"Famous Quotes by Atheists & Scoffers"

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Originally posted by SwissGambit (Page 1)
[b]Needs Mark Twain quotes. And Bill Maher. And Christopher Hitchens. Etc. Etc.

I'd get them but then we might lose your unique insight on each one. So, *chop chop*.

The three atheists you recommended are now represented. Next famous individuals whose quotes the conversation needs?[/b]

For my money, I would add in some Charles Bukowski, George Carlin, Sam Harris (his Letter to a Christian Nation would be a rich source for scoff), Woody Allen. There are many more too....

Perhaps I will look some up to add in when I get chance.

Originally posted by whodey
About half of it was modified from Steve Turner who wrote the "Atheist Creed". Parts that start with "We believe" or "I believe" come from it.

The rest I made up.

The rest I made up.

You must have been confused by the thread topic. They are supposed to be "famous quotes by atheists & scoffers" (or, if not famous, just witty will probably suffice), not "stupid atheist quotes" made up by theists. It's also funny to me that you made up some atheist quotes and yet prefaced them with "stupid atheist quotes". You should take pride in your own work...let other persons call them stupid if they deserve the label....

Originally posted by SwissGambit

David Hume.

David Hume (1711-1776)
"Scotish philosopher and historian who argued that human knowledge arises only from sense experience."

1) "The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one. Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity: and whoever is moved by faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience." -David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), quoted from Encarta Book of Quotations (1999)

2) "Nothing is so convenient as a decisive argument ... which must at least silence the most arrogant bigotry and superstition, and free us from their impertinent solicitations. I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument ... which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures. For so long, I presume, will the accounts of miracles and prodigies be found in all history, sacred and profane." -David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

3) "A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature, and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined.... Nothing is esteemed a miracle, if it ever happens in the common course of nature.... There must, therefore, be an uniform experience against every miraculous event, otherwise the event would not merit that appellation. And as an uniform experience amounts to a proof, there is here a direct and full proof, from the nature of the fact, against the existence of any miracle." -David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

4) "When any one tells me, that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself, whether it be more probable, that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact, which he relates, should really have happened. I weigh the one miracle against the other; and according to the superiority, which I discover, I pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater miracle." -David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

5) "Examine the religious principles which have, in fact, prevailed in the world, and you will scarcely be persuaded that they are anything but sick men's dreams." -David Hume, quoted by James A Haught in "Honest Minds, Past and Present" Talks for History of Freethought Conference, September 20-21, 1997, Cincinnati, Ohio sponsored by Council for Secular Humanism and Free Inquiry Group

6) "I say then, that belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object, than what the imagination alone is ever able to attain. This variety of terms, which may seem so unphilosophical, is intended only to express that act of the mind, which renders realities, or what is taken for such, more present to us than fictions, causes them to weigh more in the thought, and gives them a superior influence on the passions and imagination."
-David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, section v, part ii (1748)

http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-h3.htm

"Re: Famous Atheists Last Words Before Dying"

"David Hume, atheist philosopher famous for his philosophy of empiricism and skepticism of religion,
he cried loud on his death bed "I am in flames!" It is said his "desperation was a horrible scene".

http://www.nairaland.com/746723/famous-atheists-last-words-before

Originally posted by LemonJello
For my money, I would add in some Charles Bukowski, George Carlin, Sam Harris (his Letter to a Christian Nation would be a rich source for scoff), Woody Allen. There are many more too....

Perhaps I will look some up to add in when I get chance.

Nice to see back on the scene, LemonJello. Thanks for suggestions; I'll deliver their unvarnished, verbatim quotations.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
[b]"Re: Famous Atheists Last Words Before Dying"

"David Hume, atheist philosopher famous for his philosophy of empiricism and skepticism of religion,
he cried loud on his death bed "I am in flames!" It is said his "desperation was a horrible scene".

http://www.nairaland.com/746723/famous-atheists-last-words-before[/b]

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Originally posted by SwissGambit
Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Hey, SG, we've been believing the previous text. If you think this one's suspect, I'll search again. Did you like the quotes?

