Atheist Quotes
Once basic human needs for food/shelter/health care/education/social justice are fairly well met, people lose their need for religion.
Believers say that the entire unimaginable hugeness of the Universe was made specifically for the human race - when atheists, by contrast, say that humanity is a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, an infinitesimal eyeblink in the vastness of time and space - and then, [...] believers accuse atheists of being arrogant.
Believers say they can know the truth - the greatest truth of all about the nature of the Universe, namely the source of all existence - simply by sitting quietly and listening to their hearts... and then accuse atheists of being arrogant. And this attitude isn`t just arrogant towards atheists. It`s arrogant towards people of other religions who have sat just as quietly, listened to their hearts with just as much sincerity, and come to completely opposite conclusions about God and the soul and the Universe.
People are told that they are inherently bad or sinful and that the only way to become good is by giving over control of their lives to faith. As there is no evidence that any of that is true, religion, in effect, is creating an imaginary problem simply so that it can sell an imaginary solution.
Not knowing the answer to a question is not a valid excuse for making up a fairytale to explain it.
Invoking a deity doesn`t solve the problem of complexity; it introduces a new problem. If all complex things really do require an intelligent creator, then why is that creator himself not bound to the same rule? Would that complex deity not require an even more complex creator, and so on, for infinity?
The only necessary argument against believing in God is simply that there is no evidence that any gods exist. An atheist doesn`t need to justify her lack of belief any further.
There is no evidence to suggest that God helps people. There is, however, ample evidence that people can help themselves and each other.
Meaning can be found outside of religion, and seeking one`s own meaning in life can be far more fulfilling than following the rules of an outside religious authority.
A difference between an atheist and a person of faith is that an atheist is willing to revise their belief (if provided sufficient evidence); the faithful permit no such revision.
Secular people don`t believe in life after death, but rather, they believe in life before death.
A god that doesn`t manifest in reality is indistinguishable from a god that doesn`t exist.
I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul... No, all this talk of an existence for us, as individuals, beyond the grave is wrong. It is born of our tenacity of life - our desire to go on living - our dread of coming to an end.
A belief that heaven or an afterlife awaits us is a "fairy story" for people afraid of death.
Religion, like poetry, is simply a concerted effort to deny the most obvious realities.