“I don’t even know what an atheist is. When people ask me if I’m an atheist, I have to ask them what they mean. What is it that I’m supposed to not believe in? Until you can answer that question I can’t tell you whether I’m an atheist, and the question doesn’t arise. […] I don’t see how one can be an agnostic when one doesn’t know what it is that one is supposed to believe in, or reject.”

—  Noam Chomsky

Science in the Dock (2011), 2, Chomsky.info, March 1, 2006, August 16, 2011 http://www.chomsky.info/debates/20060301.htm,
Quotes 2010s, 2011

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 4, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I don’t even know what an atheist is. When people ask me if I’m an atheist, I have to ask them what they mean. What is …" by Noam Chomsky?
Noam Chomsky photo
Noam Chomsky 334
american linguist, philosopher and activist 1928

Related quotes

Noam Chomsky photo
Taylor Caldwell photo
Donald J. Trump photo
William Jennings Bryan photo

“I'm no genius, and others can outwork me. What I do is ask the naive, honest questions, and then I’m not satisfied until I get the answers.”

Herman E. Daly (1938) American economist

Herman Daly in: " Herman Daly http://www.utne.com/politics/herman-daly-economics-cooperative-collective-good.aspx," in Utne Reader,Jan.-Feb. 1995.

Rita Levi-Montalcini photo

“I'm an atheist: I don't know what it means to believe in God.”

Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012) Italian neurologist

Source: Interview with Piergiorgio Odifreddi in Incontri con menti straordinarie (TEA, Milano, 2007), ISBN 978-88-502-1523-2.

Ryū Murakami photo
Markus Zusak photo
Morarji Desai photo
Gertrude Stein photo

“Suppose no one asked a question, what would be the answer.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

"Near East or Chicago A Description"
Useful Knowledge (1928)

Related topics