Originally posted by SwissGambit
Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Indeed. Particularly given that even a trivial bit of research shows that a good portion of these 'deathbed conversions' are made up by theists.

Including Hume's

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Hey, SG, we've been believing the previous text. If you think this one's suspect, I'll search again. Did you like the quotes?

"Famous Last Words"

* Cesare Borgia, statesman: "I have taken care of everything in the course of my life, only not for death, and now I have to die completely unprepared."

* Cardinal Mazarin: "Oh my poor soul, what is to become of you? --Where do you go?"

* Thomas Hobbes, English Philosopher: "It's my turn, to take a leap into the darkness!"

David Hume, the Atheist: He cried: "I am in flames!" His desperation was a horrible scene."

* Voltaire, the famous skeptic: Voltaire died a terrible death. His nurse said: "For all the money in Europe I wouldn’t want to see another unbeliever die! All night long he cried for forgiveness."

http://users.belgacom.net/gc674645/grave/lastword.htm

Note: SwissGambit, here's David Hume's final words in context from a different site. You'll note the concurrence of words.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
[b]"Famous Last Words"

* Cesare Borgia, statesman: "I have taken care of everything in the course of my life, only not for death, and now I have to die completely unprepared."

* Cardinal Mazarin: "Oh my poor soul, what is to become of you? --Where do you go?"

* Thomas Hobbes, English Philosopher: "It's my turn, to take a leap into the darkn ...[text shortened]... David Hume's final words in context from a different site. You'll note the concurrence of words.[/b]

Bobby, note the bias of the page's author.

Friedrich Nietzsche, pernicious philosopher who preached "God is dead"
Nietzsche died in spiritual darkness, a babbling madman. On a wall in Austria a graffiti said, "God is dead, --Nietzsche!"
Someone else wrote under it, "Nietzsche is dead! --God."
(See picture for proof!)

Pernicious? And the lame comeback on behalf of 'God'? Please. Give me a source I can actually take seriously.

Originally posted by SwissGambit
Bobby, note the bias of the page's author.

Friedrich Nietzsche, pernicious philosopher who preached "God is dead"
Nietzsche died in spiritual darkness, a babbling madman. On a wall in Austria a graffiti said, "God is dead, --Nietzsche!"
Someone else wrote under it, "Nietzsche is dead! --God."
(See picture for proof!)

Pernicious? And the lame comeback on behalf of 'God'? Please. Give me a source I can actually take seriously.

Appreciate your straightforward candor more than you know;
it's the coin of the realm in robust and worthwhile online forums.
I'll dig with greater selectivity again.

Ward's Book of Days."Pages of interesting anniversaries. What happened on this day in history. APRIL 26th On this day in history in 1711, was born David Hume. Hume was a prominent individual in the Scottish Enlightenment. It would be fair to say that he was the principal figure, one who led the movement and inspired the others. The Enlightenment was a revival of philosophical thought in which principles of learning, which had previously been taken for granted, were questioned and often discarded, to be replaced by scientific methods and innovative attitudes.

But why did The Enlightenment take place in Edinburgh of all places? Scotland, before The Act of Union, had been underdeveloped economically. It had no overseas trade, had a feudal agricultural system and was grinding towards bankruptcy. It was governed by a king absent in England and an unrepresentative Parliament dominated by a clique of noblemen. The only real government was the Kirk with its uncanny Calvanistic belief system and outdated theology. Scotland had four major universities, while England had two, but these institutions were deprived of sponsorship and investment.

All this changed with the Union. Scotland gradually became more prosperous and Edinburgh changed from being the centre of government to the centre of learning. Radical thinkers were able to develop new ideas, particularly in the field of economic growth. Francis Hutcheson wrote of moral philosophy and developed the utilitarian method of evaluation of morality. Adam Ferguson wrote The History of Civil Society and developed the notion of common sense as a philosophical principal. Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations and created the science of economics.

