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Quotes :   Bible, Gospels





"Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly and warn the people of Canada..."
(Isaac Asimov / 1920-1992 / Canadian Atheists Newsletter, 1994)

"I asked the girl if she could bring a sister for me. She did. Sister Maria Teresa. It was a very slow evening. We discussed the New Testament. We agreed that He was very well adjusted for an only child."
(Woody Allen / born in 1935 / Woody Allen: Clown Prince of American Humor)

"Scriptures, n. The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based."
(Ambrose Gwinett Bierce / 1842-1914 / The Devil's Dictionary)

"Prophet just means intellectual. They were people giving geopolitical analysis, moral lessons, that sort of thing. We call them intellectuals today. There were the people we honor as prophets, there were the people we condemn as false prophets. But if you look at the biblical record, at the time, it was the other way around. The flatterers of the Court of King Ahab were the ones who were honored. The ones we call prophets were driven into the desert and imprisoned."
(Noam Chomsky / born in 1928 / Interview by Harry Kreisler March 22, 2002)

"Take any country that has laws against hate crimes, inspiring hatred and genocide and so on. The first thing they would do is ban the Old Testament. There's nothing like it in the literary canon that exalts genocide, to that extent. And it's not a joke either. Like where I live, New England, the people who liberated it from the native scourge were religious fundamentalist lunatics, who came waving the holy book, declaring themselves to be the children of Israel who are killing the Amalekites, like God told them."
(Noam Chomsky / born in 1928 / Talk at the University of Houston, October 18, 2002)

"You can find things in the traditional religions which are very benign and decent and wonderful and so on, but I mean, the Bible is probably the most genocidal book in the literary canon. The God of the Bible - not only did He order His chosen people to carry out literal genocide - I mean, wipe out every Amalekite to the last man, woman, child, and, you know, donkey and so on, because hundreds of years ago they got in your way when you were trying to cross the desert - not only did He do things like that, but, after all, the God of the Bible was ready to destroy every living creature on earth because some humans irritated Him. That's the story of Noah. I mean, that's beyond genocide - you don't know how to describe this creature. Somebody offended Him, and He was going to destroy every living being on earth? And then He was talked into allowing two of each species to stay alive - that's supposed to be gentle and wonderful."
(Noam Chomsky / born in 1928 / Interview by Wallace Shawn, October 19, 2004)

"The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history"
(Noam Chomsky / born in 1928)

"All Bibles are man-made."
(Thomas Edison / 1847-1931)

"So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence."
(Bertrand Russell / 1872-1970)

"No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says; he is always convinced that it says what he means."
(George Bernard Shaw / 1856-1950)

"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"
(Mark Twain / 1835-1910 / Reflections on Religion / 1906)

"[The Bible is] a mass of fables and traditions, mere mythology."
(Mark Twain / 1835-1910 / Mark Twain and the Bible)

"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."
(Mark Twain / 1835-1910 / in The "Wit and Wisdom, of Mark Twain of Alex Ayres / 1987)

"[The Bible] has noble poetry in it... and some good morals and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies."
(Mark Twain / 1835-1910)

"When I think of all the harm the Bible has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it."
(Oscar Wilde / 1854-1900)



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