I am an atheist in that I hold no belief in a god. If you don't like that definition, that's okay, it's my definition.

I like to write, draw and paint. The writing usually takes the form of short funny (I hope)bits, mostly word play. The drawing is usually cartoons, with occasionally serious stuff. Painting is in watercolor.

I DO NOT TRADE SUBSCRIPTIONS. If you are subbing me so I will sub back you will be disappointed. A subscription that has to be paid for isn'tworth having.

IF YOU ARE A POET, no matter whether you think you are good or bad, PLEASE CONTRIBUTE TO THE POETRY CORNER.
Your reading of your own original poetry is welcome, as well as readings of established poetry. All kinds of poetry are welcome. (Limericks are okay, too, but please make them no worse than PG13.)
http://www.youtube.com/grou...

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One good schoolmaster is worth a thousand priests.
- Robert G. Ingersoll

When two men of science disagree, they do not invoke the secular arm; they wait for further evidence to decide the issue, because as men of science, they know that neither is infallible. But when two theologians differ, since there are no criteria to which either can appeal, there is nothing for it but mutual hatred and an open or covert appeal to force.
- Bertrand Russell

What are among the moral convictions most fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people? They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of belief; that merit attaches to a readiness to believe; that the doubting disposition is a bad one, and skepticism a sin; that when good authority has pronounced what is to be believed, and faith has accepted it, reason has no further duty.
- Thomas Huxley

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

The trouble with born-again Christians is that they are an even bigger pain the second time around.
- Herb Caen

In time, the Deity perceived that Death was a mistake; a mistake in that it was insufficient; insufficient for the reason that while it was an admirable agent for inflicting misery on the survivor, it allowed the dead person himself to escape from all further persecution in the blessed refuge of the grave. This was not satisfactory. A way must be contrived to pursue the dead beyond the tomb.
- Mark Twain, Letters From The Earth

I have observed that belief in the goodness of God is inversely proportional to the evidence. When there is no evidence for it at all, people believe it, and when things are going well and you might believe it, they don't. So I think that if people solve their social problems religion will die out.
- Bertrand Russell

Note: It seems to me unlikely that people will solve their social problems UNTIL religion dies out.
- Largo64

(The following two quotes should always be cited together:)

. .. behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom . . .
- Job 28:28

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
- Bertrand Russell

He made all things. There is not a thing, great or small, which he did not make. He pronounced his work "good." The word covers the whole of it; it puts the seal of His approval upon each detail of it, praises each detail of it.
- Mark Twain

If God made anything he also made parasites, germs and viruses which attack every organ and system of the human body. And lest the "sin of Adam" be invoked to justify this persecution, let it be understood that ALL animal species, innocent by reason of their ignorance, are equally, if not more persecuted in this way. There is not a living thing on this planet, including germs, viruses and parasites, which is not vulnerable to the depredations of some other species. The inescapable conclusion is that suffering, the result of the "good" creation, must also have been regarded as "good" by this cruel maker.
- Largo64