1001 ATHEIST & AGNOSTIC

QUOTES AND PROVERBS TO LIVE

BY

Collected by Dr. Daniel Farcas

Foreword by Dr. Lawrence M. Krauss

2021
ISBN: 9798472209809
 Foreword

After Richard Dawkins and I appeared in the movie The Unbelievers I

began to get mail from people in small communities who had seen the movie and

thanked us for making it. On their own they had begun questioning God’s

existence, and they felt alone, and because of the teachings of those around

them, they also felt guilty. When they saw the movie they realized they were not

alone, that it is ok to question, and that people can lead full, good lives, without

believing in God.

I think that is one of the reasons this book of quotes will be useful.

Reading the collections of intelligent, witty, and provocative quotes by well-

known individuals from all walks of life may help many people realize that some

of their role models also question myth and superstition, that they are not alone.

Perhaps this will provide strength to continue reading and questioning, and some

of the quotes may prove to be useful to help spur discussions that open minds.
 Most importantly, many of these insightful quotes, many of which were

also new to me, can get you thinking in new ways about the world, and that of

course is the great virtue of literature, and science. I am happy Daniel Farcas

compiled these, and hope you enjoy them.

Lawrence M. Krauss 2021.

 That moment when I, Daniel Farcas started to doubt…

I can still vividly remember; we were all sitting by my grandfather’s death

bed while he was taking his last breaths. It was a painful and quiet moment; we

were all crying inside and all of us had tears rolling down from our eyes.

“Please grandpa don’t die” my eleven-year-old mind said out loud.

His eyes were looking somewhere above us all while closing slowly.

“Don’t worry Daniel!” he whispered, “I can see the heavens up there… and

the love of my life Emma…she is waiting for me up there…”

“What are you taking about grandpa?” I asked, “Grandma is right here!” He

never replied, as he was passing into the unknown, talking his very last breath.

“Burn in hell you infidel!” my grandma yelled, steaming with rage.

Later, we found that the girl my grandfather was taking about was a

summer love, short but intense that he had in college, well before he even met

my grandmother. I found out that according to neurologists when the human

brains prepare to die it starts playing back good memories, like they say, “your life

flashes before your eyes.” My grandmother remained lividly mad at him for the

rest of her life. She used to say often: “When I die and go to heaven, I am going

to make his life a living hell!”

Here we begin…

1. “We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed

in. Some of us just go one god further.” Richard Dawkins

2. “Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And the atoms

in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It

really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You

could not be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements - the carbon,

nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life -

weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear

furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to get into your body is if those

stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you

could be here today.” Lawrence M. Krauss

3. “The truth has nothing to fear from inquiry." Matt Dillahunty

4. “When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal

and wholesome life.” Sigmund Freud

5. “Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe

that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?” Douglas Adams

6. “Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning,

we should never have found out that it has no meaning...” C.S. Lewis

7. “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is

he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able, and willing? Then

whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?“

Epicurus

8. “God is a mental disorder like any other.” Mecha Constantine

9. “Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and

water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of

cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and

shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.” Christopher

Hitchens

10. “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without

evidence.” Christopher Hitchens

11. “Sometimes I feel like God…when I order someone killed—they die the

same day.” Pablo Escobar

12. “Almighty God, I am sorry I am now an atheist, but have You read

Nietzsche?” John Fante

13. “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit

atrocities.” Voltaire

14. “Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man?”

Friedrich Nietzsche

15. “All thinking men are atheists.” Ernest Hemingway

16. “Lucifer might’ve been God, given that Lucifer is “The Bringer of Light”,

and the first act of Creation was “Let there be light!” Anonymous

17. “To you, I'm an atheist. To God, I'm the loyal opposition.” Woody Allen

18. “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever

conceived.” Isaac Asimov

19. “To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior

creation—is that good for the world?” Christopher Hitchens

20. "I cannot see why we should expect an infinite God to do better in another

world than he does in this." Robert Green Ingersoll

21. “Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who

finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His

divine system of Creation?” Joseph Heller

22. “Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is

what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.” Napoleon Bonaparte

23. “Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.” Christopher

Hitchens

24. “The Bible has noble poetry in it... and some good morals and a wealth of

obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies.” Mark Twain

25. “In theory I am an agnostic, but pending the appearance of rational

evidence, I must be classed, practically and provisionally, as an atheist.” H. P.

