Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, Why Jesus Called A Man A Fool (1967)
As quoted in What on Earth is an Atheist! (1972) by Madalyn Murray O'Hair, p. 251.
Date unknown
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, Why Jesus Called A Man A Fool (1967)
Joseph Smith, Jr. book Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 121 (8 May 1838)
1830s
“All religions fall far short of their own ideals.”
Ernest Becker book The Denial of Death
Source: The Denial of Death (1973), The Present Outcome of Psychoanalysis, p. 204
Martin Buber (1878–1965) German Jewish Existentialist philosopher and theologian
Source: Eclipse of God: Studies in the Relation Between Religion and Philosophy (1952), p. 34
Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) German social scientist, author, political theorist, and philosopher
(1847)
“A sense of humor, properly developed, is superior to any religion so far devised.”
Tom Robbins book Jitterbug Perfume
Source: Jitterbug Perfume (1984)
Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist
"Faiths of Meditation; Contemplation of the divine" as translated in The Simone Weil Reader (1957) edited by George A. Panichas, p. 417
Context: Religion in so far as it is a source of consolation is a hindrance to true faith; and in this sense atheism is a purification. I have to be an atheist with that part of myself which is not made for God. Among those in whom the supernatural part of themselves has not been awakened, the atheists are right and the believers wrong.
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
Context: Religions are for a day. They are the clouds. Humanity is the eternal blue. Religions are the waves of the sea. These waves depend upon the force and direction of the wind -- that is to say, of passion; but Humanity is the great sea. And so our religions change from day to day, and it is a blessed thing that they do. Why? Because we grow, and we are getting a little more civilized every day, -- and any man that is not willing to let another man express his opinion, is not a civilized man, and you know it. Any man that does not give to everybody else the rights he claims for himself, is not an honest man.
George Sarton (1884–1956) American historian of science
Preface.
A History of Science Vol.2 Hellenistic Science and Culture in the Last Three Centuries B.C. (1959)
Thomas Rhys Davids (1843–1922) British scholar
T.W. Rhys-Davids: Buddhism, p.116-117, quoted in D. Keer: Ambedkar, p.522. Quoted from Elst, Koenraad (2002). Who is a Hindu?: Hindu revivalist views of Animism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and other offshoots of Hinduism. ISBN 978-8185990743
Context: We should never forget that Gautama was born and brought up a Hindu and lived and died a Hindu. His teaching, far-reaching and original as it was, and really subversive of the religion of the day, was Indian throughout. He was the greatest and wisest and best of the Hindus.