1. “George Bush says he speaks to god every day, and christians love him for it. If George Bush said he spoke to god through his hair dryer, they would think he was mad. I fail to see how the addition of a hair dryer makes it any more absurd.” – Sam Harris
2. “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” -Stephen Roberts
3. “I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence” -Doug McLeod
4. “With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” -Steven Weinberg
5. “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.” -Richard Dawkins
6. “The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike” -Delos B. McKown
7. “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the the universe.” – Albert Einstein
8. “Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense.” -Chapman Cohen
9 “A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” -Albert Einstein
10. “Don’t pray in my school, and I won’t think in your church” – Unknown
11. “I do not think it is necessary to believe that the same God who has given us our senses, reason, and intelligence wished us to abandon their use, giving us by some other means the information that we could gain through them” -Galileo Galilei
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32 Comments on this post
Leave a CommentI can’t help but toss out one of my personal favorites:
“It AIN’T so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble. It’s the things we know that just ain’t so.” usually attributed to Mark Twain
Comment left on 8.29.2007 by Mike (FVThinker) Burns
Some good quotes there; not all from atheists. Galileo’s excommunication does not automatically qualify him for the title. Another of Einstein’s quotes: “With dice, God does not play.”
Comment left on 8.29.2007 by Francis Mercier
I believe in today’s world, Galileo would have been an atheist. He was as much of an atheist as he could have been given the cirumstances.
As for Einstein, here is a another quote of his “The idea of a personal god is quite alien to me and seems even naive”
Comment left on 8.29.2007 by admin
While I don’t know enough about Galileo to know what his religious beliefs would be, I do know that his quote above would probably be agreed with by many religious people who also favor science. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it does seem sort of out of place on a list of atheist quotes.
Comment left on 12.9.2007 by Randall
Yes Randall, I do agree with you that this quote is a little out of place here. That last quote is there mainly because I like it rather than it’s merit as an atheist quote. I thought that putting it in at number 11 on a top 10 list would work, but I guess that was too subtle.
Comment left on 12.10.2007 by admin
“With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” -Steven Weinberg
That’s been my favorite quote for years. Kudos for having it on your list.
Comment left on 12.18.2007 by jake3988
There are some great quotes on this list that are not used that often, so they need exposure.
Steven Weinberg’s one is a good universal quote. Sam Harris’ sarcastic quote is less general but still entertaining.
When we’re on the atheist tip, check out two-series discussion of The Four Horsemen (of rationalism and atheism) which includes Sam. It’s also on my Tumblr – check out the link above.
Cheers!
Shonzilla
Comment left on 12.25.2007 by Shonzilla
Yes, Steven Weinberg’s is on of my favorites. It should be higher up on the list.
That looks like a good video….i’ll check it out when I have the time.
-cheers
Comment left on 12.25.2007 by Adrian Corscadden
Great list here. I’m going to print it off and put them on my bulletin board.
Comment left on 2.4.2008 by Shaun Carter
A very religious friend of mine gave me a copy of the Atheist’s Bible as a gift. It has a good number of Atheist quotes. It’s almost like a coffee table book about atheism.
Comment left on 2.6.2008 by benj
I just went looking on amazon for that. Is this the one?
http://www.amazon.ca/Atheists-Bible-Illustrious-Collection-Irreverent/dp/0061349151/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202310530&sr=8-1
Comment left on 2.6.2008 by Adrian Corscadden
Yup, that would be it.
Comment left on 2.7.2008 by benj
Here are some great quotes.
Comment left on 4.17.2008 by Skeptic
OOPs.
http://secularearth.com/LinktoSecularEarth/tabid/72/Default.aspx
Comment left on 4.17.2008 by Skeptic
“a coffee table book about atheism”? I didn’t know that atheists have their own bible.
I fact not believing in God is believing that he doesn’t exist. It’s still some kind of believe
or some kind of religion..
Comment left on 8.31.2008 by coffee table
Certainly!
Comment left on 10.30.2008 by Starsoft
Actions speak louder than words
Comment left on 11.6.2008 by skiner
Here it is.
Comment left on 11.7.2008 by miki
I’m dumb
Comment left on 8.11.2009 by coffee table
A buddy encoraged me to check out this page, brill post, fascinating read… keep up the nice work!
Comment left on 12.18.2009 by Eugene Hall
There are so many quotes by so many great people, however do you think that they ever lived up to thier own quotes.
Comment left on 12.31.2009 by cash loans
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Comment left on 2.16.2010 by Roger Taintor
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Comment left on 2.16.2010 by Melodie Bauguess
[...] Top 10 Atheist Quotes – http://www.acorscadden.com/atheism/top-10-atheist-quotes/ – http://www.GetShawty.com [...]
Comment left on 3.15.2010 by Emory Christoff
Not that old canard again… Seriously, people, try to use a more new argument which hasn’t been repeatedly refuted…
Atheism is the affirmation that, lacking any material, verifiable, duplicable evidence, the “zero hypotesis” is that there isn’t any. But is not a religion.
Unless you believe that not collecting stamps is a hobby.
Comment left on 1.30.2011 by richieadler
I think atheism is right and should keep it mind it.DARWIN EVOLUTION THEORY HAVE SIGNED AND NO DOUT ABOUT GOD,THERE IS NO GOD,NO ANYTING BEHIND US.
Comment left on 1.31.2011 by Shohel
Well at least there are some trolls who are atheist….
Comment left on 6.2.2011 by reverend_obvious_trollus
proud to be atheist!
Comment left on 6.23.2011 by kushagra
I find it hard to understand a God that has incarnations and an instruction manual to follow, would be so evasive and void of any scientific evidence save hope and faith.
~Paul Mathews 07/10/11
Comment left on 7.10.2011 by Paul Mathews
if not believing in god is a type of religion, then so is not believing in an all-powerful flying pink hippo.
Comment left on 7.24.2011 by dan
I choose to believe the spontaneous existance of a single celled simple organism. You choose to believe the spontaneous existance of an all knowing, all powerful being in the sky.
Comment left on 10.6.2011 by Jacob Kintner
Going to temple/church/mosque doesn’t make you a human, any more than standing in a garage makes you a car
Comment left on 11.22.2011 by Ravi