Religion is a transaction in which emotional comfort is purchased with the coin of intellectual dishonesty.		7
Religion -- the happy marriage of gullibility and mendacity. (Observation # 1095)		6
Religion -- an intellectual colouring book for adults. (Observation #670)		6
Religion -- the refuge of those for whom thinking is too much of a challenge. (Observation # 669)		6
Only from a free exchange and competition will the best ideas emerge and triumph; those with the worst ideas are the most anxious that freedom be suppressed and competition curtailed. This accounts for the confidence of science, and the defensiveness of religion. (Observation # 495)		6
Faith confuses hope with reality. The faithful become dangerous when they insist that others share their confusion.		6
Religion is a four-letter word: scam. (Observation #1140)		5
Far too much reverence is accorded to religious belief. It is as if all the inmates in the asylum had joined in a conspiracy to respect each others' delusions. (Observation # 1046)		5
God is theory; the universe is practice. (Observation #594)		5
Fond faith thrives best in rich deceptive soil -- Where knaves sow dreams that witless fools embroil. (With a nod to Alexander Pope)		5

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top atheist quotes (total: 108)

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