GodAnon

“[T]he religion of one age is, as a rule, the literary entertainment of the next.” Nansen speech titled "Science and the Purpose of Life," published by the Rationalist Press Association (1909) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“ ‘God's plan' is often a front for men's plans and a cover for inadequacy, ignorance, and evil.” Mary Daly, "Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation" (1973) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

Of religion he wrote in "The Critic as Artist" in 1891: "A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it." "Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived." "There is no sin except stupidity." “Science is the record of dead religions.” Oscar Wilde, "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young" (1894) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“After coming into contact with a religious man, I always feel I must wash my hands.” ( Why I Am a Destiny,  1888) “Great intellects are skeptical.” ( The Antichrist,  1888) “There is not sufficient love and goodness in the world to permit us to give some of it away to imaginary beings.” ( Human, All-Too-Human,  1878) Friedrich Nietzsche Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

"As a historian, I confess to a certain amusement when I hear the Judeo-Christian tradition praised as the source of our concern for human rights. In fact, the great religious ages were notable for their indifference to human rights in the contemporary sense. They were notorious not only for acquiescence in poverty, inequality, exploitation and oppression but for enthusiastic justifications of slavery, persecution, abandonment of small children, torture, genocide." Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., "The Opening of the American Mind," The New York Times, 1989 Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

"I am a devout atheist — nothing else makes any sense to me and I must admit to being bewildered by those, who in the face of what appears so obvious, still believe in a mystical creator." From  Harold Walter "Harry" Kroto  (né Krotoschiner)  Nobel Prize autobiography (1996) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“Religion is declining, with no better proof than I am here today. Two hundred years ago, I would have been burned at the stake. What was considered heresy by our fathers is tolerated now. The hell that frightened us in childhood has vanished into space. Heaven is not in our geographies. Therefore, we see the old faiths losing their hold on the human mind.” James Fergus , Society of Montana Pioneers speech, 1885 (quoted in the Lewistown News-Argus, 1994) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people...   To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions...  Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and cull the living flower. - Christopher Hitchens: paraphrase of Karl Marx on Religion Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

Many of our religious friends Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“Let there be no doubt that as they are currently practiced, there is no common ground between science and religion.”  Neil deGrasse Tyson , “Holy Wars,” published in Natural History magazine (October 1999) Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering

“We are looking for a complete, coherent, and simple understanding of reality. Given what we know about the universe, there seems to be no reason to invoke God as part of this description.” Sean Michael Carroll , “Why (Almost All) Cosmologists are Atheists” (2005) Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics Promoting Understanding of Religious Suffering