Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. H L Mencken
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. H L Mencken
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe. It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime. Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man. Thomas Paine
In religion and politics, people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the question at issue, but have taken them at second hand from other non-examiners whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing. Mark Twain
Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes, and wishes he was certain. Mark Twain, notebook 1879
Loyalty to a petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul. Mark Twain
This is a strange place, an extraordinary place, and interesting. There is nothing resembling it at home. The people are all insane, the other animals are all insane, the earth is insane, Nature itself is insane. Man is a marvellous curiosity. When he is at his very very best he is a sort of low grade nickel-plated angel; at his worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable; and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm. Yet he blandly and in all sincerity calls himself the ‘noblest work of God’. This is the truth I am telling you. And this is not a new idea with him, he has talked it through all the ages, and believed it. Believed it, and found nobody among all his race to laugh at it. Mark Twain, Letters from Earth
Belief matters a good deal less than how you live your life ... By no means all religion is fundamentalist, extreme, exclusive and damaging. At its best it’s something modest, inspiring and sustaining. Rabbi Julia Neuberger, with Spivey & Scrutton v Hichens & Dawkins & Grayling, debate 2008
90% of Americans believe in a personal God. Sam Harris, New York Society for Ethical Culture lecture 2005
We have names for people who have many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. When their beliefs are extremely common we call them ‘religious’; otherwise, they are likely to be called ‘mad’, ‘psychotic’ or ’delusional’. Sam Harris, The End of Faith
The danger of religious faith is that it allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them holy. ibid.
It is merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your thoughts while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom window. ibid.
Epidemiology is also a ‘social construct’ with ‘societal causes’ etc. – but this doesn’t mean that the germ theory of disease isn’t true or that any rival ‘construct’ – like one suggesting that child rape will cure AIDS – isn’t a dangerous, deplorable, and unnecessary eruption of primeval stupidity. We either have good reasons or bad reasons for what we believe; we can be open to evidence and argument, or we can be closed; we can tolerate (and even seek) criticism of our most cherished views, or we can hide behind authority, sanctity, and dogma. The main reason why children are still raised to think that the universe is 6,000 years old is not because religion as a ‘social institution’ hasn’t been appropriately coddled and cajoled, but because polite people (and scientists terrified of losing their funding) haven’t laughed this belief off the face of the earth. Sam Harris
What I’m asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives. Sam Harris
Where we have reasons for what we believe, we have no need of faith; where we have no reasons, we have lost both our connection to the world and to one another. Sam Harris
I know of no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too desirous of evidence in support of their core beliefs. Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation
Even in the most elementary social arrangements religious belief became almost inevitably associated with authority and power. Jonathan Miller, A Brief History of Disbelief
Perhaps we have to confront the fact that we’re hardwired for religion too. That no amount of rationality or science or modernity is ever going to relieve us of it. This is what we are – most of us ... The problem I think for atheists is that there are so many very clever sane responsible people like the Archbishop of Canterbury who believe in a sky-God. And who think that gathering in a large beautiful barn on a Sunday and sending up your thoughts is actually going to influence future events. It does seem a remarkable set of beliefs to me. Ian McEwan, interview Professor Richard Dawkins
Why is believing something without evidence good? Bill Maher, Religulous
It worries me that people are running my country who believe in a talking snake. ibid.
Could it be we somehow evolved religious belief as a survival mechanism? But if religious faith is somehow a by-product of evolution, does that mean belief in a God can be dismissed as a quirk of Nature? Horizon: God on the Brain, BBC 2003
For some reason our brains have developed specific structures that help us believe in God. Remarkably it seems, whether God exists or not, the way our brains have developed we will go on believing. ibid.
In 1973 Horizon looked at a scientific study of religious believers. Many of the people involved believed that God revealed Himself to them directly. Horizon: The End of God? A Horizon Guide to Science and Religion, BBC 2010
It is convenient that there be gods, and, as it is convenient let us believe that there are. Ovid, Ars Amatoria
It is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing. John Henry Newman, The Usurpations of Reason 1831
We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe. John Henry Newman, letter 27th June 1848
Ohhh, I don’t believe it! Victor Meldrew, One Foot in the Grave, BBC
It is not disbelief that is dangerous to our society; it is belief. George Bernard Shaw
Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self-interest backed by force. George Bernard Shaw
No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. George Bernard Shaw
There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Bertrand Russell, Human Society in Ethics and Politics
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible. Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals
What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite. Bertrand Russell
The true believer will never be discontinued about anything no matter how strong the evidence against it. James Randi
I believe what I’m told to believe. Don’t you? Charles Manson
You can convince anyone of anything if you just push it at them 100% of the time. They may not believe it completely, but they will still use it to form opinions, especially if they have nothing else to draw on. Charles Manson
A close-mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the prisoner doesn’t even know he’s locked up. David Foster Wallace
The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him. Leo Tolstoy
The educated minority, although no longer believing in the existing religious teaching, still pretend to believe. Leo Tolstoy
I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe – that unless I believed, I should not understand. Anselm of Canterbury
cf.
I must understand in order that I may believe. Peter Abelard
At this point I reveal myself in my true colours as a stick-in-the-mud. I hold a number of beliefs that have been repudiated by the liveliest intellects of our time. I believe that order is better than chaos. Creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence. Forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance. And I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than an ideology. I believe that in spite of recent triumphs of science men haven’t changed much in the last two thousand years. And in consequence we must still try to learn from history: history is ourselves ... I believe in courtesy ... And I think we should remember that we are part of a great whole, which for convenience we call nature. All living things are our brothers and sisters. Above all, I believe in the god-given genius of certain individuals. And I value a society that makes their existence possible. Kenneth Clark, Civilisation 13/13: Heroic Materialism, BBC 1969
It is my belief you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you understand the most amusing. Winston Churchill
If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire to capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning. Mahatma Gandhi
It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh. Mahatma Gandhi
I will fight for what I believe in until I drop dead. And that’s what keeps you alive. Barbara Castle, Labour politician
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. Joseph Conrad
Faith is a myth and beliefs shift like mists on the shore; thoughts vanish; words, once pronounced, die; and the memory of yesterday is as shadowy as the hope of to-morrow. Joseph Conrad