I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them. — Bertrand Russell

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. -- Euripides

"A thorough reading and understanding of the Bible is the surest path to atheism." -- Donald Morgan

When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one. -- Leonard Matlovich, a gay Vietnam Veteran (1943-1988)

You can't just say there is a God because, well, the world is beautiful. You have to account for bone cancer in children. You have to account for the fact that almost all animals in the wild live under stress with not enough to eat and will die violent and bloody deaths. There is not any way that you can just choose the nice bits and say that means there is a God and ignore the true fact of what nature is. -- Stephen Fry, 1957- , British actor, writer, comedian, author, television presenter and film director.

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. -Marcus Aurelius, philosopher and writer (121-180)

And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)

The being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason. -Mary Wollstonecraft, reformer and writer (1759-1797)

Men rarely (if ever) managed to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. -Robert A. Heinlein, science-fiction author (1907-1988)

It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity. -Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President (1809-1865)

I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be. -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)

Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense. -Chapman Cohen, author and lecturer (1868-1954)

I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

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, database architect (b. 1967)

To profess to be doing God's will is a form of megalomania. -Joseph Prescott, aphorist (1913-2001)

Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived. -Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900)

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. - C. P. Snow

Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines. -Bertrand Russell

There are many people who reach their conclusions about life like schoolboys; they cheat their master by copying the answer out of a book without having worked out the sum for themselves. -Soren Kierkegaard, philosopher (1813-1855)

Gullibility and credulity are considered undesirable qualities in every department of human life -- except religion. -Christopher Hitchens, author and journalist

Religious freedom should work two ways: we should be free to practice the religion of our choice, but we must also be free from having someone else's religion practiced on us. -John Irving, novelist (b. 1942)