Looks like the time is ripe (again) for some potentially offensive quotes from the vast
archive of Det norske Hedningsamfunn (The Norwegian Heathen Society) [btw, StSanta, if you've not already familiar with the archive, I do suggest that you take a look]:
Popes in their notorious infallibility have something to say:
"We [Catholics] are also under an obligation to keep secrets faithfully. And sometimes the easiest way to fulfill that duty is to say what is false, or to tell a lie."
[Catholic Encyclical X, 195]
"So that a false statement knowingly made to one who has a right to the truth will not be a lie."
[Catholic Encyclical IX, 471]
Of religion and the US constitution:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
[First Amendment, Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution]
Muslims trying to out-do their christian brothers:
"The earth is flat, and anyone who disputes this claim is an atheist who deserves to be punished."
[Muslim religious edict, 1993 Sheik Abdel-Aziz Ibn Baaz Supreme religious authority, Saudi Arabia]
St. Augustine makes a point about converting people:
"It is indeed better (as no one ever could deny) that men should be led to worship God by teaching, than that they should be driven to it by fear of punishment or pain; but it does not follow that because the former course produces the better men, therefore those who do not yield to it should be neglected. For many have found advantage (as we have proved, and are daily proving by actual experiment), in being first compelled by fear or pain, so that they might afterwards be influenced by teaching, or might follow out in act what they had already learned in word."
[St. Augustine, Treatise on the Correction of the Donatists (417), p.214]
Some more or less famous Americans also had something to say about religion:
"...the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction."
[George Washington, 1789, responding to clergy complaints that the Constitution lacked mention of Jesus Christ, from "The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness," Isacc Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore W.W. Norton and Company 101-102]
"If they are good workmen, they may be from Asia, Africa or Europe; they may be Mahometans, Jews, Christians of any sect, or they may be Atheists...."
[George Washington, to Tench Tighman, March 24, 1784, when asked what type of workman to get for Mount Vernon, from "The Washington papers" edited by Saul Padover]
"The way to see by Faith is to shut the eye of Reason."
[Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard, 1758]
"I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul....No, all this talk of an existence beyond the grave is wrong. It is born of our tenacity of life---our desire to go on living---our dread of coming to an end. "
[Thomas Edison, quoted in "2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt", by James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996]
"´In God We Trust.´ It is the choicest compliment that has ever been paid us, and the most gratifying to our feelings. It is simple, direct, gracefully phrased; it always sounds well -- In God We Trust. I don´t believe it would sound any better if it were true."
[Mark Twain, from "Mark Twain´s Notebook"]
Even some Europeans had something to say:
"Most of the great men of this world live as if they were atheists. Every man who has lived with his eyes open, knows that the knowledge of a God,his presence, and his justice, has not the slightest influence over the wars, the treaties, the objects of ambition, interest, or pleasure, in the pursuit of which they are wholly occupied."
[Voltaire]
"He who begins by loving Christianity more than Truth, will proceed by loving his sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all."
[Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), English poet, critic. Aids to Reflection, "Moral and Religious Aphorisms," aph. 25 (1825; repr. in Works, vol. 1, ed. by Professor Shedd, 1853)]
"O mortal man, think mortal thoughts!"
[Euripides, Alcestis, l. 799]
"We must conduct research and then accept the results. If they don´t stand up to experimentation, Buddha´s own words must be rejected."
[Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, _Time_ April 11, 1988]
Then a few choice words from a man who put his money where his mouth is:
"Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion."
[Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, 1949, then just a science fiction writer. Quoted in the New York Times, July 11, 1984, from James A. Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief]
Whew. And there's a
lot more where those came from, more than enough for a hundred threads like these
Now, let's see if we can get this thread to degenerate into a full blown flamewar (remember the E vs C thread), gentlemen, do your worst
