Tuesday 4 December 2012

Fun Quotes about Religion (From Some Freethinkers You May Not Have Heard of Before)



Once again the coursework for this year has buried me in an avalanche of chapter drafts, essays and enough books to crush a man, so updates to this here blog have been… sparse, to put it at it’s mildest. Apologies, guys; I’m almost done with my last essay, so hopefully it’ll be back to more regular updates for me once it’s out the way.

In the meantime I’ve been reading a lot of old freethought books and pamphlets as part of my research for my dissertation, which means I’ve come across some pretty awesome quotes from people in the past who also didn’t put much stock in the whole ‘religion’ thing. As a fun little post to get some updates to this blog going again, I thought I’d share some of them with you.

“I cannot follow you Christians; for you try to crawl through your life upon your knees, while I stride through mine on my feet.”
-         Charles Bradlaugh, 19th Century British Politician, Founder of the National Secular Society (NSS)

 “Evolution not only clearly indicates the true place of man in nature, but it dissipates the prevalent illusion of man’s supreme importance, and the arrogance with which he sets himself apart from the illimitable universe, and exalts himself to the position of its most valuable element.”
-         Ernest Haeckel, ‘The Riddle of the Universe’, German Scientist

“I have a very serious quarrel with the anti-Evolutionists… they are throwing dust in the eyes of the people all over America and England by mixing up two totally different things in the scientific world – quarrels about the method of evolution and quarrels about the fact of evolution.”
-         Joseph McCabe, Former Catholic Priest and Key Figure in the Rationalist Press Association

“It is evident that, for the community and the State, the ethical ideas of the citizens are of the very greatest importance, while a man’s religious dogmas should be entirely his private concern.”
-         Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian Explorer and Nobel Peace Prize Laurette

1 comment:

  1. Who Needs Holy Catholics?

    There's already enough holy stuff:

    Holy Father, Holy Mother, Holy Week, Holy Virgin, Holy Water, Holy Orders, Holy Bingo, Holy Savior, Holy Family, Holy Matrimony, Holy Oils, and Holy Communion. So who needs Holy Catholics, especially in politics?

    The New Testament (Phil. 2:9-11) says that "Jesus" is "a name which is above every name." Since many have viewed Catholicism as a "blasphemous counterfeit" of true Christianity, shouldn't the Pope tell folks in Catholic countries to quit naming their boys "Jesus" and threaten to excommunicate them if they do? Wouldn't this be a step in the right direction?

    (Believe it or not, the above message was inspired by "good Catholics" like Boehner, Biden, Pelosi and Madonna!)

    ReplyDelete