"The Bible is not my Book and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian dogma. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Famous people who denounce Christianity
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Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man. ~ Thomas Jefferson
Those are pretty powerfull words from a great man who was very wise.
I tried to say the same thing about the Quran and Islam and I couldn't get myself to say them....honest to god....So here it goes.
The Quran(criteria) is my book and Islam (submission to god) is my religion.
I tried to say the same thing about the Quran and Islam and I couldn't get myself to say them....honest to god....So here it goes.
The Quran(criteria) is my book and Islam (submission to god) is my religion.
A few years ago, Marlon Brando refused to take a religious oath, stating that he is an atheist.
Bill Gates was interviewed November 1995 on PBS by David Frost.
Frost: Do you believe in the Sermon on the Mount?
Gates: I don't. I'm not somebody who goes to church on a regular basis. The specific elements of Christianity are not something I'm a huge believer in. There's a lot of merit in the moral aspects of religion. I think it can have a very very positive impact.
Frost: Do you believe in the Sermon on the Mount?
Gates: I don't. I'm not somebody who goes to church on a regular basis. The specific elements of Christianity are not something I'm a huge believer in. There's a lot of merit in the moral aspects of religion. I think it can have a very very positive impact.
Katharine Hepburn, Actress
In an interview in the October 1991 Ladies' Home Journal that was advertised as her "most candid" ever, Hepburn said, "I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for each other." p.215
In an interview in the October 1991 Ladies' Home Journal that was advertised as her "most candid" ever, Hepburn said, "I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for each other." p.215
John Malkovich, explains his thoughts on Sigmund Freud:
"I think he was fantastic, a fantastic man. I mean, flawed, sure, but I don't even know what that means. I think his basic premise is people are strong enough to bear and to comprehend, and if they could remember and name the source of various griefs and sorrows, that they would, by that act, be able to live with them, and I think that's quite a fantastic notion.
I also particularly like him because he was an atheist, and I grew tired of religion some time not long after birth. I believe in people, I believe in humans, I believe in a car, but I don't believe something I can't have absolutely no evidence of for millenniums. And it's funny -- people think analysis or psychiatry is mad, and THEY go to CHURCH..."
"I think he was fantastic, a fantastic man. I mean, flawed, sure, but I don't even know what that means. I think his basic premise is people are strong enough to bear and to comprehend, and if they could remember and name the source of various griefs and sorrows, that they would, by that act, be able to live with them, and I think that's quite a fantastic notion.
I also particularly like him because he was an atheist, and I grew tired of religion some time not long after birth. I believe in people, I believe in humans, I believe in a car, but I don't believe something I can't have absolutely no evidence of for millenniums. And it's funny -- people think analysis or psychiatry is mad, and THEY go to CHURCH..."
Barry Manilow, Recording Artist music
In the November 18, 1998 issue The Independent (a UK daily newspaper), Manilow is questioned by readers. Two of interest are below:
Q: Do you believe in God?
A: Yes. His name is Clive Davis, and he's the head of my record company.
Q: How important is your Judaism to you?
A: It isn't. My humanism is.
Editor's note: Manilow has provisionally been moved to the list of atheists as his words seem to indicate he lacks a belief in god(s) other than his agent.
In the November 18, 1998 issue The Independent (a UK daily newspaper), Manilow is questioned by readers. Two of interest are below:
Q: Do you believe in God?
A: Yes. His name is Clive Davis, and he's the head of my record company.
Q: How important is your Judaism to you?
A: It isn't. My humanism is.
Editor's note: Manilow has provisionally been moved to the list of atheists as his words seem to indicate he lacks a belief in god(s) other than his agent.
"There have been many arguments about the location of the immortal human soul. Could it be in the heart, in the head, or perhaps diffused throughout the whole body -- an all-pervading spiritual quality unique to the human being? The answer, it seems to me as a zoologist, is obvious enough: a man's soul is located in his testicles; a woman's in her ovaries. For it is here that we find the truly immortal elements in our constitution-our genes." -- The Human Animal (1994)
Two quotes from his 1967 book The Naked Ape:
"[Religion] has lead to a number of bizzare by-products, such as a belief in 'another life' where we will at last meet up with the god figures."
