Joan Konner - The Atheists Bible

THE
ATHEISTS
BIBLE This eBook edition 2012
First published in the UK in 2008 by
Duckworth Overlook
90-93 Cowcross Street
London EC1M 6BF
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www.ducknet.co.uk Copyright 2007 by Joan Konner All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Every effort has been made to track the quotations back to their original sources. If any errors have mistakenly occurred, they will be corrected in subsequent editions. An extension of this copyright page appears on page 191. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBNs
Hardback: 978 0 7156 4136 1
Mobipocket: 978 0 7156 4255 9
ePub: 978 0 7156 4254 2
Library PDF: 078 0 7156 4253 5 Editors Note A substantial number of the quotes in this volume come from works of fiction.

It is important to note that authors do not necessarily agree with the words, ideas, or opinions expressed by the characters they create. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornamentsof those most distinguished even in popular estimation for wisdom and virtueare complete skeptics in religion. J OHN S TUART M ILL The reason there are so many opinions is that no one knows the Truth. J OAN K ONNER , editor Perhaps our role on this planet is not to worship Godbut to create Him. A RTHUR C. C LARKE Epicurus old questions are yet unanswered.

Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil? D AVID H UME Men... have had the vanity to pretend that the whole creation was made for them, whilst in reality the whole creation does not suspect their existence. C AMILLE F LAMMARION Fear was the gods begetter in this world. P ETRONIUS We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook.

We may yearn for a higher answerbut none exists. S TEPHEN J AY G OULD As for me, Ive long resolved not to think whether man created God or God man. F YODOR D OSTOYEVSKY Geology shows that fossils are of different ages. Paleontology shows a fossil sequence, the list of species representing changes through time. Taxonomy shows biological relationships among species. Evolution is the explanation that threads it all together.

Creationism is the practice of squeezing ones eyes shut and wailing Does not! A NONYMOUS If you believe that there is a God, a God that made your body, and yet you think that you can do anything with that body thats dirty, then the fault lies with the manufacturer. L ENNY B RUCE From the point of view of a tapeworm, man was created by God to serve the appetite of the tapeworm. E DWARD A BBEY The idea of God is the sole wrong for which I cannot forgive mankind. M ARQUIS DE S ADE Men create the gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life. A RISTOTLE We shall tell ourselves that it would be very nice if there were a God who created the world and was a benevolent Providence, and if there were a moral order in the universe and an after-life; but it is a very striking fact that all this is exactly as we are bound to wish it to be. S IGMUND F REUD Brute force crushes many plants.

Yet the plants rise again. The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy. And before Buddha or Jesus spoke the nightingale sang, and long after the words of Jesus and Buddha are gone into oblivion the nightingale still will sing. Because it is neither preaching nor teaching nor commanding nor urging. It is just singing. D. H. H.

L AWRENCE At the beginning there was the Wordat the end just the Clich. S TANISLAW J ERZY L EC All great truths begin as blasphemies. G EORGE B ERNARD S HAW God is a word to express, not our ideas, but the want of them. J OHN S TUART M ILL Atheists are often charged with blasphemy, but it is a crime they cannot commit.... When the Atheist examines, denounces, or satirizes the gods, he is not dealing with persons but with ideas. G. W. W.

F OOTE I have too much respect for the idea of God to hold Him responsible for such an absurd world. G EORGES D UHAMEL Man is, and always has been, a maker of gods. J OHN B URROUGHS The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a Lunatic Asylum. H AVELOCK E LLIS Whatever we cannot easily understand we call God; this saves much wear and tear on the brain tissues. E DWARD A BBEY Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong. C HRISTOPHER H ITCHENS Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought.

G RAHAM G REENE Faith is doubt. E MILY D ICKINSON It is historically true that a large proportion of infidels in all ages have been persons of distinguished integrity and honour. J OHN S TUART M ILL All thinking men are atheists. E RNEST H EMINGWAY All children are atheiststhey have no idea of God. B ARON D H OLBACH It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living. S INCLAIR L EWIS I count religion but a childish toy, And hold there is no sin but ignorance.

C HRISTOPHER M ARLOWE If there is a God, a caring God, then we have to figure hes done an extraordinary job of making a very cruel world. D AVE M ATTHEWS THEOLOGY An effort to explain the unknowable by putting it into terms of the not worth knowing. H. L. M ENCKEN The universe runs itself, and the eternal laws inherent in Nature suffice, without any first cause or prime mover. is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability. is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

G EORGE B ERNARD S HAW 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. S TEPHEN H ENRY R OBERTS In some awful, strange, paradoxical way, atheists tend to take religion more seriously than the practitioners. J ONATHAN M ILLER For it is with the mysteries of our Religion, as with wholesome pills for the sick, which swallowed whole, have the virtue to cure, but chewed, are for the most part cast up again without effect. T HOMAS H OBBES Marx was wrong.