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That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not. Thomas Paine
Among the most detestable villains in history, you could not find one worse than Moses. Here is an order, attributed to ‘God’ to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers and to debauch and rape the daughters. I would not dare to dishonor my Creator’s name by [attaching] it to this filthy book. Men and books lie. Only nature does not lie. (God & Moses & Old Testament & Nature & Bible) Thomas Paine
Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind. Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine and murder. For the belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man. And the Bible is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind. Thomas Paine
There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express commandment of God, that are shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of moral justice. Thomas Paine
It is not a god, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes. Thomas Paine
These books are spurious, and that Moses is not the author of them; and still further, that they were not written in the times of Moses, not till several hundred years afterwards. Thomas Paine
It’s almost as if the Bible was written by racist, sexist, homophobic, violent, sexually frustrated men instead of a loving God. Weird. Ricky Gervais
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. Albert Einstein
When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the Land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible. Jomo Kenyatta, cited J F Walker ‘A Certain Curve of Horn’ 2004, attributed Desmond Tutu
What I’m saying is, if God wanted to send us a message, and ancient writings were the only way he could think of doing it, he could have done a better job. Professor Carl Sagan
Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever it has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved? Carl Sagan, interview Charlie Rose 27th May 1996
To trust the God of the Bible is to trust an irascible, vindictive, fierce and ever fickle and changeful master. Mark Twain, A Biography
There is one notable thing about our Christianity: bad, bloody, merciless, money-grabbing, and predatory as it is – in our country particularly and in all other Christian countries in a somewhat modified degree – it is still a hundred times better than the Christianity of the Bible, with its prodigious crime – the invention of Hell. Measured by our Christianity of to-day, bad as it is, hypocritical as it is, empty and hollow as it is, neither the Deity nor his Son is a Christian, nor qualified for that moderately high place. Ours is a terrible religion. The fleets of the world could swim in spacious comfort in the innocent blood it has spilled. Mark Twain, Autobiography
The Bible has noble poetry in it ... and some good morals and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies. Mark Twain
It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. Mark Twain
The Bible is a wonderful book; you can prove anything you want with it. Mark Twain
Every sect is a certificate that God has not plainly revealed his will to man. To each reader the Bible conveys a different meaning. About the meaning of this book, called a revelation, there have been ages of war, and centuries of sword and flame. If written by an infinite God, he must have known that these results must follow; and thus knowing, he must be responsible for all. Robert G Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses 1879
The liberty of man is not safe in the hands of any church. Wherever the Bible and sword are in partnership, man is a slave. Robert G Ingersoll
It is contended by many that ours is a Christian government, founded upon the Bible, and that all who look upon the book as false or foolish are destroying the foundation of our country. The truth is, our government is not founded upon the rights of gods, but upon the rights of men. Our Constitution was framed, not to declare and uphold the deity of Christ, but the sacredness of humanity. Ours is the first government made by the people and for the people. It is the only nation with which the gods have had nothing to do. And yet there are some judges dishonest and cowardly enough to solemnly decide that this is a Christian country, and that our free institutions are based upon the infamous laws of Jehovah. Robert G Ingersoll
The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it. Robert G Ingersoll
What in the twenty-first century are we doing venerating a book that contains such stuff? Richard Dawkins, The Root of All Evil? The Virus of Faith, Channel 4 2006
They half-believe in the Bible. But how do they decide which parts to believe literally and which parts are allegorical. ibid.
It seems to me an odd proposition that we should adhere to some parts of the Bible story but not to others. After all, when it comes to important moral questions by what standards do we cherry-pick the Bible? Why bother with the Bible at all if we have the ability to pick and choose from it what is right and what is wrong for today’s society? ibid.
But dwarfed by the mighty temples and giant statues of Babylonian Gods, the Israelites must also confront the fundamental question – Why did their god – Yahweh – forsake them? ibid.
What on earth makes you trust religion to tell you what’s right and wrong? If you do trust religion, where are you going to get it from? For goodness sake don’t get it from the Bible. Richard Dawkins v Alister McGrath, Oxford Literary Festival 2007
Do we really want to take our morals straight from the rather rigid rule book of an ancient desert tribe? Richard Dawkins, Sex, Death and The Meaning of Life I: Sin, Channel 4 2012
To be fair, much of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird, as you would expect of a chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and ‘improved’ by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors and copyists, unknown to us and mostly unknown to each other, spanning nine centuries. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion p237
The well-loved story of Noah, derived from the Babylonian myth of Uta-Napisthim and known from the older mythologies of several cultures. The legend of the animals going into the ark two by two is charming, but the moral of the story of Noah is appalling. God took a dim view of humans, so he (with the exception of one family) drowned the lot of them including children and also, for good measure, the rest of the (presumably blameless) animals as well. ibid. pp237-238
We pick and choose which bits of scripture to believe, which bits to write off as symbols or allegories. ibid. p238
Again, Lot was too drunk to notice, and he impregnated her too (Genesis 19:31-6). If this dysfunctional family was the best Sodom had to offer by way of morals, some might begin to feel a certain sympathy with God and his judicial brimstone. ibid. p240
The tragi-farce of God’s maniacal jealousy against alternative gods recurs continually throughout the Old Testament. ibid. p246
Modern morality, wherever else it comes from, does not come from the Bible. Apologists cannot get away with claiming that religion provides them with some sort of inside track to defining what is good and what is bad – a privileged source unavailable to atheists. ibid. pp246-247