An atheist
is a man who has no invisible means of support.
-- John Buchan, 1875-1940
Isn't it
enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that
there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
-- Douglas Adams
The Hitch
Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, chapter 16. 1979
So atheists
disbelieve in all gods, while monotheists disbelieve in all but one.
Thus the atheists have both consistency and the
razor working for them. Seems like a more rational position to me.
IIRC the Romans called early Christians
atheists since they disbelieved in so many gods.
-- William Hyde, rec.arts.sf.written, April
2000
In my
notes, I have the line:
Ataraxia: (Greek): The state of tranquillity achieved by ignoring
all the bullshit you are told.
-- Andrew Plotkin, rec.arts.sf.written,
April 2000
during a discussion about the meaning of "atheist"
versus "agnostic"
[The Complete OED defines it more prosaically:
ataraxia: Freedom from disturbance of mind or passion;
stoical indifference]
It takes a
very special and strong-minded kind of atheist to jump up and
down with their hand clasped under their other armpit and shout, 'Oh,
random-fluctuations-in-the-space-time-continuum!' or 'Aaargh,
primitive-and-outmoded-concept on a crutch!'
-- Terry
Pratchett
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 F Roberts
alt.atheism or talk.atheisim, 1994 or 1995
http://freelink.wildlink.com/quote_history.php
Therefore,
in regard to the Olympic gods, speaking to a purely philosophical
audience, I would say that I am an Agnostic. But speaking popularly, I
think that all of us would say in regard to those gods that we were Atheists.
In regard to the Christian God, I should, I think, take exactly the same
line.
There is exactly the same degree of possibility and likelihood of
the existence of the Christian God as there is of the existence of the
Homeric God. I cannot prove that either the Christian God or the
Homeric gods do not exist, but I do not think that their existence is
an alternative that is sufficiently probable to be worth serious
consideration.
Bertrand
Russell
Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic? A Plea For Tolerance In The Face
Of New Dogmas, 1947
Many
orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to
disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This
is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth
and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an
elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided
I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even
by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that,
since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on
the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be
talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were
affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and
instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in
its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the
doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or
of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.
-- Bertrand
Russell, Is There a God?, 1952
commissioned by Illustrated Magazine,
first published in The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell,
Volume 11: Last Philosophical Testament, 1943-68,
ed. John G. Slater and Peter Köllner, pp. 543-48, 1997
If atheism
is a faith, then not playing chess is a hobby.
-- New Scientist, 2589:21,
3 February 2007
I'm a
born-again atheist.
-- Gore Vidal (1925--)
Is god
willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he
able but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and
willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then
why call him god?
-- Epicurus (341 BC--270 BC) attrib
My practice
as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment
I assume that no god, angel, or devil is going to interfere with its
course; and this assumption has been justified by such success as I have
achieved in my professional career. I should therefore be intellectually
dishonest if I were not also atheistic in the affairs of the world.
-- J.
B. S. Haldane,
Preface to Fact and Faith, 1934