“If they wanna be nonbelievers, I don't care, that's up to them, but it's just as much of a stretch to be an atheist as it is to believe in God, because there's no explanation for how the planet got here, and Hawkings doesn't have it.”

— Bill O'Reilly

O'Reilly on Hawking
2010-10-13
YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt5Xn9X6xtU
2011-02-22
responding to question to BillOReilly.com by Eric of Los Angeles, "What are your thoughts on Stephen Hawking's assertion that science can explain everything without the need for a deity?"

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Bill O'Reilly 54

American political commentator, television host and writer 1949

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time (1962)

“There are people who just don't believe in the existence of a god. I don't know why because clearly, there is strong evidence that there's a god. But I believe that you serve all the people, not just those who profess to have faith but those with little or no faith. That's how you convert them.”

Donna Brazile (1959) American author, educator, and political activist and strategist

The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, CNN, October 30, 2008 http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0810/30/sitroom.02.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4zRnr2FOCc

“Atheists don't hate fairies, leprechauns, or unicorns because they don't exist. It is impossible to hate something that doesn't exist. Atheists — like the painting experts hated the painter — hate God because He does exist.”

Ray Comfort (1949) New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist

You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think (2009)
Source: You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think: Answers to Questions from Angry Skeptics

“I'm an atheist, and so I have a philosophical problem with demonology and supporting the mythology of Satan, which involves God and heaven and hell and all that stuff. I'm not just a nonbeliever, I'm an antibeliever - I think it's a destructive philosophy.”

David Cronenberg (1943) Canadian film director, screenwriter and actor

David Cronenberg's Body Language http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/magazine/18cronenberg.html?pagewanted=all (September 18, 2005)

“I've often thought there ought to be a manual to hand to little kids, telling them what kind of planet they're on, why they don't fall off it, how much time they've probably got here, how to avoid poison ivy, and so on.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

Playboy interview (1973)
Context: I've often thought there ought to be a manual to hand to little kids, telling them what kind of planet they're on, why they don't fall off it, how much time they've probably got here, how to avoid poison ivy, and so on. I tried to write one once. It was called Welcome to Earth. But I got stuck on explaining why we don't fall off the planet. Gravity is just a word. It doesn't explain anything. If I could get past gravity, I'd tell them how we reproduce, how long we've been here, apparently, and a little bit about evolution. I didn't learn until I was in college about all the other cultures, and I should have learned that in the first grade. A first grader should understand that his or her culture isn't a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society. Cultural relativity is defensible and attractive. It's also a source of hope. It means we don't have to continue this way if we don't like it.

“I don't really know why I care so much. I just have something inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to do something about it. I think that is what I would call the God in me.
All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet. It must be this voice that is telling me to do something, and I am sure it's the same voice that is speaking to everybody on this planet — at least everybody who seems to be concerned about the fate of the world, the fate of this planet.”

Wangari Maathai (1940–2011) Kenyan environmental and political activist

As quoted in the article Wangari Maathai:"You Strike The Woman ..." http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Sears.htm by Priscilla Sears; published in the quarterly In Context #28 (Spring 1991)