The idea of original sin–of guilt with no possibility of innocence, no freedom of choice, no alternatives–inherently militates against self-esteem. The very notion of guilt without volition or responsibility is an assault on reason as...

Superstition is an unreasoning fear of God.

Nothing makes us love something more than the loss of it.

All Religions have this in common, that they are an outrage to common sense for they are pieced together out of a variety of elements, some of which seem so unworthy, sordid and at odds...

When Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning-rod, the clergy, both in England and America, with the enthusiastic support of George III, condemned it as an impious attempt to defeat the will of God. For, as all...

POUNDWe spend twelve hundred generations developing so-called civilization to the point where it produces an expert who can offer us salvation from our superstitions, and all we end up with is another superstition! If it...

e have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen, all for the glory of God and the good of souls. The...

faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” In other words, no man is religious who does not govern his conduct in some measure by the fear or love of God. On the...

Most people who offer their help do it to make themselves feel better, not us. To be honest, I don’t blame them. It’s superstition: If you give assistance to the family in need… if you...

The pens sharpen – Islamophobia! No such thing. Primitive Middle Eastern religions (and most others) are much the same – Islam, Christianity and Judaism all define themselves through disgust for women’s bodies.

Somewhere I’d heard, or invented perhaps, that the only pleasures found during a waning moon are misfortunes in disguise. Superstition aside, I avoid pleasure during the waning or absent moon out of respect for the...

I can say with certitude that superstitions are more deleterious than black magic.

We live in a world where unfortunately the distinction between true and false appears to become increasingly blurred by manipulation of facts, by exploitation of uncritical minds, and by the pollution of the language.

If you want to save your child from polio, you can pray or you can inoculate. … Choose science.

When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me-it still sometimes happens-and ask me if Carl changed at the end and...

The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man...

Just as primitive man believed himself to stand face to face with demons and believed that could he but know their names he would become their master, so is contemporary man faced by this incomprehensible,...

I do not ever remember to have trembled at a tale of superstition or to have feared the apparition of a spirit. Darkness had no effect upon my fancy, and a churchyard was to me...

Standing at the window, reading the menu of Obediah’s services, the Minotaur wishes he could believe in what she has to offer: a promise woven into deep lines of his palm, some turn of fate...

Mankind accepts good fortune as his due, but when bad occurs, he thinks it was aimed at him, done to him, a hex, a curse, a punishment by his deity for some transgression, as though...

Who can over estimate the progress of the world if all the money wasted in superstition could be used to enlighten, elevate and civilize mankind?

There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and...

You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and...

People think that epilepsy is divine simply because they don’t have any idea what causes epilepsy. But I believe that someday we will understand what causes epilepsy, and at that moment, we will cease to...

Men become superstitious, not because they have too much imagination, but because they are not aware that they have any.

Do you have protection?””Sure do.” Durbin flipped up his jacket to reveal the M9 in his shoulder holster. “You people can keep your superstitious mumbo-jumbo. I have all the protection I need.

Science . . . has opened our eyes to the vastness of the universe and given us light, truth and freedom from fear where once was darkness, ignorance and superstition. There is no personal salvation,...

…people don’t think in churches.[Noyce on what bothers him most about organized religion.]

Theism, as religious people typically hold it, does not merely state that some entity created the universe, but that the universe was created specifically with humans in mind as the most important part of creation....

Wisdom must yield to superstition’s rules,Who arms with bigot zeal the hand of fools.

My theory is that hope is a form of madness. A benevolent one, sure, but madness all the same. Like an irrational superstition–broken mirrors and so forth–hope’s not based on any kind of logic, it’s...

On present-day Earth we have the most Christ-like nation in human history, a civilization built on loving kindness and demilitarization. They are being wiped off the face of their homeland. Well, at least the Chinese...

credulity and superstition are close friends

[The Truth Seeker is] Devoted to: science, morals, free thought, free discussions, liberalism, sexual equality, labor reform, progression, free education and whatever tends to elevate and emancipate the human race.Opposed to: priestcraft, ecclesiasticism, dogmas, creeds,...

The odor of burning sulphur shifted on the night air, acrid, a little foul. Somewhere, the Canaan dwellers had learned of a supplier of castor – an extract from the beaver’s perineal glands. Little packets...

It is possible to induce incorrect notions of cause and effect in most people in just a few minutes. All that is necessary is to expose them to rewards which they believe they are generating...

I have my superstitions, though. They could be termed quirks. I have to add up all numbers: there are some people I never telephone because their number adds up to an unlucky figure. Or I...

If there is a god maybe it rewards those who don’t believe on the basis of insufficient evidence–and punishes those who do.

Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes place is determined by laws of nature, and therefore this holds for the action of people. For this reason, a research scientist will hardly...

deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with real feelings, who, like the skeptics, are trying to figure out how the world works and what our role in it might be....

Superstition was with me at that moment, but it was not yet her hour for complete victory.

The whole fabric of our religion is based on superstitious belief in lies that have been foisted upon us for ages by those directly above us, to whose personal profit and aggrandizement it was to...

Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.{Letter to his son and 6th US president, John Quincy Adams, November 13 1816}

Did you think you had educated the superstition out of those people?”I certainly did think it.”Well, then, you may unthink it.

The greater the gap between self perception and reality, the more aggression is unleashed on those who point out the discrepancy.

Superstition would seem to be simply cowardice in regard to the supernatural.

The destroyer of weeds, thistles, and thorns is a benefactor whether he soweth grain or not.

When men reject reason, they have no means left for dealing with one another — except brute, physical force.

What is it you most dislike? Stupidity, especially in its nastiest forms of racism and superstition.

Strange though it may seem, people rarely show such enthusiasm as when they are seeking the proof of a ghost story—the soul gathers all this sort of thing to its hungry bosom.