David Silverman > Quotes

“Giving in to terrorism will yield more terrorism, because it works.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“The real reason people oppose marriage equality is religious in nature. Marriage equality is therefore not only a civil rights issue, but also a separation-of-church-and-state issue.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“The sum total of all scientifically valid proof supporting the existence of all of world’s gods, combined, is zero.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“When fanatics say, “Obey our religious laws even if you’re not a believer,” the immediate response must be to break whatever religious laws they are talking about.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Hating the scientific method is hating learning.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“The worse thing that contemporary qualitative research can imply is that, in this post-modern age, anything goes. The trick is to produce intelligent, disciplined work on the very edge of the abyss.”
― David Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data

“The believers who say they are praying for me are victims of a lie and think they are doing something good; I let them know they are not. I tell them to imagine I had a newfangled gun that forcibly turned religious people into atheists. I tell them the gun didn’t really work, but I thought it did. Let’s say I decided to force them to be atheists, so I pointed the atheist gun at them and pulled the trigger. Would they think that was a nice thing to do? Would they appreciate my effort, or would they feel assaulted? When you pray for me, you are asking your god to change me. You are asking your god to forcibly enter my life and my brain and change my way of thinking (using euphemisms such as asking God to “open my heart to Jesus” is evidence of the intent of the assault).”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Good religious people are not good because of the moral teachings in their holy books—they are good despite the immoral teachings—that is, their genetics and other factors, which would make them good people, outweigh their indoctrination. By the same token, bad religious people are bad despite the good teachings in their holy books. Both are victims of the indoctrination they’ve received as a part of their religion cycle. It’s all picking and choosing from the religious cafeteria. It’s all individual. It’s all relative.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“That’s why anyone claiming morality is fixed is simply ignorant of world history, or even American history, not to mention the state of the world today.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Religionists have a perceived need, planted there as a part of the brainwashing they’ve received. They need no religion, but they think they do, because religion has convinced them of it.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Religion serves no purpose except to funnel money and power away from those who need it and leaves in its wake nothing but broken promises and damaged families.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“If the Bible and other holy books were at all reliable sources of morality, good and bad religious people wouldn’t both be able to point to their holy books as guidance and inspiration to support their positions.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Religion has no positive value.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. —SUSAN B. ANTHONY”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Christianity spurs hate, division, and murder as it has throughout history.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“We have fought long and hard to escape medieval superstition and I, for one, do not want to go back. —JAMES RANDI”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“This is what God’s omniscience does for humanity. God’s foreknowledge usurps free will by definition. You and I, and everyone on the planet, are physically incapable of surprising him. He knows what we are doing, what we have done, and, with absolute perfection, what we will do. Do we then really have a choice? God has the DVR remote and has already watched every detail of our football game of life. Do we have the ability to make a different play or change the game in any way, even slightly? From”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Religion is a giant used car, and preachers have proverbial quotas.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Religionists want religion's placement on the pedestal of respect preserved by any means. But religion deserves no respect. Rather, it has earned scorn, ridicule, and in-your-face opposition, as have its trappings.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Meanwhile, people relinquish their rights readily and eagerly in a quest for peace with religious fanatics that will never be realized.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Ignorance of fact is not evidence for fiction.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Fighting God is fighting a war for freedom of thought, which is the most important freedom we have.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Religion does not own activism.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“All humans have their own morality, which is fluid between people, and, on a societal level, across space and time. That’s why Muhammad had sex with Aisha when she was nine years old—it was moral at the time. That’s why some Christians owned slaves with the blessings of their church—it was moral at the time. That’s why anyone claiming morality is fixed is simply ignorant of world history, or even American history, not to mention the state of the world today. Sam”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“I find it disturbing that religious folk are always suggesting or even demanding we be respectful of religion. Even if we disagree, we are told we must be nice and respect religion's place as equal or superior to the secular, rational position. But giving reverence to religion gives it strength and protects it from the criticism it deserves.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“The true root of all evil is power, and both government and religion are effective tools for massing and maintaining power. When”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“If the Bible and other holy books were at all reliable sources of morality, good and bad religious people wouldn’t both be able to point to their holy books as guidance and inspiration to support their positions. If morality is completely separable from religion, we would expect to see exactly what we do - people making their own moral decisions and then ascribing that morality to their particular holy book. They use their scripture as a shield to both defend their actions and to insulate themselves from criticism.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“There are more than four former Christians for every convert to Christianity •”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“When religion demands you refrain from doing something otherwise benign, that's just a provocation to do it more.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“Atheists seek truth; theists ignore it.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World