"Salvation through slavery is worthless. Salvation from slavery is inestimable." [Robert G. Ingersoll, "The Gods", 1872]

"Infidels in all ages have battled for the rights of man, and have at all times been the fearless advocates of liberty and justice." [Robert Green Ingersoll]

"The phrase 'the child should cheat' means that genes that tend to make children cheat have an advantage in the gene pool. If there is a human moral to be drawn, it is that we must teach our children altruism, for we cannot expect it to be part of their biological nature." Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (New edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 139.

Vique's Law: A man without a religion is like a fish without a bicycle.

"A 'Frisbeterian' believes that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and you can't get it back down."

"A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand." -- Bertrand Russell

"The influences that have lifted the race to a higher moral level are education, freedom, leisure, the humanizing tendency of a better-supplied and more interesting life. In a word, science and liberalism- the two forces, fundamentally skeptical, that we have seen continuously at work in human progress- have accomplished the very things for which religion claims the credit." [E. Haldeman-Julius, "The Outline of Bunk"]

"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty." [Bertrand Russell, "Unpopular Essays"]

"Is it okay to yell 'MOVIE' in a crowded firehouse?"

"...if devotion to truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.... the alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind." [Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"]

"A religion, even if it calls itself the religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it." -- Sigmund Freud, 1921

"A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature, and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as could possibly be imagined." -- David Hume, age 37

"Although the ICR often emphasizes that it is the scientific nature of creationist theory which brings scientists to a belief in a supreme being, it is curious that they include a requirement for membership (the inerrancy of the Christian Bible) which effectively excludes Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and the majority of Christian sects (who do not accept a literal reading of all parts of the Bible) from membership. It is clear that the ICR, which is the most respected of creationist groups in its attempts to appear scientifically legitimate, is essentially an organization composed solely of Christian Fundamentalists." Kenneth R. Miller, "Scientific Creationism versus Evolution" Science and Creationism, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984), p. 22.

"One can believe God capable of anything without believing that he did everything anybody may say he did. One can believe in the possibility of miracles without believing that every reported miracle must in fact have happened." Robert M. Price, "By This Time He Stinketh"

"What God hath joined together no man shall put asunder: God will take care of that." [George Bernard Shaw]

"Before the year 2000, the Christian Coalition will be the most powerful organization in America." [Pat Robertson]

"Basic flying rules: 'Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there.'"

"If there is no God, who pops up the next Kleenex?" [Art Hoppe]

"It is quite unlawful to demand, defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, or speech, of writing or worship, as if these were so many rights given by nature to man." [Pope Leo XIII, "Great Encyclical Letters",16]

"As the poet said, 'Only God can make a tree' -- probably because it's so hard to figure out how to get the bark on." -- Woody Allen