What They Said About Religion

What They Said About Religion

Nontract #4
Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc.

I don't believe in God, because I don't believe in Mother Goose. Clarence Darrow
Nature made us--nature did it all--not the gods of the religions. Thomas A. Edison
It is best to read the weather forecast before praying for rain. Mark Twain
The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of woman's emancipation. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel. Ambrose Bierce
Question with boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one, He must approve the homage of Reason rather than that of blindfolded Fear. Thomas Jefferson
Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize [hu]mankind. Thomas Paine
I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of [hu]mankind has preserved the Cross. Consider what calamaties that engine of grief has produced! John Adams
Finding that no religion is based on facts and cannot therefore be true, I began to reflect what must be the condition of [hu]mankind trained from infancy to believe in error. Robert Owen
Why has a religious turn of mind always a tendency to narrow and harden the heart? Robert Burns
It's an incredible con job when you think of it, to believe something now in exchange for life after death. Even corporations with all their reward systems don't try to make it posthumous. Gloria Steinem
The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one. David Hume
I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young, and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is none the less true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Bertrand Russell
It's interesting to speculate how it developed that in two of the most anti-feminist institutions, the church and the law court, the men are wearing the dresses. Flo Kennedy
Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system. Thomas Paine
One of my favorite fantasies is that next Sunday not one single woman, in any country of the world, will go to church. If women simply stop giving our time and energy to the institutions that oppress, they could cease to be. Sonia Johnson
During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. James Madison
When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one. Benjamin Franklin
Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and the state forever separate. Ulysses S. Grant
Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law. Thomas Paine
It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. Thomas Jefferson
I can hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother, and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine. Charles Darwin
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own--a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism. Albert Einstein
The bible teaches that woman brought sin and death into the world, that she precipitated the fall of the race, that she was arraigned before the judgment seat of Heaven, tried, condemned and sentenced. Marriage for her was to be a condition of bondage, maternity a period of suffering and anguish, and in silence and subjection, she was to play the role of a dependent on man's bounty for all her material wants, and for all the information she might desire . . . Here is the Bible position of woman briefly summed up. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
One does well to put on gloves when reading the New Testament. The proximity of so much uncleanliness almost forces one to do this. Friedrich Nietzsche
Reason should be destroyed in all Christians. Martin Luther
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. Jesus
The memory of my own suffering has prevented me from ever shadowing one young soul with the superstitions of the Christian religion. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. Bertrand Russell
It is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason. Mary Wollstonecraft
Ministers say that they teach charity. That is natural. They live on hand-outs. All beggars teach that others should give. Robert Ingersoll
Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. Steven Weinberg
If we must play the theological game, let us never forget that it is a game. Religion, it seems to me, can survive only as a consciously accepted system of make-believe. Aldous Huxley

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Sources:

Darrow, 1930 speech, Toronto
Edison, New York Times, October 2, 1910
Twain, Puddinhead Wilson
Stanton, "Free Thought Magazine": Vol. 14, 1896
Bierce, Devil's Dictionary
Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787
Paine, Age of Reason
Adams, letter to Jefferson, 1816
Owen, Evidences of Christianity: A Debate, 1829
Burns, letter to Alexander Cunningham, September 10, 1792
Steinem, Feminist Connection, November 1980
Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Russell, Why I Am Not A Christian
Kennedy, Color Me Flo
Paine, Age of Reason
Johnson, Speech to Freedom From Religion Foundation, Madison, Wis., October 30, 1982
Madison, Memorial & Remonstrance
Franklin, letter to Richard Price, October 9, 1790
Grant, President's Speech, Des Moines 1875
Paine, The Rights of Man
Jefferson, Notes on Virginia
Darwin, Autobiography
Einstein, New York Times Nov. 9, 1930
Stanton, The Woman's Bible
Nietzsche, The Antichrist
Luther, Luther, Erlanger Edition
Jesus, Matthew 10:34
Stanton, Eighty Years and More
Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian
Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Ingersoll, "The Truth," Works of Ingersoll
Weinberg (Physics Nobel Prize), April 1999 speech, Washington, DC
Huxley, Texts and Pretexts