The Perspectivist

If you don’t understand something, and the community of physicists doesn’t understand something, does that mean that God did it? Is that how you want to play this game? …A talk show you might have conducted 200 years ago might have said, ‘The planets do retrograde? Can’t understand that, must be a god.’ And we’d say, ‘You know, you’re right.’ And ten years later, we understand it. So if that’s how you want to invoke your evidence for God, then God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that gets smaller and smaller and smaller as time goes on. So, just be ready for that to happen.

—

Neil deGrasse Tyson, in response to Bill O’Reilly’s ‘God did it’ logic

(via nothingfalseabouthope)

I have no reason to believe in the immortality of the soul. But I also have no reason to believe that the death of the soul has anything to do with the death of the body. So how does the soul die? I don’t know. Perhaps we kill it. The urgent question is not whether the soul survives the death of the body. The urgent question is whether the soul survives the life of the body.

— Leon Wieseltier, Kaddish (via philosophy-quotes)

You may believe through faith [a] completely beneficial thing but if it’s no more likely to be true than the faith of someone else you just lost all power to say that they are wrong. You can only say that you are different.

— JT Eberhard - on the problem of justifying beliefs through faith (via doubtingmarcus)

(Source: youtube.com)

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

— Friedrich Nietzsche (via philosophy-quotes)

I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

— Stephen Hawking (via delirium-of-disorder)

Atheism is not a religion. It is a lack of faith. A lack of faith is not faith. Not collecting stamps is not a hobby. Atheism is not the Big Bang theory and it is not the theory of Evolution. Science is not a religion, it is a method for discovering new knowledge. Atheism is only a religion in the same way that not believing is Santa Clause is also a religion. If everything you don’t believe in is considered a religion then there are an infinite amount of religions. The burden of proof lies on people claiming that a god exists. There is no purpose for our existence, only causes. Morality is independent of religion. Actions done under the possible threat of punishment are impure. “Good” and “bad” are only human perceptions.

Religion is the epitome of ignorance, it is a deadly ignorance. It is an abomination and insult to reason. It is a political tool used to manipulate large populations. It is a security blanket for those that fear death. It is a cheap answer to questions that science cannot at this time explain. It is the result of a lack of information. Religion is holding mankind from it’s potential. Religion tries to cheapen the natural beauty of the universe and replaces it with ugly lies.

Religion continues to exist because of tradition, early indoctrination and an emotional response to deny the coldness of reality. Religious people need to feel that they are special/important in the vastness of the universe. Once indoctrinated the believer becomes loyal to his religion. Because he has invested so much of his life/time and emotion into his religion he becomes openly hostile to people that question his faith. He responds with anger and emotion instead of curiousity. He is unable to look critically at his beliefs. Religious people are feelers. They believe in their religion because they WANT it to be true. They are our lost brothers and sisters. They live a life wasted for what will never be.

— Anonymous