“Faith is a cop-out. It is intellectual bankruptcy. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that
it can’t be taken on its own merits.”
-Dan Barker
“I am an atheist because there is no evidence for the existence of God.
That should be all that needs to be said about it: no evidence, no belief.”
Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist
(Madison, WI: FFRF, 1992), p. 87.
“The longer I have been an atheist, the more amazed I am that I ever believed Christian notions.”
Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist
(Madison, WI: FFRF, 1992), p. 106.
“If the answers to prayer are merely what God wills all along, then why pray?”
Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist
(Madison, WI: FFRF, 1992), p. 108.
“To think that the ruler of the universe will run to my assistance and
bend the laws of nature for me is the height of arrogance. That implies
that everyone else (such as the opposing football team, driver, student,
parent) is de-selected, unfavored by God, and that I am special, above it all.”
Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist
(Madison, WI: FFRF, 1992), p. 109.
“Some theists, observing that all ‘effects’ need a cause, assert that
God is a cause but not an effect. But no one has ever observed an
uncaused cause and simply inventing one merely assumes what the argument wishes to prove.”
Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist
(Madison, WI: FFRF, 1992), p. 109.
“The next time believers tell you that ‘separation of church and state’
does not appear in our founding document, tell them to stop using the
word ‘trinity.’ The word ‘trinity’ appears nowhere in the bible.
Neither does Rapture, or Second Coming, or Original Sin. If they are
still unfazed (or unphrased), by this, then add Omniscience,
Omnipresence, Supernatural,Transcendence, Afterlife, Deity, Divinity,
Theology, Monotheism, Missionary, Immaculate Conception, Christmas,
Christianity, Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Methodist, Catholic, Pope,
Cardinal, Catechism, Purgatory, Penance, Transubstantiation,
Excommunication, Dogma, Chastity, Unpardonable Sin, Infallibility,
Inerrancy, Incarnation, Epiphany, Sermon, Eucharist, the Lord’s Prayer,
Good Friday, Doubting Thomas, Advent, Sunday School, Dead Sea, Golden
Rule, Moral, Morality, Ethics, Patriotism, Education, Atheism, Apostasy,
Conservative (Liberal is in), Capital Punishment, Monogamy,
Abortion, Pornography, Homosexual, Lesbian, Fairness, Logic, Republic,
Democracy, Capitalism, Funeral, Decalogue, or Bible.”
Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist
(Madison, WI: FFRF, 1992), p. 109.