The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted read more

The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window.

When we debunk a fanatical faith or prejudice, we do not strike at the root of fanaticism. We merely prevent read more

When we debunk a fanatical faith or prejudice, we do not strike at the root of fanaticism. We merely prevent its leaking out at a certain point, with the likely result that it will leak out at some other point. Thus by denigrating prevailing beliefs and loyalties, the militant man of words unwittingly creates in the disillusioned masses a hunger for faith. For the majority of people cannot endure the barrenness and futility of their lives unless they have some ardent dedication, or some passionate pursuit in which they can lose themselves. Thus, in spite of himself, the scoffing man of words becomes the precursor of a new faith.

Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

Our hope of immortality does not come from any religions, but nearly all religions come from that hope.

Our hope of immortality does not come from any religions, but nearly all religions come from that hope.

Faith, enthusiasm, and passionate intensity in general are substitutes for the self-confidence born of experience and the possession of skill. read more

Faith, enthusiasm, and passionate intensity in general are substitutes for the self-confidence born of experience and the possession of skill. Where there is the necessary skill to move mountains there is no need for the faith that moves mountains.

I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to read more

I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to force me to practice what they do.

The church is only a secular institution in which the half-educated speak to the half-converted.

The church is only a secular institution in which the half-educated speak to the half-converted.

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

Every man, either to his terror or consolation, has some sense of religion.

Every man, either to his terror or consolation, has some sense of religion.