- We are well aware that religion is not as bad an influence as it was a short time ago, as history is counted. But it is a sufficiently bad influence even in modern times, and its reduced viciousness (in practice) is due plainly enough to its reduced power.
- It is natural that people should differ most, and most violently, about the unknowable . . . There is all the room in the world for divergence of opinion about something that, so far as we can realistically perceive, does not exist.
- Religion glorifies the dogma of a despotic, mythical God. Atheism ennobles the interests of free and progressive Man. Religion is superstition. Atheism is sanity. Religion is medieval. Atheism is modern.
- Church tax exemption means that we all drop our money in the collection boxes, whether we go to church or not and whether we are interested in the church or not. It is systematic and complete robbery, from which none of us escapes.
- Why should the residence of a preacher be untaxed? Useful citizens must pay taxes on their homes. Yet the Preacher – actually and notoriously the least useful member of the community – lives in a tax-free dwelling.
- “Would you tax God?” asks a defender of church tax exemption. Well, if there were a God he should be able to pay his own way and support his own business. If not, then he should do like other business men and close up shop.
- Martyrs have been sincere. And so have tyrants. Wise men have been sincere. And so have fools.
- To be true to the mythical conception of a God is to be false to the interests of mankind.
- Don’t take our word for it. Read the Bible itself. Read the statements of preachers. And you will understand that God is the most desperate character, the worst villain in all fiction.
- It is pretty well settled that the city is the Negro’s great contribution to civilization, for it was in Africa where the first cities grew up.
10 inspirational e. haldeman-julius quotes on success
