I am a Jewish atheist . . .
My faith is in the Constitution.
Nat Hentoff
September 2000 column(September 2000 column)
* * *
My father was an agnostic.
Jane Fonda
Oprah interview
O Magazine, July-Aug. 2000
* * *
I'm a total atheist. . .
Novelist Myla Goldberg
New York magazine, Aug. 7, 2000
* * *
. . . I suppose I am an infidel. They might call me a Nothingarian--the name regular churchgoers in the nineteenth century sometimes applied to those who weren't. . . . If a friend were to mention Jesus Christ in a serious way, I would probably assume that he or she was about to have a breakdown.
Author Ian Frazier
Family (1994)
Submitted by Philip Appleman
* * *
Can we start to agree that flagrantly public displays of purported religious belief and practice have no place in sports? . . .
I am no theologian, but I know this. Some of the most moral people I've met are non-churchgoers. Some of the biggest sleazebags I've run across are Bible-thumpers. Knowledge of Scripture, envelopes in the offering plate, fanny in the pew--they can mean everything or nothing. Acts, behavior toward others over a lifetime, are what counts.
Staff writer Bonnie DeSimone
Chicago Tribune, Feb. 7, 1999
* * *
This [protective custody placement of pregnant cultist Rebecca Corneau, whose first child died from lack of medical care] is not about religious freedom. No acceptable religion allows a child in its immediate care to starve to death. No acceptable religion hides corpses from authorities. . . .
Columnist Brian McGrory
"Stop the rhetoric, save the child"
Boston Globe, Sept. 10, 2000
* * *
Europe is the cradle of institutional Christianity, but today, institutional religion in Europe is on the point of collapse. Fewer than one French person in 10 goes to church even once a year, and the Roman Catholic church has never been less influential in the life of the nation.
Geoffrey Wheatcroft
"Politics Without Piety"
New York Times, Sept. 9, 2000
* * *
When Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris put up the money to buy the guns they used to terrorize Columbine Country, they paid with cash, U.S.
. . . And on every coin and bill that crossed their palms, there was this phrase: IN GOD WE TRUST. . . .
If it doesn't make a difference on the coin-of-the-realm of murder, carried in every kid's pocket every day, how is it going to make a difference posted on the wall of a gymnasium, surrounded by slogans of school spirit?
Columnist Chuck Green
" 'In God We Trust' won't help"
Denver Post, July 10, 2000
* * *
Those children should be alive today, would be alive, but for the actions of a man who thought he was Jesus Christ.
J. Michael Bradford, U.S. attorney
Re: 80 Branch Davidian deaths
Newsweek, July 24, 2000
* * *
Mixing religion and politics here [in Mexico] is like making a nitroglycerine cocktail.
Humberto Lira Mora
Mexican interior ministry official
Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2000
* * *
Unfortunately for those who consider the invisibility or intimidation of nonChristians a worthy goal, the United States is not--the bleating of hardcore conservatives notwithstanding--a "Christian nation." Christianity is the majority religion, yes, but this isn't a theocracy. It is, rather, a nation of laws, many of them written specifically to protect the despised minority from the tyrannical majority.
Columnist Leonard Pitts
Miami Herald
Sept. 5, 2000
* * *
This is what I don't understand about those high school football prayers: Why do they have to be said aloud? Is God hard of hearing?
Cynthia Tucker
Editorial Page Editor
Atlanta Constitution, Sept. 2000
* * *
Once he [William Jennings Bryan] had one leg in the White House and the nation trembled under his roars. Now he is a tinpot pope in the Coca-Cola belt and a brother to the forlorn pastors who belabor half-wits in galvanized iron tabernacles behind the railroad yards.
H.L. Mencken
* * *
I really feel that being a submissive wife is a highly esteemed position for a woman to be in. --Former attorney Kelly May, 39 . . .
. . . The ultimate danger of the interpretation of Scripture [as counseling female submissiveness] is domestic violence.
Dr. Hada Stotland, Illinois Masonic Medical Center
"To love, honor and obey"
Chicago Tribune, Sept. 27, 2000
* * *
We're unsure, we don't want to say the wrong thing, and we don't want to stir interest inappropriately.
Dr. Stephen Lamb, Mormon gynecologist
Author: new sex handbook for Mormons
AP, July 30, 2000
* * *
God is not some Sugar Daddy up there just constantly pouring out blessings. There are times when God says, "Enough is enough! I'm going to give you a whuppin.' "
Dallas evangelist Stephen Hill
Dallas Observer, Aug. 24-30, 2000
* * *
After the game, ESPNews interviews Damien Anderson, whose touchdown run clinched it in overtime for Northwestern. "I just thank the Lord for giving me the opportunity to blah blah blah," Anderson drones. Look, if Jesus wants to intervene in football games instead of the latest African famine, then mysterious are His ways, and mine is not to question. From a journalistic perspective, however, testifying athletes are long past being news. Now, if Bollinger implicates the Prince of Darkness for that insane interception, then go ahead and roll tape. If Vitaly Pisetsky blames the Virgin Mary for screwing up his extra point or field goal, you've got a tease, my friend. Otherwise, keep these guys off my TV.
Dan Seiter
"Out of Bounds"
Isthmus [Madison, WI], Sept. 29, 2000
* * *
Give particular attention to their gods. It has been my policy always to support those religions that are truly popular. Once you pretend to honor the local deity, the priesthood is immediately on your side. Once you have the priests, you don't need much of a garrison to keep order.
Gore Vidal
Character in Creation (1981)
Submitted by Carole Kowaleski
Page maintained by Dan Barker and hosted by the Internet Infidels.