“Speaking as a devout atheist, thank God in his Almighty wisdom that he made us mortal.”
Norman G. Finkelstein (1953) American political scientist and author
http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/movies/11radical.html
Other sourced statements
"The Fly"
Good Intentions (1942)
Variant: God in his wisdom made me fly, and then forgot to tell me why.
“Speaking as a devout atheist, thank God in his Almighty wisdom that he made us mortal.”
Norman G. Finkelstein (1953) American political scientist and author
http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/movies/11radical.html
Other sourced statements
“I believe I forgot to tell you I was made a Duke.”
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) British soldier and statesman
Postscript to a letter to his brother Henry Wellesley (22 May 1814), published in Supplementary Despatches and Memoranda of Field Marshal Arthur, Duke of Wellington, K. G.: South of France, embassy to Paris, and Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815. Editors: Arthur Richard Wellesley Duke of Wellington, Arthur Richard Wellesley Wellington (2d Duke of). Editor: J. Murray, 1862. Origin of the original: Universidad de Michigan. Digitized: 28 November 2006. p. 100. Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington
“Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into.”
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) American clergyman and activist
Life Thoughts (1858)
Philostratus book Life of Apollonius of Tyana
Book 4, § 44.
Life of Apollonius of Tyana
Maimónides book The Guide for the Perplexed
Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.25
Context: It is not unreasonable to assume that the works of God, their existence and preceding non-existence, are the result of His wisdom, but we are unable to understand many of the ways of His Wisdom in His works. On this principle the whole Law of Moses is based; it begins with this principle: "And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen. i. 31); and it ends with this principle: "The Rock, perfect is His work" (Deut. xxxii. 4). Note it.
Kent Hovind (1953) American young Earth creationist
Creation seminars (2003-2005), The Garden of Eden
Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon
Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 20
“And why does this same God tell me how to raise my children when he had to drown his?”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer
Source: Some Mistakes of Moses (1879) http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/ingermm2.htm#XVIII] Section XVIII, "Dampness".