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Thomas Jefferson

Third American President under the Constitution, Author of the Declaration of Independence, Founder of the University of Virginia

"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology."

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter."

"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear."

"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature."

Carl Sagan

Astronomer, Author, and  Popularizer of Science, Late Husband of Ann Druyan

"The evidence, so far at least and laws of Nature aside, does not require a Designer. Maybe there is one hiding, maddeningly unwilling to be revealed."

"A religion that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by traditional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge."

"I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking."

"If some good evidence for life after death were announced, I'd be eager to examine it; but it would have to be real scientific data, not mere anecdote.... Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy."

"My view is that if there is no evidence for it, then forget about it. An agnostic is somebody who doesn't believe in something until there is evidence for it, so I'm agnostic."

Ann Druyan

Widow of Carl Sagan
Author and Media Producer

"Contrary to the fantasies of the fundamentalists, there was no deathbed conversion, no last minute refuge taken in a comforting vision of a heaven or an afterlife. For Carl, what mattered most was what was true, not merely what would make us feel better. Even at this moment when anyone would be forgiven for turning away from the reality of our situation, Carl was unflinching. As we looked deeply into each other's eyes, it was with a shared conviction that our wondrous life together was ending forever."

Albert Einstein

Physicist . Discoverer of both General and Special Relativity, and One of the Discoverers of Quantum Mechanics. Probably the Greatest, Most Famous, and Most Popular Scientist of the 20th Century

"During the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution, human fantasy created gods in man's own image who, by the operations of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate influence, the phenomenal world… The idea of God in the religions taught at present is a sublimation of that old conception of the gods. Its anthropomorphic character is shown, for instance, by the fact that men appeal to the Divine Being in prayers and plead for the fulfillment of their wishes... In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast power in the hands of priests."

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."

"I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."

"I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death."

Bertrand Russell

British Philosopher

"For all practical purposes, I am an atheist. I do not think the existence of the Christian God any more probable than the existence of the Gods of Olympus or Valhalla. To take another illustration: nobody can prove that there is not between Earth and Mars a china teapot revolving in an elliptic orbit, but nobody thinks this sufficiently likely to be taken into account in practice. I think the Christian God just as unlikely."

"The question of the truth of a religion is one thing, but the question of its usefulness is another. I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue."

"If everything must have a cause then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument."

Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave.

George Bernard Shaw

Famous Irish Journalist, Playwright, Author, and Orator of the Late 19th and Early 20th Century

"At present there is not a single credible established religion in the world."

Mark Twain

American Author and Humorist

"If there is a God, he is a malign thug."

"One of the proofs of the immortality of the soul is that myriads have believed it. They also believed the world was flat."

"[The Bible is] a mass of fables and traditions, mere mythology."

"[The Bible] has noble poetry in it... and some good morals and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies."

"Faith is believing something you know ain't true."

"Our Bible reveals to us the character of our god with minute and remorseless exactness... It is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere. It makes Nero an angel of light and leading by contrast."

"If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be -- a Christian."

"'In God We Trust.' I don't believe it would sound any better if it were true."

Voltaire

French Enlightenment Writer

"Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and bloody religion that has ever infected the world."

James “The Amazing” Randi

Magician and Debunker of Pseudoscience, Founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation

"It's a very dangerous thing to believe in nonsense."

Ruth Hermence Green

Author of The Born-Again Skeptic's Guide to the Bible

"There was a time when religion ruled the world. It is known as the Dark Ages."

Richard Dawkins

Oxford Professor, Biologist, Author of The Selfish Gene, The God Delusion, The Ancestor's Tale, and Many Other Books, Founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation

"Faith is powerful enough to immunize people against all appeals to pity, to forgiveness, to decent human feelings. It even immunizes them against fear, if they honestly believe that a martyr's death will send them straight to heaven. What a weapon! Religious faith deserves a chapter to itself in the annals of war technology, on an even footing with the longbow, the warhorse, the tank, and the hydrogen bomb."

"Faith cannot move mountains (though generations of children are solemnly told the contrary and believe it). But it is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness. It leads people to believe in whatever it is so strongly that in extreme cases they are prepared to kill and to die for it without the need for further justification."

Richard Robinson

Author of Religion and Reason

"Christian faith is a habit of flouting reason in forming and maintaining one's answer to the question whether there is a god. Its essence is the determination to believe that there is a god no matter what the evidence may be."

Isaac Asimov

Chemist, Professor, Late President of the American Humanist Association, Fellow of the Committee for Scientific  Inquiry, Author of Almost 500 Books and Thousands of Essays and Short Stories on Scores of Different Subjects

"To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today."

When asked why he fights religion, he answered: "Why do we fight? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug superstition to their breasts."

"I am an atheist, out and out. ... I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect that he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time."