"In a sense, we still believe in an after-life, because part of the reward obtained from our creative works is the feeling that, through them, we will 'live on' after we are dead."
~ Desmond Morris
Two quotes from his 1967 book The Naked Ape:
"[Religion] has lead to a number of bizzare by-products, such as a belief in 'another life' where we will at last meet up with the god figures."
"In a sense, we still believe in an after-life, because part of the reward obtained from our creative works is the feeling that, through them, we will 'live on' after we are dead."
~ Desmond Morris
Nichols list of credits is remarkable, including Silkwood, Catch-22, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate for which he won an Oscar for Best Director.
On the March 21, 2001 broadcast of Fresh Air, Terry Gross interviewed Nichols about his then-new film Wit based on the Pulitzer-prize winning play of the same name. He identified himself as a 'negative atheist' and said (paraphrased by the contributor) "I never consider what comes after this life, I have no interest in heaven, hell, god, etc..."
A link to the segment which featured Nichols: http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/fa/20010321.fa.01.ram
On the March 21, 2001 broadcast of Fresh Air, Terry Gross interviewed Nichols about his then-new film Wit based on the Pulitzer-prize winning play of the same name. He identified himself as a 'negative atheist' and said (paraphrased by the contributor) "I never consider what comes after this life, I have no interest in heaven, hell, god, etc..."
A link to the segment which featured Nichols: http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/fa/20010321.fa.01.ram
Reeve is probably best known for his role as Superman and an accident which left him paralyzed from the neck down.
Reeve was in Minneapolis October 27, 1996 speaking at the Courage Center, a support organization for the disabled. According to David Peterson's story in the October 29 Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the following exchange took place:
Q: Do you believe in the Lord?
A: Even though I don't personally believe in the Lord, I try to behave as though He was watching.
Peterson writes the audience responded with "Huge applause for a moment that was typical for its simplicity and candor."
A 1997 Cinemania gossip column titled 'Christopher Reeve: Inspirational Atheist' quotes his brother...
"Also at the In the Gloaming premiere was the film's director, Christopher Reeve, who managed to show up despite having undergone surgery only hours before to repair a broken arm. So where does the former Superman star get his undaunted courage? Well, according to his brother Ben, a nonpracticing Massachusetts lawyer who also attended the screening, not from God. 'We're devout atheists, so that wasn't it,' explained the ever-nonpracticing Ben." (column by Roger Friedman during the week of April 24, 1997)
From a May 1998 appearance on Larry King Live on CNN (transcript)
KING: A lot of questions are coming in about faith, and the last time you were with us, I asked this, if you prayed and you said you thought that would be hypocritical; you didn't pray before this, why pray now? Has -- have you gotten any feelings of faith or God through all of this? Lot of people asking that.
REEVE: Well, believe it or not, I think that, y'know, God is not an entity that you find when you go to church and pray to God almighty, you know, and I always remembered that going to church as a kid, you know, and they talk about the vengeance of His terrible swift sword and His army, I said, "well that's kind of a scary guy." But I think that -- while I don't believe in God, per se, I believe in spirituality. And I believe that spirituality actually is automatically within ourselves, but we have to learn how to access it, and what that is, is realizing there is a higher power; there is...
KING: So it's not atheism?
REEVE: ... more than just us, there is an inner strength, there is something, y'know, that comes from -- I don't know where exactly it comes from, but it's -- it really is the best that humans can be and perhaps what it is -- perhaps really what it is love.
From a Barnes and Noble/America Online Chat with Christopher Reeve that occurred May 7, 1998:
Jessekay: In the book, your spirit leaves your body at one point and looks down on it from the corner of the hospital room. Do you draw any spiritual conclusion from that?
Reeve: I feel strongly that we are not our bodies. In fact, if a person says "my body," who is the "me" that is being referred to? Clearly, the spirit and body are two different things. And beyond that, I'm still searching for the meaning of it all.
Reeve was in Minneapolis October 27, 1996 speaking at the Courage Center, a support organization for the disabled. According to David Peterson's story in the October 29 Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the following exchange took place:
Q: Do you believe in the Lord?
A: Even though I don't personally believe in the Lord, I try to behave as though He was watching.
Peterson writes the audience responded with "Huge applause for a moment that was typical for its simplicity and candor."
