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Joseph Lewis Quotes

Joseph Lewis was an American freethinker and atheist activist, publisher, and litigator. During the mid-twentieth century, he was one of America's most conspicuous public atheists, the other being Emanuel Haldeman-Julius. Born in Montgomery, Alabama to a Jewish family, he was forced by poverty to leave school at the age of nine to find employment. He read avidly, becoming self-educated. Lewis developed his ideas from reading, among others, Robert G. Ingersoll, whose published works made him aware of Thomas Paine. He was first impressed by the idea to become an atheist after having read a large volume of lectures of Ingersoll devoted to his idol Paine, which was brought to their house by his older brother.

He later credited Paine's The Age of Reason with helping him leave theism. Wikipedia  

✵ 11. June 1889 – 1968
Joseph Lewis photo
Joseph Lewis: 15 quotes0 likes

Famous Joseph Lewis Quotes

“[Atheism] believes that truth for truth's sake is the highest ideal and that virtue is its own reward.”

Joseph Lewis

The Philosophy of Atheism

“Of the ten crimes which Biblical Hebrew law punished by stoning, nine have ceased to be offenses in modern society.”

Joseph Lewis

The Ten Commandments ("The Eighth Commandment")

“A precept claiming infallibility should certainly possess the universality of the law of gravitation and the perfection of the arithmetical table. If it fails to possess these undeviating qualities, its imperfection is self-evident and its value either greatly diminished or useless.”

Joseph Lewis

The Ten Commandments

“Imagine using as an authority in the matter of marriage the opinion of a celibate priest!”

Joseph Lewis

The Philosophy of Atheism

“As superstition is the weed of the brain, it grows perfusely, once started.”

Joseph Lewis

The Ten Commandments

“Facts and not merely opinions are what we want. Emotionalism is not a substitute for the truth.”

Joseph Lewis

The Philosophy of Atheism

Joseph Lewis Quotes about God

“Man's inhumanity to man will continue as long as man loves God more than he loves his fellow man.”

Joseph Lewis

An Atheist Manifesto

“Changing a rod into a serpent and the serpent back into a rod may be clever magic, but how does such a demonstration prove that Moses spoke to God? If the only thing necessary to prove the truth of an extraordinary claim were to demonstrate an ability to bewilder, there would be no more mysteries to solve.
If a person claims that he can bring the dead back to life, and in proof of that power pulls a rabbit out of a hat, that is hardly a demonstration of the truth of his claim; it is merely an example of his ability in the art of deception. If he claims that he can fly without wings and without the use of mechanical help of any kind, and in proof of his ability pulls another rabbit out of another hat, that is not proof of his ability to fly, but of his ability to lie, and he will without much hesitation be condemned as a faker. The demonstration of one thing has absolutely no bearing in proving the truth of the other, when there is no relationship between them.”

Joseph Lewis

The Ten Commandments

“If Atheism writes upon the blackboard of the Universe a question mark, it writes it for the purpose of stating that there is a question yet to be answered. Is it not better to place a question mark upon a problem while seeking an answer than to put the label "God" there and consider the matter solved? Does not the word "God" only confuse and make more difficult the solution by assuming a conclusion that is utterly groundless and palpably absurd?”

Joseph Lewis

The Philosophy of Atheism

“On too many occasions, especially in matters concerning purported conversations and messages from gods, mystery has been employed by charlatans to hoodwink the people.”

Joseph Lewis

The Ten Commandments

“The Bible is not a divine revelation from God. It is not inspired; on the contrary, it is a wicked book …. It has been responsible for more suffering and torture than any other volume ever printed……”

Joseph Lewis

Quoted from Talreja, K. M. (2000). Holy Vedas and holy Bible: A comparative study. New Delhi: Rashtriya Chetana Sangathan.

Joseph Lewis Quotes

“Religion is all profit. They have no merchandise to buy, no commissions to pay, and no refunds to make for unsatisfactory service and results….
Their commodity is fear. They blackmail their parishioners with threats of hell and damnation. These poor deluded people give them their hard earned money to save them from a hell that does not exist, and from eternal torment that was invented by the perverted minds of priests to rob the living and in addition, they are exempt from taxation! Insult to injury!
Let me tell you that religion is the cruelest fraud ever perpetrated upon the human race. It is the last of the great scheme of thievery that man must legally prohibit so as to protect himself from the charlatans who prey upon the ignorance and fears of the people.
The penalty for this type of extortion should be as severe as it is of other forms of dishonesty.”

Joseph Lewis

Ingersoll the Magnificent (Memorial Dedication Address, August 11, 1954)

“Praying as a public function, particularly when led by a clergyman, is a vulgar display of an exclusively personal matter.”

Joseph Lewis

Ingersoll the Magnificent (Memorial Dedication Address, August 11, 1954)

“With this recognition of the finality of death, no one should willingly withhold acts that would bring benefits, joy or happiness to others.”

Joseph Lewis

An Atheist Manifesto

“When the tyranny of the state is combined with the hypocrisy of the church, you have a modern example of the twin vultures that have devoured man, and his rights, throughout the ages.”

Joseph Lewis

Ingersoll the Magnificent (Memorial Dedication Address, August 11, 1954)

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