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Quotes against religion

102 quotes from 58 people

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The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865
- Christianity
A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
Albert Einstein1879–1955Religion and Science (1930)
- Morality
The most ridiculous concept ever perpetrated by Homo Sapiens is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of the Universes, wants the sacharrine adoration of his creations, that he can be persuaded by their prayers, and becomes petulant if he does not recieve this flattery. Yet this ridiculous notion, without one real shred of evidence to bolster it, has gone on to found one of the oldest, largest and least productive industries in history.
Robert A. Heinlein1907–1988
- Prayer
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
Napoleon1769–1821
- Money
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
Blaise Pascal1623–1662
- Good & Evil
I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826In: John F. Nash Christianity: the One, the Many: What Christianity Might Have Been and Could Still Become, Volume 1, Xlibris Corporation,14 February 2008, p. 11.
- Christianity
To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin.
Robert Bellarmine1542–1621
I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion is anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds. One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Why I Am Not a Christian (1927), “The Emotional Factor”
Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.
Napoleon1769–1821
Hell is an outrage on humanity. When you tell me that your deity made you in his image, I reply that he must have been very ugly.
Victor Hugo1802–1885
Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.
Baron d'Holbach1723–1789Often credited to Voltaire
Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration⁠—courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956
Ocean: A body of water occupying 2/3 of a world made for man…who has no gills.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires⁠—desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Proposed Roads To Freedom (1918), Ch. VI: International relations, p. 97
Where knowledge ends, religion begins.
Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881Remark, attributed in John Gordon Stewart Drysdale and John James Drysdale, The Protoplasmic Theory of Life (1874), p. 279 (note).