Tag Archives: Religion

Thoughts of the Day

“. . . the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion . . .”

— Treaty of Tripoli, negotiated and co-written by Joel Barlow, U.S. Counsel to Algiers, ratified in 1797

http://ffrf.org/day/view/03/24/#joel-barlow

“It’s an incredible con job, when you think of it, to believe something now in exchange for life after death. Even corporations, with all their reward systems, don’t try to make it posthumous.”

— Gloria Steinem, interview with Annie Laurie Gaylor, The Feminist Connection, November 1980 (Madison, Wisconsin)

“From my point of view, I would ban religion completely. The reality is that organized religion doesn’t seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it’s not really compassionate.”

— Sir Elton John quoted in Observer Music Monthly Magazine in an interview with Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, Nov. 2006

“During the ages, no rebellion has been of like importance with that of Woman against the tyranny of the Church and State; none has had its far reaching effects. We note its beginning; its progress will overthrow every existing form of these institutions; its end will be a regenerated world.”

— Woman, Church and State by Matilda Joslyn Gage (1893)

God Isn’t Real

A world filled with wonder, a cold, fathomless sky
A man’s life so meager, he can but wonder why
He cries out to Heaven its truth to reveal
The answer: only silence, for God isn’t real.

Go ask the starving millions under Stalin’s cruel reign
Go ask the child with cancer who eases her pain
Then go to your churches, if that’s how you feel
But don’t ask me to follow, for God isn’t real.

He forms in his image a weak and foolish man
Speaks to him in symbols that few understand
For a life of devotion, the death blow he deals
We’d owe Him only hatred, but God isn’t real.

Go tell the executioner of the power he can’t defy
Go tell his shackled victim of the mercy on high. . .
Then go to your churches, go beg, pray, and kneel,
But don’t ask me to follow, for God isn’t real.

No, no matter how He should be, God isn’t real.
— Robbie Fulks, “God Isn’t Real”

http://ffrf.org/day/view/03/25/

Thought of The Day

“If faith cannot be reconciled with rational thinking, it has to be eliminated as an anachronistic remnant of earlier stages of culture and replaced by science dealing with facts and theories which are intelligible and can be validated.”
— Erich Fromm, Man for Himself (1947)

http://ffrf.org/day/view/03/23/#erich-fromm

Thoughts of The Day

“I’m offended by [evangelical leaders’] actions, but I’m not offended by their opinion. They believe in a sky god who’s going to suck them up into the sky with a vacuum cleaner. What’s there to get offended by? That’s funny! That’s hilarious! Have at it, Hoss, I’d love to see it!”
— Cenk Uygur, speech to FFRF’s 2010 National Convention accepting the Emperor Has No Clothes Award

 

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
— Blaise Pascal, French philosopher, Pensees (1623-1662)

http://ffrf.org/day/view/03/21/#blaise-pascal-quote

Thought of The Day

“Organized religions in general, in my opinion, are dying forms. They were all very important when we didn’t know why the sun moved, why weather changed, why hurricanes occurred, or volcanoes happened. Modern religion is the end trail of modern mythology. But there are people who interpret the Bible literally. Literally! I choose not to believe that’s the way. And that’s what makes America cool, you know?”

— Bruce Willis, interview, George magazine (July 1998)

 

Freethought of the Day: http://bit.ly/GAkjKC

Thoughts of The Day

“A religious person is a dangerous person. He may not become a thief or a murderer, but he is liable to become a nuisance. He carries with him many foolish and harmful superstitions, and he is possessed with the notion that it is his duty to give these superstitions to others. That is what makes trouble. Nothing is so worthless as superstition. . . .”

— Marilla M. Ricker, “Science Against Creeds,” I Am Not Afraid Are You? (1917). Read more about Marilla M. Ricker in Women Without Superstition: No Gods – No Masters.

 

“There is no such source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state as religion. Let it once enter our civil affairs, our government would soon be destroyed. Let it once enter our common schools, they would be destroyed . . . Those who made our Constitution saw this, and used the most apt and comprehensive language in it to prevent such a catastrophe.”

— Justice H.S. Orton of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, concurring opinion in Weiss v. the District Board, decided on March 18, 1890, ruling bible readings and devotionals in public schools unconstitutional