Peter Boghossian > Quotes

“Faith taints or at worst removes our curiosity about the world, what we should value, and what type of life we should lead. Faith replaces wonder with epistemological arrogance disguised as false humility. Faith immutably alters the starting conditions for inquiry by uprooting a hunger to know and sowing a warrantless confidence.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“If one had sufficient evidence to warrant belief in a particular claim, then one wouldn't believe the claim on the basis of faith. 'Faith' is the word one uses when one does not have enough evidence to justify holding a belief, but when one just goes ahead and believes anyway.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“When we teach people that suspending moral judgments is a virtue, the necessary outcome is moral horror.”
― Peter Boghossian

“Certainty is an enemy of truth: examination and reexamination are allies of truth.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“Belief in God(s) is not the problem. Belief without evidence is the problem.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“Faith is an unclassified cognitive illness disguised as a moral virtue.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“An educated theologian: someone who's better at rationalizing what they're pretending to know.”
― Peter Boghossian

“The only way to avoid eternal punishment for sins we never committed from this all-loving God is to accept his son—who is actually himself—as our savior. So … God sacrificed himself to himself to save us from himself. Barking mad!”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“Atheism is a conclusion one comes to after a sincere, honest evaluation of the evidence.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“If a belief is based on insufficient evidence, then any further conclusions drawn from the belief will at best be of questionable value.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“Not claiming to know something you don’t know isn’t a character flaw, it is a virtue.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“You cannot know the future, so take action. Don't wait for things to happen. Don't pray. Don't have faith. Don't rely upon imagined entities. Act.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“Socrates said that a man doesn’t want what he doesn’t think he lacks. That is, if you believe you have the truth then why would you seek another truth?”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“Beliefs matter because people act upon their beliefs—whether those beliefs are true or not (and it’s far easier to be wrong than right).”
― Peter Boghossian, How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide

“If there is a god maybe it rewards those who don't believe on the basis of insufficient evidence--and punishes those who do.”
― Peter Boghossian

“Never argue on Twitter.”
― Peter Boghossian, How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide

“Your religious beliefs typically depend on the community in which you were raised or live. The spiritual experiences of people in ancient Greece, medieval Japan or 21st-century Saudi Arabia do not lead to belief in Christianity. It seems, therefore, that religious belief very likely tracks not truth but social conditioning.” —Gary Gutting, “The Stone,” New York Times, September 14, 2011”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“We live in a society where people are uncomfortable with not knowing. Children aren’t taught to say ‘I don’t know,’ and honesty in this form is rarely modeled for them. They too often see adults avoiding questions and fabricating answers, out of either embarrassment or fear, and this comes at a price. To solve the world’s most challenging problems, we need innovative minds that are inspired in the presence of uncertainty. Let’s support parents and educators who are raising the next generation of creative thinkers.” —Annaka Harris (Secular News Daily, 2012)”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“Few things are more dangerous than people who think they’re in possession of absolute truth. Honest inquirers with sincere questions and an open mind rarely contribute to the misery of the world.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“First, when people post something on social media, unless explicitly stated, they probably do not want their belief to be corrected. Usually their purpose is to have their view confirmed.”
― Peter Boghossian, How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide

“Faith has fallen. What goes in its place? Wonder.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“Your new role is that of interventionist. Liberator. Your target is faith. Your pro bono clients are individuals who’ve been infected by faith.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“I was extremely surprised by this comment. He was about to try to convert others and yet he had not even thought of the most basic objection to his worldview?”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“We fear clear, honest, blunt dialogue, but what we ought to fear are stupid and dangerous ideas, because while blunt and honest dialogue might be offensive to some, stupid and dangerous ideas can be fatal to all of us.” —Matt Thornton, community activist”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“tolerance does not, cannot, and should not mean having to submit to rules of belief systems to which one does not ascribe.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“If civility is your primary goal, or if productive conversation is impossible, make learning your go-to. If you just want to get through a family reunion, learning is your emergency exit that allows you to make almost any conversation civil.62 Adopt a frame of mind in which you are engaging in a study of someone with radically different beliefs than yours and try to learn all you can about how they form their beliefs.”
― Peter Boghossian, How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide

“If you are a person of the same sort as myself, I should be glad to continue questioning you: If not, I can let it drop. Of what sort am I? One of those who would be glad to be refuted if I say anything untrue, and glad to refute anyone else who might speak untruly; but just as glad, mind you, to be refuted as to refute, since I regard the former as the greater benefit.” —Socrates in Gorgias”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“Liberalism is a creation of the seventeenth century, fathered by British philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). For Locke, liberalism means limited government, the rule of law, due process, liberty, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, separation of church and state, and separation of government powers into branches that oversee each other’s authority.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“You do not reason a man out of something he was not reasoned into.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists

“Use anxiety to follow your thoughts as a guide to see where it leads you.”
― Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists