God has no religion. -- Mahatma Gandhi

"I never saw, heard, nor read that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular but some degree of persecution." - Irish satirist Jonathan Swift

"Anybody can be Pope; the proof of this is that I have become one." --Pope John XXIII

"The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the bible is filled, it would seem more consistent that we called 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"

“I’m not out here asserting that religion has been a disaster, but I am out here asserting that the stuff is just a wee bit cracked.” - Crispin Sartwell

"As the French say, there are three sexes: Men, women and clergymen." ---Rev. Sydney Smith

"Last night, as I sat alone in my moment of deepest, darkest despair, trying to summon the courage to pull the trigger, Jesus appeared before me. He laid a gentle hand on my shoulder and asked, 'Do you happen to know how the season finale of 'The West Wing' ended last week?' I said, 'No, o Lord, I don't.' He said, 'Well, thanks anyway,' and then He left." - Andy Ihnatko (from Ruminations at topfive.com)

“What matters today is not the difference between those who believe and those who do not believe, but the difference between those who care and those who do not.” - Abbe’ Pire

“The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the person who reads it. - Robert G. Ingersall

“The dogma of the infallibility of the Bible is no more self-evident than is that of the infallibility of the popes.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

“I cannot believe that any man born. . . has either the knowledge or the authority to tell other men. . . what God’s purposes are.” - Judge Ben B. Lindsey

“The basis of your religion is injustice; the Son of God, the pure, the immaculate, the innocent, is sacrificed for the guilty.” - Lord Byron

“Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it.” - George Bernard Shaw

“I consider Christian theology to be one of the great disasters of the human race. . . it would be impossible to imagine anything more un-Christlike than theology. Christ probably couldn’t have understood it.” - Alfred North Whitehead

“The age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system.” - Thomas Paine

“Organized Christianity has probably done more to retard the ideals that were its founder’s than any other agency in the world.” - Richard LeGallienne

“Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to the garage makes you a car.” - Laurence J. Peter

“The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Man is kind enough when he is not excited by religion.” - Mark Twain

“The religion of one seems madness to another.” - Thomas Browne

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” - Pascal

“Our concern is not how to worship in the catacombs, but how to remain human in the skyscrapers.” - Abraham Joshua Heschel

“We won’t hear about the blasphemers because it’s the believers who end up writing the histories. And actually, if you mumble your skepticism a bit too loudly, those same believers will make sure your voice is lost to history by silencing you eternally.” - Crispin Sartwell

“Even today, in a relatively secular society like ours, it’s rare to hear someone point out, in the clearest way, that systems of religious belief are more or less baldly arbitrary and obviously ridculous.” - Crispin Sartwell

“When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal and wholesome life.” - Sigmund Freud

“All religions must be tolerated for every man must get to heaven his own way.” - Frederick The Great

“It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.” - Mark Twain

“There can be no doubt that the Bible became a stumbling block in the path of progress - scientific, social and even moral. It was quoted against Copernicus as it was against Darwin.” - Preserved Smith

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. --The Dalai Lama

“In the beginning the world was without form, and void. And God said 'Let there be light'. And God separated the light from the dark. And did two loads of laundry.” ---Kevin Krisciunas

"I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure." - Clarence Darrow, of the existence of God

How can one better magnify the Almighty than by sniggering with him at his little jokes, particularly the poorer ones. ~ Samuel Beckett

If someone were to prove to me -- right this minute -- that God, in all his luminousness, exists, it wouldn't change a single aspect of my behavior. - Luis Bunuel

As you know, God is generally on the side of the big squadrons against the small ones. - Comte De bussy-Rabutin

Fundamentalists believe Jesus was God becoming man. I believe that Jesus was man becoming God. - Eric Butterworth

All the gods are dead except the god of war. - Eldridge Cleaver

I admit that the generation which produced Stalin, Auschwitz and Hiroshima will take some beating; but the radical and universal consciousness of the death of God is still ahead of us; perhaps we shall have to colonize the stars before it is finally borne in upon us that God is not out there. - R. J. Hollingdale

God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos: He will set them above their betters. - H. L. Mencken

