Oh God, quotes!

A very common criticism of the Internet is that it is dominated by the crude, the uninformed, the immature, the untalented, the repetitious, the pathetic, the hostile, the deluded and the self-righteous. We should also realize that the Internet also offers for your entertainment the tasteless, the borderline insane and a page by Jazz! So here is another blog - well, kind of! We have all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of William Shakespeare right? Thanks to the Internet we know that this is not true.

My target today is religion and here are a few quotes about the topic:
These words belong to others and I love these quotations - you interpret them how you wish!

“If we’re going to teach creation science as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction” Judith Hayes

History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.
Robert Heinlein

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900)

Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.
Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)

If a `religion’ is defined to be a system of ideas that contains unprovable statements, then Godel taught us that mathematics is not only a religion, it is the only religion that can prove itself to be one.
John D. Barrow

In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,’ and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
Carl Sagan (1934 – 1996)

Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.
Richard Dawkins

In religion and politics, people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination.
Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)

“A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.”
Arthur C. Clarke

Fanatics/fundamentalists don’t have much faith — that’s why they constantly have to assert themselves violently.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. 
The Bible was written by the same people who said the Earth was flat.

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”  Epicurus

The most preposterous notion that Homo-Sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest and least productive industry in all history.
Lazarus Long

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not. 
Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)