Hume wrote, amongst other things, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Essays Moral and Political and The History of England. This latter work was the first history in the narrative form. The style and concept were copied by Edward Gibbon in his Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire and later by McCauley who is credited as being the first modern historian.

Hume wrote his own epitaph [‘Born 1711, Died….] Leaving it to posterity to add the rest.’ He asked to this to be inscribed on ‘a simple Roman tomb’. This epitaph was indeed written on a Roman tomb, inside a crypt, which was far from simple. Hume’s mausoleum may be found at the Old Calton Burial Ground, Waterloo Place, Edinburgh EH1 3BH."

http://www.wardsbookofdays.com/26april.htm

Note: SG, here's David Hume's Epitaph which I came across while searching for a definitive text of Hume's final Words.
It's brevity is somewhat reminiscent of T.S. Eliot's terse summation of human life: "Birth; Copulation; Death".

Originally posted by SwissGambit

Bobby, note the bias of the page's author.

Friedrich Nietzsche, pernicious philosopher who preached "God is dead"
Nietzsche died in spiritual darkness, a babbling madman. On a wall in Austria a graffiti said, "God is dead, --Nietzsche!"
Someone else wrote under it, "Nietzsche is dead! --God."
(See picture for proof!)

Pernicious? And the lame comeback on behalf of 'God'? Please. Give me a source I can actually take seriously.

"The life of David Hume" (1 of 3) Download audio; [show transcript] Saturday 23 April 2011 1:35PM

"A conversation with Roderick Graham, Hume's most recent biographer, about how a boy brought up in rural Scotland became a major figure in European thought. Transcript":

"Alan Saunders: The man whom I think was the greatest philosopher ever to write in the English language was born on 7 May 1711. He was part of the Scottish Enlightenment, an extraordinary outburst of intellectual energy in a small, remote and provincial part of northern Europe. More to the point, he set for subsequent philosophers an agenda that they're still working through. His issues are our issues. His name was David Hume and we're celebrating the 300th birthday of this incomparably great man by devoting four editions of The Philosopher's Zone to his life and work.
Hello, I'm Alan Saunders.

Alan Saunders: We're beginning with David Hume the man and his life and times. And I'm delighted to be joined by his most recent biographer, Roderick Graham, author of The Great Infidel: A Life of David Hume. He, like Hume, is a Scot and he joins us now from Edinburgh. Roderick, welcome to The Philosopher's Zone.

Roderick Graham: Thank you very much, I'm glad to be here.

Alan Saunders: Let's begin at the beginning. What was Hume's background, and how was he brought up and educated? Did he read the great philosophers of the day, even just do it from scratch?

Roderick Graham: He certainly read the great philosophers of the past. Most importantly I think, he read a man called Pierre Bayle who wrote a book called The Critical History, and Critical History really founded the whole school of scepticism. But Hume read it, and it undoubtedly laid the foundations for his scepticism, for his rejecting all the accepted dogmas and all the accepted teachings, and starting again from scratch. And that is a mighty thing to undertake even if you are a PhD student at a university. If you're alone in a farmhouse, with a brother and sister and mother, father is dead, the only person who's not earning and you're indulging yourself in studying and creating a philosophy all of your own, Hume suffered guilt all his life from the fact that he was supported by his family while he earned absolutely nothing at all.

Alan Saunders: One of the points that you make in your book is that this challenging of the established philosophy and the established religion of the time, did come at something of an emotional cost to him, didn't it? He suffered.

Roderick Graham: Oh yes, not only emotional but a physical cost. I mean he had a full-blown nervous breakdown, we would say today. A local doctor smiled and said, 'You have acquired the disease of the learned', something unknown to us really. He suffered from scurvy, he got spots and blisters on his hands, he over-salivated, he had violent headaches. He was recommended drinking a pint of claret a day and taking exercise, which he did by riding. He was losing weight and once he started on the claret wine, and once he started riding, he start to put on weight again, but he did drive himself into a physical and mental corner, and fought his way out of it again, and realised then that he had to do something really crucial with everything that he'd gained. He was already making notes for the treatise, which he finally wrote.