A 1997 Cinemania gossip column titled 'Christopher Reeve: Inspirational Atheist' quotes his brother...
"Also at the In the Gloaming premiere was the film's director, Christopher Reeve, who managed to show up despite having undergone surgery only hours before to repair a broken arm. So where does the former Superman star get his undaunted courage? Well, according to his brother Ben, a nonpracticing Massachusetts lawyer who also attended the screening, not from God. 'We're devout atheists, so that wasn't it,' explained the ever-nonpracticing Ben." (column by Roger Friedman during the week of April 24, 1997)
From a May 1998 appearance on Larry King Live on CNN (transcript)
KING: A lot of questions are coming in about faith, and the last time you were with us, I asked this, if you prayed and you said you thought that would be hypocritical; you didn't pray before this, why pray now? Has -- have you gotten any feelings of faith or God through all of this? Lot of people asking that.
REEVE: Well, believe it or not, I think that, y'know, God is not an entity that you find when you go to church and pray to God almighty, you know, and I always remembered that going to church as a kid, you know, and they talk about the vengeance of His terrible swift sword and His army, I said, "well that's kind of a scary guy." But I think that -- while I don't believe in God, per se, I believe in spirituality. And I believe that spirituality actually is automatically within ourselves, but we have to learn how to access it, and what that is, is realizing there is a higher power; there is...
KING: So it's not atheism?
REEVE: ... more than just us, there is an inner strength, there is something, y'know, that comes from -- I don't know where exactly it comes from, but it's -- it really is the best that humans can be and perhaps what it is -- perhaps really what it is love.
From a Barnes and Noble/America Online Chat with Christopher Reeve that occurred May 7, 1998:
Jessekay: In the book, your spirit leaves your body at one point and looks down on it from the corner of the hospital room. Do you draw any spiritual conclusion from that?
Reeve: I feel strongly that we are not our bodies. In fact, if a person says "my body," who is the "me" that is being referred to? Clearly, the spirit and body are two different things. And beyond that, I'm still searching for the meaning of it all.
Although Stephen Hawking speaks of "God" in the metaphorical sense of some creative force, he has stated that he is an atheist.
At a physicist's conference, Hawking was attending after his book A Brief History of Time was published, a reporter approached him to ask if he did in fact believe in God, given the "mind of God" reference near the end of the book. Hawking responded quickly (suggesting his answer was pre-prepared) "I do not believe in a personal God."
At a physicist's conference, Hawking was attending after his book A Brief History of Time was published, a reporter approached him to ask if he did in fact believe in God, given the "mind of God" reference near the end of the book. Hawking responded quickly (suggesting his answer was pre-prepared) "I do not believe in a personal God."
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M*W: Christianity has proven itself to be a conglomeration of lies. I was a Christian at one time, then I found out the truth. I am offended that what I believed and taught to others was nothing but lies. It's one thing to disbelieve Christianity if you don't know it. It's another thing to find out its all lies when you do.
The funny thing is, had Jefferson actually been an avowed Christian instead of just a run of the mill deist, M*W would have slammed Christianity because ole' Tom porked his slave woman. If Abe had been a Bible thumpin Christian, M*W call him a prick for not emancipating the slaves sooner. If you know anything about quantum mechanics, you know that she did just this in a parallel universe, I can guarantee it. 
An online jesus-institute devotes a section to famous people who describe Jesus. Is it that Medicine*Woman and the jesus-institute share a common desire to persuade?
http://www.jesus-institute.org/life-of-jesus-modern/jesus-famous.shtml#Artist/Entertainer
http://www.jesus-institute.org/life-of-jesus-modern/jesus-famous.shtml#Artist/Entertainer
----------Originally posted by Bridge
The funny thing is, had Jefferson actually been an avowed Christian instead of just a run of the mill deist, M*W would have slammed Christianity because ole' Tom porked his slave woman. If Abe had been a Bible thumpin Christian, M*W call him a prick for not emancipating the slaves sooner. If you know anything about quantum mechanics, you know that she did just this in a parallel universe, I can guarantee it.
M*W: Whether Tom porked his slave or not, that's left for history to decide. Tom made it quite clear that Christianity was a vile thing. Porking is quite another.