The one function that most gods seem to have in common is to give human existence some ultimate purpose – and, while it is not possible to disprove an ultimate purpose, there does not seem to be any evidence for it.
BARBARA SMOKER
BARBARA SMOKER
Barbara Smoker on atheism
Barbara Smoker8 quotes“The one function that most gods seem to have in common is to give human existence some ultimate purpose – and, while it is not possible to disprove an ultimate purpose, there does not seem to be any evidence for it.”
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As for the accusation of intellectual pride, surely the boot is on the other foot. Atheists don’t claim to know anything with certainty — it’s the believers who know it all.
Barbara SmokerBarbara Smoker To imagine that “God moves in mysterious ways” is to put up a smokescreen of mystery behind which fantasy may survive in spite of all the facts.
Barbara SmokerBarbara Smoker To imagine that God wants prayers and hymns of praise is to make him out to a sort of oriental potentate; while praying for favours is an attempt to get him to change his allegedly all-wise mind.
Barbara SmokerBarbara Smoker People who believe in a divine creator, trying to live their lives in obedience to his supposed wishes and in expectation of a supposed eternal reward, are victims of the greatest confidence trick of all time.
Barbara SmokerBarbara Smoker As for an eternity in heaven – that would be hell!
Barbara SmokerBarbara Smoker This is not to say, of course, that there is no purpose in life at all: we all make our own purposes as we go through life. And life does not lose its value simply because it it not going to last forever.
Barbara SmokerBarbara Smoker Why am I an atheist? The short answer is that I cannot accept any of the alternatives. I simply don’t find them believable.
Barbara SmokerBarbara Smoker
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A.J. AyerA.J. Ayer Religions survive mainly because they brainwash the young.
A.C. GraylingA.C. Grayling A heathen philosopher once asked a Christian, ‘Where is God’? The Christian answered, ‘Let me first ask you, Where is He not?’
Aaron ArrowsmithAaron Arrowsmith Theism is so confused and the sentences in which “God” appears so incoherent and so incapable of verifiability or falsifiability that to speak of belief or unbelief, faith or unfaith, is logically impossible.
A.J. AyerA.J. Ayer I take it, therefore, to be a fact, that one’s existence ends with death. I think it possible to show how this fact can be emotionally acceptable.
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