Lovecraft

26. “Atheism is a non-prophet organization.” George Carlin

27. “Belief is the death of intelligence.” Robert Anton Wilson

28. “The reason people use a crucifix against vampires is because vampires are

allergic to bullshit.” Richard Pryor

29. “It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me,

it is the parts that I do understand.” Mark Twain

30. “When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many

people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.” Robert M. Pirsig

31. “If it turns out that there is a God...the worst that you can say about him

is that basically he's an underachiever.” Woody Allen

32. “One would go mad if one took the Bible seriously; but to take it seriously

one must be already mad.” Aleister Crowley

33. “We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth

of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels

good.” Carl Sagan

34. “If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a

punishment like me upon you.” Genghis Khan

35. “The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have

seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the

church.” Ferdinand Magellan

36. “I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking,

feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe

that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an

afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.” Carl

Sagan

37. “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can

do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.” Steven Weinberg

38. “If there is a God, his plan is very similar to someone not having a plan.”

Eddie Izzard

39. "Perfect beings do not experience anger or surprise towards a sequence

of events they knew of in advance.” John Kelly Ireland

40. “Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls

people, Deludes people.” Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney

41. “I don't want to believe. I want to know.” Carl Sagan

42. “We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful

God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.”

Gene Roddenberry
43. “If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what

God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it.” Haruki Murakami

44. “The real thing that physics tell us about the universe is that it's big, rare

event happens all the time — including life — and that doesn't mean it's special.”

Lawrence M. Krauss

45. “A cult is a religion with no political power.” Tom Wolfe

46. “Exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.” Christopher Hitchen

47. “The more I learn about the universe, the less convinced I am that there's

any sort of benevolent force that has anything to do with it, at all.” Neil deGrasse

Tyson

48. “The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans,

for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre,

but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude,

uncultured human mammals.” Christopher Hitchens

49. “(Jesus speaking): The servant who knows the master’s will and does not

get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows.”

Luke 12:47
50. “Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the

last church falls on the last priest.” Émile Zola

51. "Science knows it doesn't know everything; otherwise it'd stop. But just

because science doesn't know everything doesn't mean you can fill the gaps with

whatever fairy tale most appeals to you." Dara Ó Briain.

52. “God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.” Neil DeGrasse

Tyson

53. “The whole image is that eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions

God's infinite love. That's the message we're brought up with, isn't it? Believe or

die! Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those options.” Bill Hicks

54. “Doing good for the sake of a heavenly reward is not an act of good, but

a business transaction.” J. Adam Snyder

55. “We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice

between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence. And faith

is a conversation stopper.” Sam Harris

56. “It's in the Ten Commandments to not take the Lord's name in vain. Rape

isn't up there, by the way. Rape is not a Ten Commandment. But don't say the

dude's name with a shitty attitude.” Louis CK

57. “A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful

of his reading.” C.S. Lewis

58. “Personally, I think the 'Christian family' should be called a Christian

fantasy.” Ruth Hurmence Green

59. "God built the world, but he did not know it was round." Jim Jefferies

60. “A preoccupation with the next world clearly shows an inability to cope

credibly with this one.” Richard K. Morgan

61. “Genetic engineering is man’s way of correcting God’s hideous mistakes,

like German people.” Mr. Garrison, South Park

62. “If we are all God's children, what's so special about Jesus?” Jimmy Carr

63. “I'm a militant fundamentalist atheist. I'm going to get on a crowded train,

unbutton my coat and say rational things. People will be hurt.” Ricky Gervais

64. “Theology is ignorance with wings.” Sam Harris

65. “I want to put on the table, not why 85% of the members of the National

Academy of Sciences reject God, I want to know why 15% of the National

Academy don’t.” Neil deGrasse Tyson

66. “The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point

than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.” George Bernard

Shaw

67. “Who knew that the devil had a factory where he made millions of fossils,

which his minions distributed throughout the earth, in order to confuse my tiny

brain?” Lewis Black

68. “We need to live our experience as it is and with our eyes open. The

universe is the way it is, whether we like it or not.” Lawrence M. Krauss

69. “Be sure to lie to your kids about the benevolent, all-seeing Santa Claus. It

will prepare them for an adulthood of believing in God.” Scott Dikkers

70. “When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman

in the audience stood up and said, 'Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the

God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?'” Quentin Crisp

71. “An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church.

