Reasonable Doubt

HARMFUL & HATEFUL

To hate men and worship god seems to be the sum of all creeds.”
-Robert Ingersoll

“History clearly shows that religion has often been linked directly to the worst examples of human behavior. More wars have been waged, more people killed, and more evil perpetrated in the name of religion than by any other institutional force in human history.”
-Charles Kimball

“Religion is an insult to human dignity. Without religion, we'd have good people doing good things, and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”
-Stephen Weinburg

“The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites.”
-Thomas Jefferson

“The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.”
-Friedrich Nietzsche

"Religion poisons everything. As well as a menace to civilization, it has become a threat to human survival."

-Christopher Hitchens

“Religion is simply an excuse, a motive to be utilized to instigate wars. One fact cannot be denied: Where religion is involved, there is always unnecessary suffering and death.”
-Rob Sharples

“I have steered clear of god. He was an incredible sadist.”
-John Collier

Atheism Defined
American Atheists
Pew Research Center: Facts About Atheists
Top Atheists in the World Today
Freedom From Religion
Patheos: The Free Thinker
Infidels: The Secular Web
American Humanist Association
Richard Dawkins Foundation

Religion's Worst Ideas
Criticism of Religion

Southern Poverty Law Center: Hate in God's Name

DIVINE TYRANT

“The god of the bible is a jealous, vindictive tyrant, punishing children for their father’s sins and thinking nothing of turning a terrified woman into a pillar of salt, ordering massacres, having a helpless old man hacked in pieces, or visiting his devoted servant Job with disease and pain until he longed for death.”
-Leslie Weatherhead

“I’m not an atheist as much as I am an anti-theist. I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful.”
-Christopher Hitchens

"The god of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
-Richard Dawkins

“Religion does three things quite effectively: divides people, controls people, deludes people.”
-Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney

God, please save me

from your followers.

“The Bible teaches that women brought sin and death into the world, that she precipitated the fall of the race, that she was arraigned before the judgment seat of Heaven, tried, condemned and sentenced. Marriage for her was to be a condition of bondage, maternity a period suffering and anguish, and in silence and subjection, she was to play the role of a dependent on man's bounty for all her material wants, and for all the information she might desire.”
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton

"The theory that religion is a force for peace does not fit the facts of its history."

-Steven Pinker

“God is a cruel and capricious tyrant.”
-Edward Gibbon

DARE TO DOUBT
HERE I STAND
SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE

“Belief in gods deserves to be challenged… and these claims can’t be given a pass because they are connected to some of humankind’s most divisive and dangerous behavior… A significant portion of our species insists on discriminating, hating, killing, and slowing scientific progress in the name of gods.”
-Guy Harrison

"As long as women regard the bible as the charter of their rights, they will be the slave of men. The bible was not written by a woman. Within its pages there is nothing for them but humiliation and shame."

-Robert G. Ingersoll

“I don't hate religion, I try not to hate religion. I hate the terrible things that religion makes people do, and I hate the greed that comes from it.”
-Hutch Harris

“Religious creeds encourage some of the craziest kinds of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and favor severe manifestations of neurosis, borderline personality states, and sometimes even psychosis.”
-Albert Ellis

Religion's Worst Ideas
Criticism of Religion

Southern Poverty Law Center: Hate in God's Name

HARMFUL SUPERSTITION

"In the age of science, religion is harmful superstition. God is not only dead. He never lived. Not to mention the deaths of kids treated with faith instead of science-based medicine. Religion is the most widespread and harmful form of superstition.”
-Jerry Coyne

“Could somebody please explain to me why it is that if you believe Elvis is still alive, you belong in an asylum; whereas if you believe Jesus is still alive, you belong in our halls of power?”
-Lawrence Boyce

"Think not that I have come to bring peace on earth. I came not to bring peace, but a sword."

