3549 "The four points of the compass are logic, knowledge, wisdom, and the unknown. Some do bow in that final direction. Others advance upon it. To bow before the one is to lose sight of the three. I may submit to the unknown, but never to the unknowable." [Roger Zelazny, _Lord of Light_]

3125 "They say one day He'll liquidate His holdings up on high, I say it's all speculation. [Michelle Shocked "God is a Real Estate Developer"]

1544 "But LaHaye, Wine, Falwell, and their associates magnify beyond all reason the control Humanism exerts. In my view the Moral Majority is a demagogic assembly of religious fanatics and, like demagogic politicians, needs a demonic scapegoat to rally its followers and to provide a simple, one-word solution for the serious problems disrupting America and the world. The Moral Majority has chosen the social-minded Humanists as its target and aims to destroy them. This malicious campaign is not unlike the wild witchhunt against Communism and alleged Communists in the heyday of Senator Joseph McCarthy." Corliss Lamont, The Philosophy of Humanism (Seventh ed., New York: Continuum, 1990), pp. x-xi.

464 "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

262 "Why is it that when a person is very good at what they do, that's taken to mean they should be doing something else" -- Kelvin Throop

2385 ROONEY: "Did you really seriously worry about going to prison?" KEVORKIAN: "No! Never! Am I a criminal? The world knows I'm not a criminal! What are they trying to put me in jail for? You've lost common sense in this society because of religious fanaticism and dogma. You're basing your laws, and your whole outlook on natural life, on mythology! It won't work! That's why you have all these problems in the world. Name them -- India, Pakistan, Ireland. Name them! All these problems -- they're all religious problems!" [Dr. Jack Kevorkian, with Andy Rooney on "60 Minutes"]

833 "A cult is a religion with no political power." -- Tom Wolfe

36 "Religion has always been the wound, not the bandage." -- Dennis Potter

2203 "If you hypothesize that there is a God, but that there is nothing sure and definite you can point to as a reliable pattern of things that God does, how does a state of affairs where a God does nothing, functions in no way, differ from a state of affairs where there is no God? And, if the situation is that there is a God, and this God does nothing that humans can surely identify as God-action - in contradistinction from other action, physical/chemical/biological/psychological/social -- then how can any human being ever have warrant for affirming God?" [C. Lee Hubbell, The American Rationalist, Oct '94]

1646 "I bring you this stately matron named Christendom, returning bedraggled, besmirched, and dishonored from pirate raids in Kiao-Chow, Manchuria, South Africa, and the Phillipines, with her soul full of meanness, her pocket full of boodle, and her mouth full of pious hypocrisies. Give her soap and a towel, but hide the looking-glass." [Mark Twain, Speech to the Red Cross, New York, Dec. 31, 1899]

2029 "Creation science" has not entered the curriculum for a reason so simple and so basic that we often forget to mention it: because it is false, and because good teachers understand exactly why it is false. What could be more destructive of that most fragile yet most precious commodity in our entire intellectual heritage -- good teaching -- than a bill forcing honorable teachers to sully their sacred trust by granting equal treatment to a doctrine not only known to be false, but calculated to undermine any general understanding of science as an enterprise?" [Stephen Jay Gould, "The Skeptical Inquirer"]

1363 "The idea that space and time may form a closed surface without boundary also has profound implications for the role of God in the affairs of the universe. With the success of scientific theories in describing events, most people have come to believe that God allows the universe to evolve according to a set of laws and does not intervene in the universe to break these laws. However, the laws do not tell us what the universe should have looked like when it started -- it would still be up to God to wind up the clockwork and choose how to start it off. So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?" Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (New York: Bantam, 1988), p. 140-41.

2149 "Death opens her cavernous mouth before you. Thousands upon thousands of children are consumed by her every day. You have the ability to save some from being tossed into her gaping mouth. As hundreds are being rushed into eternity, other questions shrink in comparison to the weighty question, 'Should we defend born and unborn children with force?' "_Take defensive action!_" [Rev. Paul J. Hill, abortion doctor murderer]

1254 "By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified. Today the greatest divide within humanity is not between races, or religions, or even, as is widely believed, between the literate and illiterate. It is the chasm that separates scientific from prescientific cultures." Edward O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, (First edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 45.

1636 "There was no place in the land where the seeker could not find some small budding sign of pity for the slave. No place in all the land but one-- the pulpit. It yielded last; it always does. It fought a strong and stubborn fight, and then did what it always does, joined the procession-- at the tail end. Slavery fell. The slavery texts [in the Bible] remained; the practice changed; that was all." ["Mark Twain and the Three R's, by Maxwell Geismar, p.109]

2576 "If Jesus was a Jew, why did he have a Spanish name?" [Bill Maher on "Politically Incorrect"]

905 "This is not a dress rehearsal. This is the only life you will ever have and this is the only world you will ever know. Seize the day."

2433 "Would you sing 'Krishna bless America' or pledge allegience to 'One nation under Allah'? If not, would that make you unpatriotic?" [Chris Lee]

1603 "I do not think it is possible to prove that belief in God is irrational. Zealous atheists may be disappointed in this, but there is no reason they should be. It is not the belief in God per se that is so offensive to the secular spirit. After all, Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson, and Tom Paine retained belief in a supreme Creator/Lawgiver. What rightly offends secular humanists is the bigotry, obscurantism, prudery, and persecuting zeal that all too often accompany theistic belief, especially in its particular institutional manifestations." Keith M. Parsons, God and the Burden of Proof, p. 145.

2208 "John Wesley said that if you give up the witchcraft, you must give up the Bible. He is right. The choice is easy for me." [Rupert Hughes]