Atheist QOTD

“The church has always been late. We were late on slavery. We were late on civil rights. And now we're late on this [the acceptance of gays].”

Jay Bakker

“One hypothesis for the origin of religion is that it's a kind of 'costly signaling' – a way for people to prove their loyalty to the group by participating in complex rituals and extravagant shows of devotion. But there's an under-appreciated danger to this: when everyone in a community already follows a strict interpretation of faith, religious belief will have a tendency to spiral out of control into extremism, as group members go to greater and greater lengths to express their piety.”

Adam Lee

“It's almost certain that some religious believers will be bothered by even the mildest of statements from non-believers, but that's a risk atheists have to be willing to take. Where believers are simply 'sharing' the 'good news', atheists are [allegedly] 'forcing' their atheism on others, or being 'rude' and 'disrespectful.'”

Austin Cline

“Britain is exhibit A for the secularization thesis – the idea that modernization and scientific rationality will cause religion to wither and die. That is manifestly false in places such as Africa, India or the Muslim world. Only in Europe does it feel true.”

Michael Gerson

“One of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is that the howls [of protest] you will hear are from the Men of God.”

Johann Hari