Something to Think About: Where My Daily Quotes Go to Die

Do you believe because you know beyond a reasonable doubt? Or do you persist in believing because it is a comfortable delusion? If I told you that every time you have diarrhea there's a child who gets adopted by a loving family, would you eat spicy nachos more often?

You follow the New Testament, but not the Old Testament. You have no reason to justify this exception other than you find the New one to be personally acceptable and the Old one simply is not. Free Will... It's not a God given gift. It's just a right.

There are so many different interpretations of the moral messages of the Bible that you'd almost think it was abstract art. Except it's not. It's simple text... So they're all bullshitting. Quite simply, to say that the Bible does not support slavery, female oppression, genocide and racism is to say that the Bible does not mean what it clearly says.

If God wants us to believe on faith, then why did he do so many obvious and amazing miracles in the ancient world? Why did he speak directly to man and commit to plagues, floods and the wrath of angels to prove it to us then, but not now? As soon as you turn the Bible's last page, all miracles cease to occur. As though God just left us.

Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hindu, Mormonism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Juche, Jainism, Neo-paganism, Shinto, Unitarian Universalism, Scientology, Zoroastrianism... How many different News Channels do you need broadcasting different versions of the same story before you turn off the damned TV???...

The Bible is about as accurate to reality as the epic tale of Beowulf is... Yes, we know for sure there was and still is a Europe. End of accuracy.

There have been more than 1,300 known religions in the history of the world. There are more than 30 major religions in the modern world. In Christianity alone there are more than 50 main denominations. Within those denominations, people fit into one of four different groups. People assert that religion is a search for truth. If so, then why have so many people come up with so many different versions of it?

What's the difference between a Christian who picks out only the good Bible verses and an Atheist who picks out only the worst?... Intellectual honesty. I know the good verses. I'm asking for an explanation as to why the same God acts so completely different and contradicts himself and you buy it completely and ignore everything that makes you uncomfortable.

I don't care if you believe in some vague non-denominational creator of the universe. I can say you have no good reason to believe it, but ultimately there's no good argument against it. I do care if you believe in a specific God, because that God has mounds of evidence against him, and to ignore that evidence is to choose to be ignorant regarding what you claim is one of the most important aspects of life.

Despite reading the same book, everyone seems to find that the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-seeing and all-loving creator of the universe tends to agree with them on everything regarding human morality and ethics. This is extremely convenient, and perhaps too convenient.

Churches can protest and lobby government officials for their own special interests. They can get laws passed in favor of their personal form of morality. They can aid campaigns by supporting a candidate for office... But we can't tax them. We decided not to tax them so they couldn't do exactly what they're doing.

People read the horrible things that God commissioned the Israelites to do in the Old Testament and they say, “Well that was acceptable behavior for that time and God was speaking to them in a way they would understand”… If that is true, then what kind of God does that? People go to God’s because they believe that God will impart some higher form of morality on them that they did not have before. Give them a standard to live by that is better than their own. But if God supports actions and laws that are in the cultural context of the time, then he’s referring to us and not us to him. What kind of God imparts no special moral or ethical insight to his followers?

Man always thought Heaven was above the clouds, then he invented the airplane. Man then thought it was above the blue in the sky, then he invented the space ship. Man then thought it was beyond the black abyss, then man invented the Hubble telescope. Then man just said "Fuck it, whatever!"

"You don't understand modern Christianity. Sure, the Old Testament had some bad things in it. But Jesus did a lot of good things in the New Testament! Find the Love of Jesus!"... "You don't understand modern Nazism. Sure, the old Nazi Germany killed millions of people. But Hitler did a lot of good things for the economy! Find the love of Adolf Hitler!"... See, we can cherry pick too. But it doesn't make it right or smart.

I don't care "that you believe" I only care "what you believe" because what you believe informs your actions. Your conduct affects everyone around you and future generations of Americans. Atheists never pushed for a law to restrict religious belief, only religious conduct. Only religions persecute other religions on levels dealing in the right to believe.

If a man says God speaks to him, he's a pious believer. But if the man says God speaks to him through his toaster, he's insane. But why is that any different? Is that not well within God's power?

"Reading verses from the Bible doesn't prove anything to an atheist for the same reasons reading verses out of the Qu'ran doesn't prove anything to you. Stop doing Bible readings in your debates, it doesn't make a point."-Sgt.Haile