-Jesus

“One of the meanings of superstition in the Oxford English dictionary is a belief that is unfounded or irrational. Since I see all religious belief as unfounded and irrational, I consider religion to be superstition. It’s certainly the most widespread form of superstition because the vast majority of people on Earth are believers. Other forms of superstition, like astrology, belief in UFOs or telekinesis, are nowhere near as widespread. And the damage that religion has done to humanity is far more than the damage that astrology or the belief in Bigfoot has done. This is the problem with ISIS and other Islamist organizations. It used to be the problem with Christianity, as well. People get killed because they don’t share your beliefs.”
-Jerry Coyne

“Religion: It’s given people hope in a world torn apart by religion.”
-Jon Stewart

“The Christian god is a being of terrific character: cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust.”
-Thomas Jefferson

“You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that god hates all the same people you do.”
-Anne Lamott

“The bible and the church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of woman's emancipation.”
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton

God as Abusive Spouse...

“You’re nothing without me.”
“If you even think about leaving me, I’ll hurt you.”
“You don’t deserve me.”
“You’ll never find anyone as good as me.”
“You have to do what I say.”
“You brought this upon yourself.”
“You are my possession.”
“Don’t do anything to make me jealous.”
“I know what is best for you.”
“You’re not worthy of my love.”
If you do anything bad, I will punish you.”
You’re a terrible person, and you need me to be better.”
“I see everything you do.”
“Don’t listen to what others are saying about us.”
“You should fear me.”
“I’m only doing this because I love you.”

“The Religious Right picks and chooses which parts of the bible they want to apply. And they choose based on which outsider group they would like to hate next. First, they emphasized slavery in the bible when they wanted to hate black people. Now they emphasize the parts condemning homosexuality so that they can hate gay people. They are completely and utterly disingenuous. They don’t respect a word of it. They don’t give a damn what the bible says. They want to use it as an instrument of hate.”
-Cenk Uygur

"I studied every page of the bible and I didn't find enough love to fill a thimble. God is not love. In the bible, god is vengeance, from beginning to end."

-Ruth Hurmence Green

There's nothing quite as hateful as christian love.

"The truth that harms is better than the lie that brings joy."

-Imam Ali

"Religion does three things most effectively:

Divides people, controls people, and deludes people."

-Mary Alice McKinney

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, instead of the word of god. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind. For my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.”
-Thomas Pain

"Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause; and I was not without hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy of the present age would have put an effectual stop to contentions of this kind."
-George Washington

“The moment you pick up a weapon in the name of a religion is the precise moment that your god ceases to exist.”
-R. Patient

“If you wish to worship the lord, do so with love, not terror - if you desire to practice faith, let that faith be guided by tenderness, not bitterness - if you want others to understand your outlook, use friendliness, not force.”
-Abhijit Naskar

"Religion is the worst enemy of mankind. No single war in history has killed as many people as religion has. Not to mention it sets science back about a thousand years."

-Bill Murray

"Religious fanaticism and hatred are a world-devouring fire, whose violence none can quench."
-Baha'u'llah

Religion's Worst Ideas
Criticism of Religion

Southern Poverty Law Center: Hate in God's Name

DARE TO DOUBT
HERE I STAND
SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE

VENGEFUL GOD

“The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion.”
-Mohandas Gandhi

“Religion is a disease. It is born of fear; it compensates through hate in the guise of authority and revelation. Religion, enthroned in a powerful social organization, can become incredibly sadistic. No religion has been more cruel than Christianity.”
-George A. Dorsey

“There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason to ever hate without reservation, to imagine that god almighty hates with you, too. Where's evil? It's that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with god on its side. It's that part of every man that finds all kinds of ugliness so attractive, it's that part of an imbecile that punishes and vilifies and makes war gladly.”
-Kurt Vonnegut

“No actual tyrant known to history has ever been guilty of one-hundredth of the crimes, massacres, and other atrocities attributed to the deity in the Bible.”
-Steve Allen

“As long as there are those who are willing to shed blood and take innocent lives in the name of religion, in the name of god, the world will never know a true and lasting peace.”
-Hillary Clinton

People don’t kill people.

People with gods kill people.

