2253 "Every pulpit is a pillory, in which stands a hired culprit, defending the justice of his own imprisonment." [Robert G. Ingersoll]

518 "An error? Impossible! My modem is error correcting."

2714 "I write against the religion because if women want to live like human beings, they will have to live outside the religion and Islamic law." Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin, in exile, 6/21/94]

1395 "The most decisive refutation of Adler's claim that 'negative existential propositions cannot be proven' is the fact that the claim that 'negative existential propositions cannot be proven' is itself a negative existential proposition. If negative existential propositions cannot be proven, then that implies there are no proofs for negative existential propositions. But the claim that 'there are no proofs for negative existential propositions' is itself a negative existential proposition." Jeffery Jay Lowder, "Is a Proof of the Non-Existence of a God Even Possible?"

2720 "The applications of science are inevitable and unavoidable for all countries and peoples today. But something more than its application is necessary. It is the scientific approach, the adverturous and yet critical temper of science, the search for the truth and new knowledge, the refusal to accept anything without testing and trial, the capacity to change previous conclusions in the face of new evidence, the reliance on observed fact and not on preconceived theory, the hard discipline of the mind all this is necessary, not merely for the application of science but for life itself and the solution of its many problems." [Jawaharlal Nehru, former Prime Minister of India]

953 "Think First" - First National Bank. Notice that the words also mean what advertisers want you NOT to do.

2192 "If there is no God, who pops up the next Kleenex?" [Art Hoppe]

2302 "Man must learn to rely upon himself. Reading bibles will not protect him from the blasts of winter, but houses, fires. and clothing will. To prevent famine, one plow is worth a million sermons, and even patent medicines will cure more diseases than all the prayers uttered since the beginning of the world." [Robert G. Ingersoll, "The Gods", 1872]

3150 "Is it just me, or does anyone else read `bible humpers' every time someone writes `bible thumpers?' [Joel M. Snyder]

3163 "The best way to lose all is to cling with desperation to that which cannot possibly be sustained literally. Literalistic Christians will learn that a God or a faith system that has to be defended daily is finally no God or faith system at all. They will learn that any god who can be killed ought to be killed. Ultimately they will discover that all their claims to represent the historical, traditional, or biblical truth of Christianity cannot stop the advance of knowledge that will render every historic claim for a literal religious system questionable at best, null and void at worst." [Bishop John Shelby Spong, Episcopal (Anglican) Bishop of Newark, NY, in Resurrection: Myth or Reality? pg. 22]

3238 "whatsoever person or persons within this Province ... shall from henceforth blaspheme God ... or shall deny our Saviour Jesus to be the Sonne of God, or shall deny the Holy Trinity, the Father, Sonne and Holy Ghost, or the Godhead of any of the said Three persons of the Trinity or the Unity of the Godhead ... shall be punished with death and confiscation or forfeiture of all his or her lands..." [Maryland's "Tolerance Act", 1649, often hailed as the first law for religious "freedom" in the colonies]

655 "It was well known how profitable this fable of Christ has been to us." - Pope Leo X (as reported by Rev. Tavlor in the Diegesis)

2757 "The god on the cross is a curse on life, a signpost to seek redemption from life; Dionysus cut to pieces is a *promise* of life: it will be eternally reborn and return again from destruction." [Nietzsche]

3516 "Dear God, sorry to disturb you but, I feel that I should be heard loud and clear. We all need a big reduction in the amount of tears...... Can you see them fighting in the street, cause they can't get enough to eat, Dear God, I won't believe in you, I can't believe in you... I won't believe in Heaven and Hell, no saints, no sinners, no devil as well, no pearly gates, no thorny crown, you're always lettin' us humans down. If there's just one thing I won't believe in........it's you.....Dear God. [XTC]

2173 "... mid-eighteenth century America had a smaller proportion of church members than any other nation in Christendom...."in 1800 [only] one of every fifteen Americans was a church member" [Richard Hofstadter, _Anti-Intellectualism in American Life_, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974, p. 89]

1945 "People whose history and future were threatened each day by extinction considered that it was only by divine intervention that they were able to live at all. I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human being become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of respectability at a commensurate speed." [Maya Angelou, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", p. 101]

2918 "God showed me...that he was going to bless the Christian Coalition beyond our wildest expectations. Before the year 2000, the Christian Coalition will be the most powerful organization in America. We'll be back in 1993. We'll be back in 1994. We'll be back in 1995...We'll be back until we win it all." [Pat Robertson]

1943 "Everything has a natural explanation. The moon is not a god but a great rock and the sun a hot rock." [Anaxagorus, ca. 475 BC]

160 "I am not afraid of the priests. They have tried upon me all thieve various batteries, of pious whining, hypocritical canting, lying and slandering, without being able to give me one moment of pain." -- Thomas Jefferson

3088 There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity." [Arthur Schopenhauer]