An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer said. An atheist
strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease

conquered, poverty vanished, war eliminated.” Madalyn Murray O'Hair

72. “Chance favors the prepared mind.” Louis Pasteur

73. “Peter: Some people say we're just a computer simulation run by a higher

species. Is that true?

God: It is.” Family Guy

74. “If god is the root cause for our degradation destroy that god. If it is

religion destroy it. If it is Manu Darma, Gita, or any other Mythology (Purana),

burn them to ashes. If it is temple, tank, or festival, boycott them. Finally, if it is

our politics, come forward to declare it openly.” Periyar E.V. Ramasamy

75. “America prays for God to destroy our enemies. Our enemies pray for God

to destroy us Somebody's gonna be disappointed.” George Carlin

76. “Your heart's desire is to be told some mystery. The mystery is that there

is no mystery.” Cormac McCarthy

77. “There was a time when religion ruled the world. It is known as the Dark

Ages.” Ruth Hurmence Green

78. “I have too much respect for the idea of God to make it responsible for

such an absurd world.” Georges Duhamel

79. “You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway.” Ricky Gervais

80. “If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would

be my god.” Napoleon Bonaparte

81. “Eskimo: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" Priest:

"No, not if you did not know." Eskimo: "Then why did you tell me?” Annie Dillard

82. “If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated."

Voltaire

83. “Next time someone tells me they believe in God, I’ll say ‘Oh which one?

Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra?…’ If they say

‘Just God. I only believe in the one God,’ I’ll point out that they are nearly as

atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869.” Ricky

Gervais

84. “I don't try to imagine a personal God; it suffices to stand in awe at the

structure of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate

it.” Albert Einstein

85. “This is the only real revelation — that God is only a trick with mirrors, our

dark reflection in a glass.” Philip Appleman

86. “To judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude

that God created most men simply with a view to crowding hell.” Marquis de

Sade

87. “The secrets of evolution are time and death. There's an unbroken thread

that stretches from those first cells to us.” Carl Sagan

88. “If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish Him.” Mikhail

Bakunin

89. “I see Atheists are fighting and killing each other again, over who doesn't

believe in any God the most. Oh, no…wait... that never happens.” Ricky Gervais

90. “Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And

nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me — the fabled God of

the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love — He also made the

fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish

come in? No; nature made us — nature did it all — not the gods of the religions.”

Thomas Edison
91. “A Christian telling an atheist they're going to hell is as scary as a child

telling an adult they're not getting any presents from Santa.” Ricky Gervais

92. “I have been called arrogant myself in my time, and hope to earn the title

again, but to claim that I am privy to the secrets of the universe and its creator

- that's beyond my conceit.” Christopher Hitchens

93. “All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or

Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and

enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” Thomas Paine

94. “The bible and the church have been the greatest stumbling block in the

way of women's emancipation.” Elizabeth Cady Stanton

95. “It’s a strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. It’s the opposite.

We have nothing to die for. We have everything to live for.” Ricky Gervais

96. “The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no

religion, and those with religion, but no brains.” Al-Maʿarri

97. “Why would an all-powerful creator decide to plant his carefully crafted

species on islands and continents in exactly the appropriate pattern to suggest,

irresistibly, that they had evolved and dispersed from the site of their evolution?”

Richard Dawkins

98. “I studied every page of this book, and I didn't find enough love to fill a

salt shaker. God is not love in the Bible; God is vengeance, from Alpha to Omega.”

Ruth Hurmence Green

99. “As more people become more intelligent, they care less for preachers and

more for teachers.” Robert Ingersoll

100. “The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is

that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe

in isolation.” Sam Harris

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