“It will yet be the proud boast of women that they never contributed a line to the Bible.”
—George W. Foote
June 2010
“Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination.”
—Edward Abbey
“EVERY BOY WANTS TO IMITATE HIS MOTHER, BE HER, FUSE WITH HER, BUT DADDY FORBIDS THIS; HE IS THE MOTHER, HE GETS TO FUSE WITH HER. SO HE TELLS THE BOY, SOMETIMES DIRECTLY, SOMETIMES INDIRECTLY, TO NOT BE A SISSY, TO ACT LIKE A “MAN.” THE BOY, SCARED SHITLESS OF AND “RESPECTING” HIS FATHER, COMPLIES, AND BECOMES JUST LIKE DADDY, THAT MODEL OF “MAN”-HOOD AND ALL-AMERICAN IDEAL—THE WELL-BEHAVED HETEROSEXUAL DULLARD.”
—Valerie Solanas (via diamondmind)
“Suppose the bible they hand you to swear on is upside-down, or backward, or both, and you swear to tell the truth on an upside-down, backward bible. Would that count? Suppose the bible they hand you is an old bible and half the pages are missing. Suppose all they have is a Chinese bible, in an American court. Or a Braille bible, and you’re not blind. Suppose they hand you an upside-down, backward, Chinese, Braille bible with half the pages missing. At what point does all this stuff break down and become just a lot of stupid shit that somebody made up?”
—George Carlin
“It is a sign of intelectual weakness, of a man who is afraid to stand on his own mind and his own responsibility. Because, you see, the absence of proof has gone on for centuries. Every argument for the existence of god is incomplete, is improper, has been refuted. And people go on and on because they want to believe. Well, I regard it as evil to place your emotions, your desires, above the evidence of what your mind knows.”
—Ayn Rand
Your latest GPOY tshirt is awesome. It took me a minute to figure out what it was. :)
THANK YOU. These homos made it.
- Fry: Fetal stem cells? Aren't those controversial?
- Prof. Farnsworth: In your time, yes. But nowadays, shutup!
“And then there’s the much more important question of the word “commandment” in the first place. Moral conclusions are not reached by edicts. Moral reasoning doesn’t proceed by order. You can’t get people to come to ethical conclusions by demanding things of them. It takes a long time to evolve a moral law or moral code. It can’t be done by a dictatorship.”
—Christopher Hitchens on the ten commandments
“When the axe came into the woods, many of the trees said: ‘At least the handle is one of us.’”
—Turkish proverb (via cocknbull)
DON'T YOU DARE SAY "SPERM" IN THIS HOUSE!
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”
—Richard Feynman
Law & Hors d'œuvres.
(via thefeedback)
“It’s always been my sense that feminism, skepticism, and atheism are a natural fit. Woo-based feminism that engages in wishful thinking about a non-existent matriarchal past and non-existent goddesses has never appealed to me. I think feminism is strongest when its feet are planted firmly on the ground. Moreover, skeptics and active atheists actually go after two of the biggest weapons used to abuse women: pseudo-science and religion.”
—Amanda Marcotte, Feminist Atheist Skepticism (via josephine) (via friendlyatheist)
God Is Not Great is on my to read list. It's laying around the house somewhere, I've just been a little too lazy to pick it up.
It’s worth it! I’ve read it at least 7 times and it made me an antitheist. I would definitely suggest getting the audiobook if you’re anything like me (frequently too lazy or busy or DRUNK to pick up a physical book.) Plus, there is something about listening to Christopher Hitchens say his own words out loud that is so much more satisfying than just reading them. OR I COULD JUST COME OVER TO YOUR HOUSE AND READ IT TO YOU LIKE A BEDTIME STORY.
“Of course it’s no surprise that the Vatican is a fan of The Blues Brothers. After all, just like the pope, this movie has a Nazi subplot.”
—Stephen Colbert
“Modesty, simplicity, humility…by these canonical keywords we are taught that we may recognize saints. Yet Mother Teresa regards herself as mandated by heaven, which is hardly modest. She lends spiritual solace to dictators and to wealthy exploiters, which is scarcely the essence of simplicity. And she preaches surrender and prostration to the poor, which a truly humble person would barely have the nerve to do. When she speaks about private or public morality, opposing family planning, for example, or defining abortion as quite literally the “greatest threat to world peace”, she takes on the grim and tedious tones of the zealot and the fanatic. In a godless and cynical age, it may be inevitable that people will seek to praise the self-effacing, the altruistic and the pure of heart. But only a complete collapse of our critical faculties can explain the illusion that such a person is manifested in the shape of a demagogue, an obscurantist and a servant of earthly powers.”
—Christopher Hitchens on Mother Teresa
“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled”
—Richard Feynman
“The only thing dumber than a republican or a democrat is when these pricks work together.”
—Lewis Black
“One of my favorite examples for biblical literalism is there is a text that says “You must take all you have and give it to the poor.” I don’t know anyone who says “I believe that to be God’s word, and therefore I will close my bank accounts, I will give all of my money away and I will give it to sthe poor.”
—Reverend Dr. Joan Brown Campbell
“Scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch man’s struggle for good and evil seems inadequate.”
—Richard Feynman
Play
“Even very smart people will believe very stupid things if they think there is a religious reason to do so.”
—Christopher Hitchens
“It never ceases to surprise me at the infinite capacity of the human mind to resist the introduction of useful knowledge.”
—Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury
are you out to your parents?
I came out to everyone in school around 7th-8th grade and then came out to my parents shortly after that. I was lucky enough to have been raised secular, so it was never an issue with my family. However, I was reassured multiple times daily by my classmates for almost 7 years that I would burn and be tortured for all eternity in hell. This is why I always say that my coming out coincided with my transition to atheism and, eventually, to antitheism. You tend to question Christianity when it constantly barks at you and other innocent, naive children about deserving nothing less than being ripped apart over and over again until the end of time simply for existing in a state that you feel deep down inside is as natural as breathing. Bullies calling you names and kicking the shit out of you is nothing compared to the phychological torture that the children of fervently religious parents can subject you to.
“I would love to have the faith to believe that it took place in 7 days, but…I have thoughts. And that can really fuck up the faith thing. Just ask any catholic priest.”
—Lewis Black on the biblical account of creation
