I do not believe in a personal God. Albert Einstein, attributed
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation ... who is but a reflection of human frailty. Albert Einstein
By simple common sense I don’t believe in God. Charlie Chaplin
I can’t believe that each species was brought into existence by a merciful God who cares about human beings. David Attenborough, televised interview
I can’t believe that God created parasites in order to torture small children. ibid.
I believe in God to exactly the same extent as I believe in fairies and unicorns. I can’t disprove any of them. But there’s no reason positively to believe in any of them. Professor Richard Dawkins, interview Have Your Say
I do not believe in an anthropomorphic God. 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God, Robert Coleman Richardson
I can’t believe the special stories that have been made up ... Too provincial. ibid. Richard Feynman
We have no reason to believe in it now. ibid. Professor Ned Block
I don’t believe in God. ibid. Professor Patrick Bateson
A personal God – and that I don’t believe. Another 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God, Professor Alexander Vilenkin
I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose. Clarence Darrow
Ohhh, I don’t believe it! Victor Meldrew, One Foot in the Grave, BBC 1990-2000
The word belief is a difficult thing for me. I don’t believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it – I don’t need to believe it. Carl Jung
She believed in nothing. Only her scepticism kept her from being an atheist. Jean-Paul Sartre
It’s so hard to believe in anything any more. I mean, it’s like, religion, you really can’t take it seriously, because it seems so mythological, it seems so arbitrary ... but, on the other hand, science is just pure empiricism, and by virtue of its method, it excludes metaphysics. I guess I wouldn’t believe in anything any more if it weren’t for my lucky astrology mood watch. Steve Martin
Do not believe anything merely because you are told it is so, because others believe it, because it comes from Tradition, or because you have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect. Believe, take for your doctrine, and hold true to that, which, after serious investigation, seems to you to further the welfare of all beings. Jean-Yves Leloup, Compassion and Meditation
For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us. Charles Bukowski
I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist. Albert Camus
Belief is the death of intelligence. Robert Anton Wilson
By the way, I never realized that to be nonbelieving, to be an atheist, was a thing to be proud of. It went without saying as it were.
... Our creed is indeed a queer creed. You others, Christians (and similar people), consider our ethics much inferior, indeed abominable. There is that little difference. We adhere to ours in practice, you don’t. Erwin Schrödinger, A Life of Erwin Schrödinger
If you describe yourself as ‘Atheist’, some people will say, Don’t you mean ‘Agnostic’? I have to reply that I really do mean Atheist. I really do not believe that there is a god – in fact I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one. It’s easier to say that I am a radical Atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously. It’s funny how many people are genuinely surprised to hear a view expressed so strongly. In England we seem to have drifted from vague, wishy-washy Anglicanism to vague, wishy-washy Agnosticism – both of which I think betoken a desire not to have to think about things too much.
People will then often say, But surely it’s better to remain an Agnostic just in case? This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I’ve been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I would choose not to worship him anyway.) Douglas Adams
When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, ‘Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?’ Quentin Crisp, attributions & variations
I am unable to believe in a God susceptible to prayer. I simply haven’t the nerve to imagine a being, a force, a cause which keeps the planets revolving in their orbits, and then suddenly stops in order to give me a bicycle with three speeds. Quentin Crisp
I am kind of amazed at what Lawrence [Krauss] and Richard [Dawkins] are doing because they are walking into some prickly arenas and they have no armour other than their own mental faculties. The Unbelievers, 2013, commentator
Facts if you’re rational should change your beliefs. ibid. Ricky Gervais
Ridicule is an important tool. ibid. Krauss
We call them faerie. We don’t believe in them. Our loss. Charles de Lint