The Quotable Atheist

This book takes famous atheists and lists things they have said about religion. It's very interesting to see not only who through-out time has declared themselves atheist, but often why they have come to not believe. All in all, I say: READ IT - even if not an atheist - it will help you understand why some do not believe.

Some I liked:
"Trying to defend religion by invoking science is like claiming that three plus four equals ice cream." Decca Aitkenhead

"Christian: 'I'll pray for you.' Atheist: 'Then I'll think for both of us.'" Anonymous

"Doubt everything. Find your own light." Buddha

"The more I study religions, the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself." Sir Richard Burton

"Of religion I know nothing - at least, in its favor." Lord Bryon

"If religion cannot restrain evil. it cannot claim effective power for good." Morris R. Cohen

"Let us celebrate the constancy of the speed of light, let us praise gravity, that it is in action the curvature of space, and glory that even light is bent by its force, riding the curvatures of space toward celestial objects as a fine, shimmering red-golden net might drape over them." EL Doctorow

Bob Geldof when asked if he's a saint or a sinner? "Being an atheist I can't be either."

"What the scientist thinks today, everyone else will be thinking on the day after tomorrow." Robert Graves

"Perhaps God chose me to be an atheist." Stanislaw J Lec

"Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness in order to shine." Arthur Schopenhauer

"The Bible tells us to be like God, and then on page after page it describes God as a mass murderer. This may be the single most important key to the political behavior of Western Civilization." Robert Anton Wilson