“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of god. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize humankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.”
-Thomas Paine

"It is impossible to exaggerate the evil work theology has done in the world."
-Lydia Maria Child

Religion's Worst Ideas
Criticism of Religion

Southern Poverty Law Center: Hate in God's Name

WRATHFUL DEITY

“The bible has been interpreted to justify such evil practices as, for example, slavery, the slaughter of prisoners of war, the sadistic murders of women believed to be witches, capital punishment for hundreds of offenses, polygamy, and cruelty to animals. It has been used to encourage belief in the grossest superstition and to discourage the free teaching of scientific truths. We must never forget that both good and evil flow from the bible. It is therefore not above criticism.”
-Steve Allen

“Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.”
-Voltaire

“Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions.”
-Blaise Pascal

“Those who believe absurdities will commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire

“We have to be greater than god, for we have to undo his injustice.”
-Jules Renard

“Man created god in his image: intolerant, sexist, homophobic and violent.”
-Atheist Quote

“Once people get hung up on theology, they're lost to sanity forever. More people have been killed in the name of Jesus Christ than any name in history of the world.”
-Gore Vidal

“When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called religion.'”
-Robert M. Pirsig

If your religion requires

you to hate, you need

a new religion.

“Clearly, religions differ in how harmful they are and that’s proportional to how much they proselytize and how perfidious their beliefs are. There are religions that I would consider either harmless or maybe even beneficial. Quakers barely believe in god at all and are dedicated to social justice. The less a religion has to do with a tangible God, the less it hands out moral dictates and the better it is. Once you believe in an absolute authority that tells you what to do, you’re heading down the road to perdition.”
-Jerry Coyne

“Fuel for religious violence comes from the creeds of the religious organizations that fundamentally depict that there is only one absolute and undeniable truth, and all others even mildly different truths are expendable.”
-Abhijit Naskar

“When I hear from people that religion doesn't hurt anything, I say really? Well, okay, other than wars, the crusades, the inquisitions, 9-11, ethnic cleansing, the suppression of women, the suppression of homosexuals, fatwas, honor killings, suicide bombings, arranged marriages to minors, human sacrifice, burning witches, and systematic sex with children, there are a few little things I have a problem with.”
-Bill Maher

“I can assure you that no kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ.”
-Montesquieu

"Critics of religion in general portray religion as outdated, harmful to the individual, harmful to society, an impediment to the progress of science, a source of immoral acts or customs, a political tool for social control."

-Quote

“Blind obedience to the Bible, the Quran, the Vedas or any other religious text, has erected more and more walls and fences in this world. Now the real question is, how much more time will humanity take to realize the obvious devastation that these disgusting walls of segregation have brought along and keep on bringing along in this world!”
-Abhijit Naskar

Religion's Worst Ideas
Criticism of Religion

Southern Poverty Law Center: Hate in God's Name

SOURCE OF HATE

“Strange, but true, that those who have loved god most have loved man least.”
-Robert Ingersoll

“All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal.”
-John Steinbeck

“The Christian god can be easily pictured as virtually the same as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three-headed monster: cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging three-headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of the people who say they serve him. They are always in two classes: fools and hypocrites.”
-Thomas Jefferson

"I am absolutely convinced that religion is the main source of hatred in the world."

-Christopher Hitchens

“We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.”
-Jonathan Swift

"The philosopher has never killed any priests. Whereas, the priest has killed a great many philosophers."

-Denis Diderot

“I have seen god’s worshippers unsheathe the sword of his revenge, when grace descended, confirming all unnatural impulses, to sanctify their desolating deeds. And frantic priests waved the ill-omened cross over unhappy earth, then shone the sun on showers of gore from the upflashing steel of safe assassination, and all crime made stingless by the spirits of the lord, and blood-red rainbows canopied the land.”
-Percy Bysshe Shelley

DARE TO DOUBT
HERE I STAND
SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE

"People who are violent, brutal and heartless often find war enjoyable, provided that they are involved in a victorious war and that there is not too much interference with rape and plunder. Needless to say, this is a great help by those who enjoy bloodshed in persuading others who are not so wicked that wars are righteous."
-Bertrand Russell

"The theory that religion is a force for peace does not fit the facts of its history."

-Stephen Pinker

"If your religion requires you to hate someone, you need a new religion."

-Meme