Atheist Quotes

Yesterday, when I was putting together my post, I wanted to include a quote from Voltaire, but I wanted to make sure that I had it right (Of course, Voltaire was French, so the quote was translated—I don’t read French, sorry—so if I didn’t have it quite right, that might just be a different translation, anyway). In any case, I went to some websites that feature quotes, particularly quotes by atheists, and I found a whole wealth of quotes that I wanted to respond to. So, here I am, responding to Atheists. Of course, I’m cherry-picking the quotes I want to respond to, so, if you don’t see a response to the atheist statement that you really wanted to hear a response to, that’s probably why.
Stephen Roberts said, “I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” I dismiss all the other gods because I know the one true God. That does not explain to me why you would reject the one true God. Although, to be honest, he may have a point: After sifting through dozens of false religions, many of which seem, in many ways, to be similar to Christianity, our religion can seem to be just another false religion. That was the mistake that Sennacherib made, in King Hezekiah’s time. He had besieged all these other kingdoms around Israel, and none of these other peoples’ gods had been able to deliver them, but when he came up against the true God, he ended up dead.
Blaise Pascal said, “Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions.” Of course, the Bible says that every way of a man is right in his own eyes. I think that Russell Crowe quoted that in “3:10 to Yuma,” also. There is a part of us that wants to do evil. Sometimes we excuse it as just human nature, but even the best of us are quite capable of evil. I’m not entirely convinced that we commit evil more joyfully when we can find a religious reason to justify what we want to do, as opposed to simply dismissing God as pure superstition, and then doing what we want to do, believing that there are no consequences for our actions, since there is no God to judge us. One major difference is that, when enough people of the same religious persuasion get together with a common justification, the evil is multiplied. So far, the atheists haven’t been able to find too many common justifications (keep in mind that atheists are not so much a group of people that believe the same thing, they are a group of people that don’t believe the same thing), and, of course, they are very much in the minority, so it has been much more difficult for them to get a large group together. Don’t misunderstand me: I am aware that there are many moral atheists out there. I know of atheists who live more moral lives than many of the religious people that I know. Does that mean that atheists, in general, are more moral than religious people in general? Not necessarily, although, I will concede the possibility. The real difference here is why are people being moral? Christians are moral out of fear of God. Why are atheists moral? Out of a fear of society? Out of a fear of religious people? That’s my best guess. Anybody got any other ideas?
Richard Jeni said, “You're basically killing each other to see who's got the better imaginary friend.” There’s an interesting thought. Sometimes it’s not even a question of who has the better God. Catholics and Protestants have fought wars over religious differences, while claiming to serve the same God. A lot of wars have been fought over religious differences that had nothing to do with religion, though. If I feel threatened by you, or you have something I want, I can stir up a whole lot more support amongst my fellow believers by making it a religious cause, by painting your threat as a threat against our religion rather than one against me, personally (especially if I’ve given you good reason to be upset with me). Quite frankly, for a religion that stresses peace as much as Christianity does, we sure do get caught up in an awful lot of “righteous causes” that turn very, very bloody. We should know better.
Bertrand Russell said, “And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence.” I have to agree. At the same time though, we aren’t really talking about doubt here, are we? I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t doubted God’s existence at least at some point in their lives. I know I have, but God has always reassured me that He is real. What we are really talking about is people who actively deny God’s existence, and then expect Him to treat them the same as His followers. Does that make any sense? Granted, as I suggested above, some atheists deserve better treatment than a lot of religious people.
Emo Philips said, “When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.” I’m not sure that was so much an atheist quote, but it was on the same web-site… I am sure that God doesn’t work that way, either, but, somehow it’s funny when Emo says it that way. Unfortunately, a lot of people think that they can get what they want exactly that way. Actually, you can get what you want that way, but there will be consequences.