It is an insult to God to believe in God. For on the one hand it is to suppose that he has perpetrated acts of incalculable cruelty. On the other hand, it is to suppose that he has perversely given his human creatures an instrument -- their intellect -- which must inevitably lead them, if they are dispassionate and honest, to deny his existence. It is tempting to conclude that if he exists, it is the atheists and agnostics that he loves best, among those with any pretensions to education. For they are the ones who have taken him most seriously. - Galen Strawson

Blessed is the man who finds out which way God is moving and then gets going in the same direction. - Unknown

A lot of people say to me, "Why did you kill Christ?" "I dunno... it was one of those parties, got out of hand, you know." "We killed him because he didn't want to become a doctor, that's why we killed him." - Lenny Bruce

Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind. - Mikhail Gorbaachev

Jesus promised His disciples three things: that they would be entirely fearless, absurdly happy, and that they would get into trouble. - W. Russell Maltby

"As God said in the bible, and I think rightly..." -Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

A religion is sometimes a source of happiness and I would not deprive anyone of happiness. But it is a comfort appropriate for the weak, not for the strong--and you are strong. The great trouble with religion--any religion--is that a religionist, having accepted certain propositions by faith, cannot thereafter judge those propositions by evidence. One may bask at the warm fire of faith or choose to live in the bleak uncertainty of reason--but one cannot have both. --Robert A. Heinlein. Dr. Hartley M. Baldwin, in "Friday."

"When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why god? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered, "There's just something about you that pisses me off."
Stephen King.

"Thank God I'm an atheist." Luis Bunuel.

"In the begining there was nothing and God said 'Let there be light', and there was still nothing but everybody could see it." Dave Thomas.

"If absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God?" - George Deacon.

"When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself." - Peter O'Toole

"Heaven is an American salary, a Chinese cook, an English house, and a Japanese wife. Hell is defined as having a Chinese salary, an English cook, a Japanese house, and an American wife." - James H. Kabbler III

Our problem is that God gave us men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time.

"It's not a question of prejudice. The World Trade Center was blown up and so was the Pentagon. We have thousands and perhaps hundreds of thousands or millions of people who hate America and are trying to destroy Israel. We need an alarm because this country is under attack... I'm quoting directly from the Koran. 'Fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them. Seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them. Fight them. Allah will punish them.' Now, that is the message that's coming out of the mosques. You're not hearing Christian ministers telling people to go kill Muslims."--- Pat Robertson, reiterating that Islam preaches violence and indicating that Osama bin Laden was a true follower of Islam's founder, the Prophet Mohammed

"I could come here ... with quotes from the Talmud and quotes from the Bible and try to paint Judaism and Christianity, or any other religion, in this negative light too. I think that is ... a really despicable and sick game. What he was saying overall is, 'Look, in our midst, next to you there are Muslim neighbors; there are Muslims among us. And they may look normal, they may seem to be normal, reasonable people, but actually they are not... This is a slightly warmed over, slightly rehashed version of anti-Semitism." --- Hussein Ibish, a spokesman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, dismissing Robertson's remarks

"What has always made a hell on earth is that man has tried to make it his heaven."--Friedrich Holderlin

"There's nothing compassionate about forcing Americans to support religion. There's nothing conservative about requiring people to pay for religious indoctrination they don't believe in. Religious schools and other ministries should rely on voluntary contributions from believers, not involuntary donations extracted from American taxpayers." -- The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, as President Bush stepped back into the battle over school vouchers, saying the Supreme Court's decision upholding government funding of private school education was as historic as one that outlawed separate schools for blacks

"There seems to me to be a lot of people who for whatever reason chose to escape from reality. Some by taking drugs, some by turning to alcohol. Isn't talking to someone whom one has never seen or heard for comfort really an escape from reality?" - Susann

But doubt is as crucial to faith as darkness is to light. Without one, the other has no context and is meaningless. Faith is, by definition, uncertainty. It is full of doubt, steeped in risk. It is about matters not of the known, but of the unknown. --Carter Heywood, Reverend and author

"I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure." -- Clarence Darrow, on the existence of God