You find as you look around the world that every single bit of human progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the coloured races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is, the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. Bertrand Russell, Why I am not a Christian pp 20-21
Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. ibid.
When we blindly accept a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. Anais Nin
It is often said that Christian faith is the dominant faith in America. It is also often said that faith is a bad thing, which prevents religious people from determining the answers to various vital questions. On the basis of the relevant evidence, faith in other words is regarded as not only blind, but blinding. The truth about America however is more complex. Another kind of faith, radically different from Christian faith, is actually the dominant faith in our country. David Ray Griffin, interview Guns & Butter 7th January 2009
Too often Christian faith is less important to Christians in America than their American faith. The evidence that 9/11 was an inside job I have argued is overwhelming to anyone with eyes to see. And Christian faith at its best serves to open people’s eyes to this evidence. When Christian faith is subordinated to faith in American goodness, however, it becomes a blinding faith. Producing Christians with eyes wide shut. In working so long to expose the truth about 9/11 one of my central hopes is that this exposure will lead American Christians to repent of this idolatrous subordination. And once Christians see 9/11 for what it was, in the pretext to extend the American Empire, in predominantly Muslim countries, I hope they will realise that to be loyal to Jesus, I preach an anti-Imperial gospel. They will need to oppose American imperialism as they have opposed previous types of imperialism. Our country needs, our world needs, our leadership in exposing the truth about 9/11. Let’s do it! ibid.
There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds. Alfred Lord Tennyson
I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality. Mahatma Gandhi
Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent. Mahatma Gandhi
Although the far territory of the extreme can exert an intoxicating pull on susceptible individuals of all bents, extremism seems to be especially prevalent among those inclined by temperament or upbringing toward religious pursuits. Faith is the very antithesis of reason, injudiciousness a crucial component of spiritual devotion. And when religious fanaticism supplants ratiocination, all bets are suddenly off. Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
Religion doesn’t just cloud our minds. It asks us to deliberately deceive ourselves – to replace reason with its opposite, faith. And when men operate on faith, they can no longer be reasoned with, which makes them more dangerous than any sane man, good or evil. James L Sutter, Death’s Heretic
Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful. Martin Amis, The Second Plane: 14 Responses to September 11th
The old problems, such as the relation of science and religion, are still with us, and I believe present as difficult dilemmas as ever, but they are not often publicly discussed because of the limitations of specialization. Richard Feynman, CALTEC YMCA forum 2nd May 1956
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
Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly. Isaac Asimov
The split in America, rather than simply economic, is between those who embrace reason, who function in the real world of cause and effect, and those who, numbed by isolation and despair, now seek meaning in a mythical world of intuition, a world that is no longer reality-based, a world of magic. Chris Hedges, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America
Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy. Andy Mulcahy
I think that physics is the most important – indeed the only – means we have of finding out the origins and fundamentals of our universe, and this is what interests me most about it. I believe that as science advances religion necessarily recedes, and this is a process I wish to encourage, because I consider that, on the whole, the influence of religion is malign. William Bowen Bonner
For the first time I believe Science has pushed past Religion and Philosophy in daring to tackle this most fundamental of questions. Jim Al-Khalili, The Secret Life of Chaos, BBC 2010
What makes you think human beings are sentient and aware? There’s no evidence for it. Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told – and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their ‘beliefs’. The reason is that beliefs guide behaviour which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behaviour may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion. Next question. Michael Crichton, The Lost World
The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religious opinions. Samuel Butler, 1835-1902
Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune’s greedily coveted favours, they are consequently, for the most part, very prone to credulity. Baruch Spinoza
As men’s habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another to scoff, I conclude ... that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits. Baruch Spinoza
The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women’s emancipation. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Free Thought magazine 1896
Women and religion: their stories can unlock a secret history of the world. Bettany Hughes, Divine Women I: When God Was a Girl, BBC 2012
The oldest religious building in the world: Gobekli Tepe. ibid.
It’s religion that’s forming human society itself. ibid.
Rome also permitted the influence of women in the religious sphere. Bettany Hughes, Divine Women II: Handmaids of the Gods
The female of the species and religion have always been inseparable. Bettany Hughes, Divine Women III: War of the Word
Those religions that are oppressive to women are also against democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression. Taslima Nasrin
I would rather sit with the rural poor, the desperate children of urban blight, the victims of racism, and working people seeking a better life than with those whose religion is the status quo, whose goal is profit and whose hearts are cold. Douglas Fraser