George H. Smith > Quotes

“It is my firm conviction that man has nothing to gain, emotionally or otherwise, by adhering to a falsehood, regardless of how comfortable or sacred that falsehood may appear. Anyone who claims, on the one hand, that he is concerned with human welfare, and who demands, on the other hand, that man must suspend or renounce the use of his reason, is contradicting himself.

There can be no knowledge of what is good for man apart from knowledge of reality and human nature, and there is no manner in which this knowledge can be acquired except through reason. To advocate irrationality is to advocate that which is destructive to human life.”
― George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God

“When conformity is required, as it is in Christianity, what are the results? To begin with, the sacrifice of truth inevitably follows. One can be committed to conformity or one can be committed to truth, but not both. The pursuit of truth requires the unrestricted use of one's mind--the moral freedom to question, to examine evidence, to consider opposing viewpoints, to criticize, to accept as true only that which can be demonstrated--regardless whether one's conclusions conform to a particular creed.”
― George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God

“[A]ny being with the supposed capacity to create the logically impossible must himself be logically impossible.”
― George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God

“Those in government are especially susceptible to the corruption of power, because government is institutionalized coercion.”
― George H. Smith, The System of Liberty: Themes in the History of Classical Liberalism

“Religion has had the disastrous effect of placing vitally important concepts, such as morality, happiness and love, in a supernatural realm inaccessible to man’s mind and knowledge.”
― George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God

“[A]ny being with the
supposed capacity to create the logically impossible must himself be logically impossible.”
― George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God

“Let us have Men, Men who will say a word to their souls and keep it—keep it not when it is easy, but keep it when it is hard—keep it when the storm roars and there is a white-streaked sky and blue thunder before, and one’s eyes are blinded and one’s ears deafened with the war of opposing things; and keep it under the long leaden sky and the gray dreariness that never lifts. Hold unto the last: that is what it means to have a Dominant Idea.”
― George H. Smith, Individualism: A Reader

“If a supernatural being is to be exempt from natural law, it cannot possess specific, determinate characteristics. These attributes would impose limits and these limits would restrict the capacities of this supernatural being. In this case, a supernatural being would be subject to the causal relationships that mark natural existence, which would disqualify it as a god. Therefore, we must somehow conceive of a being without a specific nature, a being that is indeterminate—a being, in other words, that is nothing in particular. But these characteristics (or, more precisely, lack of characteristics) are incompatible with the notion of existence itself.”
― George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God

“To advocate irrationality is to advocate that which is destructive to human life.”
― George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God

“According to Callero, “Freedom of choice and self-determination are virtuous principles, but when selfish individual interests threaten to destroy the common good, the limits of individualism are exposed.”4 Unfortunately but predictably, Callero is vague when it comes to defining “the common good”—a catchphrase with many variations that has been used by murderous dictators throughout history. May we therefore say that the “common good,” when pushed to extremes, results in the likes of Stalin and Hitler?”
― George H. Smith, Individualism: A Reader

“If a supernatural being is to be exempt from natural law, it cannot possess specific, determinate
characteristics. These attributes would impose limits and these limits would restrict the capacities
of this supernatural being. In this case, a supernatural being would be subject to the causal
relationships that mark natural existence, which would disqualify it as a god. Therefore, we must
somehow conceive of a being without a specific nature, a being that is indeterminate—a being, in
other words, that is nothing in particular. But these characteristics (or, more precisely, lack of
characteristics) are incompatible with the notion of existence itself.”
― George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God

“When chemistry has told me that nitric acid thrown in a person’s face will cause great agony; when physics has told me that throwing a person out of a window will tend to cause broken bones or death; when economics has told me that promising to keep a person in old age will make him idle and improvident, then, and not till then, can ethics step in and forbid me to commit those actions.”
― George H. Smith, Individualism: A Reader

“Friedrich Nietzsche, in his vitriolic but penetrating attack on Christianity, clearly recognized the function of sin in this context. “Sin,” he writes, “...that form par excellence of the self-violation of man, was invented to make science, culture, every kind of elevation and nobility of man impossible; the priest rules through the invention of sin.”1 In order to understand fully the nature”
― George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God

“Jesus sweetens the prize by the promise that the man of faith will be endowed with miraculous powers. “All things are possible to him who believes.” ...he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because go to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it...if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. (John 14. 12-14) ...if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move hence to yonder place,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. (Matthew 17. 20) Unlike many of his other teachings, these statements by Jesus are quite clear. Anything asked in the name of Jesus will be granted, including the miraculous transportation of a mountain. It would take very few examples of mountain moving to convert the atheists of the world, but the modern Christian is reluctant to defend these grandiose claims of faith, much less attempt an actual demonstration.”
― George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God

“The Christian theologian will never find a contradiction between the propositions of faith and reason, because it is his job to interpret them out of existence.”
― George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God

“the Fallacy of the Stolen Concept. This fallacy, writes Nathaniel Branden, “consists of the act of using a concept while ignoring, contradicting or denying the validity of the concepts on which it logically and genetically depends.”
― George H. Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God