Alan Saunders: And the style in which he writes is very striking, isn't it? I certainly find it very attractive. You say that it's the style of one who is talking, rather than expounding.

Roderick Graham: Yes, I think that's true. It's a very attractive style, it makes it very easy to read except that I keep wanting to interrupt him and say 'Can we go back a bit there David?' But it is a very easy book to read because of this rather chatty style.

Alan Saunders: I'm really interested that you say that you want to say 'Can we go back a bit, David?' because you want to think of him as 'David', don't you? I mean it's very personal and you do feel drawn to him as a person, even as you read his most abstract philosophical works.

Roderick Graham: Yes. One of the great things that I would love to have done would be to spend an evening with David Hume, probably more than anybody else. I doubt, in fact if my liver could stand it. This was the 18th century, they were monumental drinkers, and Hume was no laggard in putting the glass down empty.

Alan Saunders: Now Hume said that the treatise, which as I said was he wrote at the age of 26, and was published in 1739, he said that it fell 'dead-born from the press.' Was its reception really that bad?

Roderick Graham: No. Nothing like that. He had nearly killed himself, he'd produced what he regarded as an absolutely groundbreaking work of philosophy, and he imagined that the morning after it was published, he would be on every chat-show, on every television station in the world; he would be instantly world-famous. Of course he wasn't. This depressed him greatly. In fact there's a letter from a friend of his writing after the event saying at the time the treatise was published in Edinburgh it was the talking point of every dinner party in town. It was a slow burner; it became famous in Europe, then it became famous in Britain, but it wasn't the instant best-seller that Hume hoped it would be."

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/the-life-of-david-hume/3005356#transcript

"The life of David Hume" (2 of 3)

"Alan Saunders: On ABC Radio National you're listening to The Philosopher's Zone and I'm talking to Roderick Graham, author of The Great Infidel: A Life of David Hume. And David Hume is the person that over the next few programs we're going to be celebrating—he's 300 years old this year. Roderick, a couple of times in his life, he did try to get academic positions. He tried to get university chairs, and it didn't go well, did it?

Roderick Graham: No. The first major one was the chair of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. Unfortunately, one of the duties of the professor was to give a weekly lecture, proving the existence of God. How Hume ever thought he would get round that, I have no idea. But he was far too dangerous in his thinking, he was appointed as librarian to the Faculty of Advocates. This was a marvellous opportunity because it gave him—and these were days when there weren't public libraries—it gave him access to one of the great libraries of Britain for absolutely nothing.

He adorned this position, becoming one of the great librarians. Unfortunately, ordering three books from France, which the Committee took one look at and thought, 'They're French, they must be filthy', and immediately insisted that he remove them. He became very cross about this. He didn't actually resign, what he did, and this was very typical of the man, he gave his position over to a blind poet who was penniless, and had no money at all, he was a down-and-out poet.

Alan Saunders: I think giving your job to a blind poet is really rather sweet.

Roderick Graham: I think it's wonderful…..

Alan Saunders: I think that the story of David Hume's death is in a way heroic. Tell us about his passing.

Roderick Graham: He died in Edinburgh. He was now very wealthy. He had been huge, he'd been enormously fat. As I say, he was very fond of the table. But he was, by the end, suffering, and losing weight, and now we can look back on what was wrong with him and say almost certainly he had cancer of the liver. He tried various cures, he went to Bath, he went to see physicians in London, and he went to see physicians in Edinburgh, and there was absolutely no cure whatsoever. He also had a ruptured upper intestinal tract, as far as we know; it's very difficult diagnosing something which was in conversational terms and 300 years old. But he died among his friends, and among his books, which were very important to him.
He himself said, 'I am dying as swiftly as my enemies would pray for and as comfortably as my friends would expect.' In other words, I think he was up to his eyes on laudanum. He died in his house in Edinburgh; again it's within a few hundred yards of where I'm speaking. My story that when his coffin was leaving the house to go to the burial ground, somebody in the crowd shouted out, 'Ye ken he was an atheist!' which he wasn't. And somebody in the crowd shouted out, 'Yes, but ye ken he was honest!' And that's an epitaph.

