31 May 2009

Isaac Asimov's quotes


Isaac Asimov's quotes

Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. (source unknown)

To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today. ("On Religiosity," Free Inquiry)

When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together. ("The Relativity of Wrong" 1989)

Creationists make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night. (source unknown)

Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly. (Canadian Atheists Newsletter, 1994)

One would suppose that the battle for religious liberty was won in the United States two hundred years ago. However, in the time since, and right now, powerful voices are always raised in favor of bigotry and thought control. It is useful, then, to have a compendium of the thoughts of great men and women of all faiths (and of none) on the subject, to convince us that we men and woman of freedom are not and never have been alone. (from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom)

[I]f I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul. (I Asimov: A Memoir)

To rebel against a powerful political, economic, religious, or social establishment is very dangerous and very few people do it, except, perhaps, as part of a mob. To rebel against the "scientific" establishment, however, is the easiest thing in the world, and anyone can do it and feel enormously brave, without risking as much as a hangnail. Thus, the vast majority, who believe in astrology and think that the planets have nothing better to do than form a code that will tell them whether tomorrow is a good day to close a business deal or not, become all the more excited and enthusiastic about the bilge when a group of astronomers denounces it. (source unknown)

I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time. ("Free Inquiry", Spring 1982, vol.2 no.2, p. 9)

Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.(source unknown)

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.(source unknown)

Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the popularized version of Heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism. ("On Religiosity," Free Inquiry)

When I die I won't go to heaven or hell, there will just be nothingness. ( interviewed in Bill Moyers' television series "A World of Ideas")

I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in rationalism, thus you don't have to waste your time in either attacking or defending. (source unknown)

26 May 2009

The glass is half empty...

PZ Myers, commenting on young people joining atheists club and starting to think for themselves, congratulated the higher education system:
This is exactly what happens when you send your kids off to college: if it works, they start thinking for themselves, develop surprising new opinions, and aren't afraid to share them with other people. Hooray for college students, some of my favorite people!


But I see the glass half empty. Why are there still religious idiots teaching in higher education? If the system is working, such creatures should have been disqualified for holding any responsible position because of their lack of ability to think for themselves and process facts based on evidence.

OK, I am a militant atheist.

youtube video worths spreading

19 May 2009

Quotes from Albert Einstein

Was Albert Einstein an atheist? Here are some of his words:


It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. … Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.

I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws.

For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions... And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people.

Thus I came... to a deep religiosity, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of 12. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached a conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true... Suspicion against every kind of authority grew out of this experience... an attitude which has never left me.

A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.

I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.

18 May 2009

Quotes

Christianity: The belief that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. - Unknown

16 May 2009

Quotes

I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws. - Albert Einstein

13 May 2009

Some one in USA should step up to uphold your constitution

from source


Some one in USA should step up to uphold your constitution. Sue these soldiers in your court of law! The above youtube video should be used as an evidence.

Quote from Ron Hager (one of the commenter):
I thank them for defending our country. I curse them for refusing to defend the freedom provided by our separation of church and state.

Spiritual Science


Look really serious. So I check out their methodology (yes, there is a link to their methodogy) Oops, it is an image and I cannot copy and paste, so here it is:


I can do that!

BUT wait, Daniel Florien has a different opinion with one of the papers. I have to figure out how to tell which is true and which is false? After all, a different of 43.5% to 20% of accessibility of Divine Consciousness frequencies is huge!

Unfortunately, today is not April 1. Claiming spirituality a science is totally wrong!

10 May 2009

What would you say after people say 'I will pray for you'?

Actually I have two questions wishing someone can give me some clue in how to respond.

1. I will pray for you.

My answer: I will forgive you. [after Dan Dennett]
Yours answer or respond?

2. What church do you attend?

My answer: My own
Yours answer or respond?

08 May 2009

Quotes

In dark ages people are best guided by religion, as in a pitch-black night a blind man is the best guide; he knows the roads and paths better than a man who can see. When daylight comes, however, it is foolish to use blind, old men as guides. - Heinrich Heine

04 May 2009

THANK GOODNESS!

I have read this article before. I have an opportunity to read the same today. After the near-dead (if not really dead) experience, Dan Dennett has not changed his public atheism. This time, I find the following paragraph special appealing to me.

Do I worship modern medicine? Is science my religion? Not at all; there is no aspect of modern medicine or science that I would exempt from the most rigorous scrutiny, and I can readily identify a host of serious problems that still need to be fixed.


Scanning through the discussion between theists and atheists in various blogs and discussion forums, one annoyance theme keep coming up. Theists consistently call atheism a religion. To many, it is like calling bald a hair color. But somehow, they just keep doing that!

Dan's quote above has strong resonance with me. Yes, I trust Science. When it is a matter of live or dead, I would put my bet on Science instead of prayers. But at the some time, I would exercise my greatest intellectual capability to scrutinize, question and doubt on any scientific claims. For basic Science, we inevitably have to believe in what our teachers tell us. After all, we trust that they are telling us the current accepted scientific principles and theory. Yes, I cannot test and verify every claims ever made - my life is just too short for that. But that trust is NOT based on faith. That trust is based on a number of factors. When in doubt, I WILL double check myself and most importantly I will HAVE the tool to do so (by reading the source or original documentations). I may not have the ability to do so, but no one is saying that I cannot.

Some sick children have died because of the stupidity of their parents. Praying never cures a child, not even one. When you are sick, don't ask for prayers. Ask for modern medicine know-how and trust the professionals. Just like Dan. Then say 'thanks goodness!'