Alan Saunders: Indeed, and the reason I described his death as heroic is he wouldn't take any comfort, he wouldn't delude himself, would he, about another world to which he was going. In fact, he was so stoical that Samuel Johnson refused to believe the story of his death, and James Boswell, Johnson's biographer, was so far from being able to stand it, that he would visit Hume on his deathbed and would then go out and have sex with prostitutes, just to sort of affirm the life force.

Roderick Graham: Well, Boswell was very good at affirming the life-force. It affirmed itself battering many times. It was Boswell who gave him the name of The Great Infidel, because he said he went to visit Hume and he found this charming, cultivated, entertaining man sitting, having a glass of wine and reading his books, and he said it was difficult to realise he was in the company of The Great Infidel.

Hume knew that he had books as yet unpublished, in fact a dialogue on natural religion, which was going to be even more—controversial is hardly the word—it was going to be a very shocking book, because he was going to look at the question of is there a God. He'd been accused of being an atheist all his life, he always said he wasn't an atheist, but he never said he believed in God. And he knew that there were these posthumous books that would probably be published and cause a great row. A lady friend of his—and Hume had a lot of lady friends, although he never married—said 'Oh David, you'd better burn all your wee books', but he refused to do that, and he allowed them to be published after his death where they did indeed cause the row that he thought they would."

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/the-life-of-david-hume/3005356#transcript

"The life of David Hume" (3 of 3)

"Alan Saunders: And you think he wasn't an atheist?

Roderick Graham: He didn't think there was any proof that God did not exist, and if there is no proof, you cannot accept this as a fact. He was amazed when he met all those aristocratic revolutionaries in Paris, and they said, 'We're all atheists'. There were 12 of them at the table I think, and Hume said, 'It's the first time I've met so many people who had such a firm belief.' He found that being an atheist was almost as bigoted as saying 'I'm a devout Christian.'

Alan Saunders: Just finally, I've been to Edinburgh, I've seen the statue there, a fairly recent statue of David Hume, in a rather fetching, off-the-shoulder toga. How important do you think it is to our understanding of Hume that he was Scottish?

Roderick Graham: I don't think it's that important at all. It wasn't that important to Hume. Really, he would have liked to have spent his life in a provincial university town in France, provided it had an excellent library and probably a very good tailor. He found Edinburgh close, narrow, he found London barbaric, he found Paris too fashionable, he would want his own town. The fact that he was Scottish, that he lived in Scotland at the time which he did, I think provided the ground for doubt, provided the ground for scepticism, and provided the ground for the growth of his thought and philosophy.

Alan Saunders: Well, it's a life and a body of work hugely worth celebrating, and part of that celebration is the book The Great Infidel: A Life of David Hume by Roderick Graham. Details of that on our website. I've been talking to Roderick Graham. Roderick, thank you very much indeed for being with us.

Roderick Graham: Not at all, it was a great pleasure indeed. Thank you. And that website is also the place to go if you want to share with us your thoughts about Hume and his philosophy. It's also where you can find out what's coming up in our Hume season. We'll be looking at what he had to say about morality and where he stood on God, immortality and miracles.

Next week, Hume on causation. You think you can tell when one thing causes another? Hume wasn't so sure. The Philosopher's Zone is produced by Kerry Stewart and the sound engineer is Davy Hume's fellow Scot, Charlie McCune. I'm Alan Saunders and I'll be back next week with more of the intellectual treasure that is the thought of David Hume."

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/the-life-of-david-hume/3005356#transcript