101 Christian Quotes
Most of my readers will probably remember my “101 Atheist Quotes” article, which despite being one of the first articles I wrote, is also the most popular (although to be honest I think being featured on the front page of Digg might have helped). If you are a Christian reader, or you just want a theist take on the article, then head over to “101 Christian Quotes on Faith, Reason, Unbelief, and Atheism“.
My personal favourites:
“If there were no God, there would be no atheists.” – So true, and an argument frequently used by atheists to approximate their view with not having words for “not believing in fairies”.
“The atheist can’t find God for the same reason that a thief can’t find a police officer” – Perhaps, but you really think God would have the common decency to show up anyway…
“If God does not exist, everything is permissible” – Precisely why the evolution of human morality is such a great tool for the human race. We don’t need Gods to show us what is wrong and what is right…we can work it our for ourselves over time.
“The scientific facts, which were supposed to contradict the faith in the nineteenth century, are nearly all of them regarded as unscientific fictions in the twentieth century” – Lucky that facts surrounding Evolution stayed eh? Oh, and of course the facts that we discovered in the 20th century kinda made up for the ones we lost in the 19th…
“No man ever repented of being a Christian on his death bed.” – I like this one; it’s a sort of Christian version of the “There are no atheists in foxholes argument”, and it fails for all the same reasons. How exactly does the author know the final thoughts of a dying person? Puzzling.
“Faith is a sounder guide than reason. Reason can only go so far, but faith has no limits.” – Evil Lord Zenu, Transubstantiation…yup, this quote is dead accurate in the latter part. Unfortunately reason is by far the better guide…it explains things that actually exist in reality.
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"'If there were no God, there would be no atheists.' – So true, and an argument frequently used by atheists…" Say what? It doesn't even make sense. The claim should be that then everyone would be an atheist, except that it doesn't follow that beliefs necessarily correspond to reality.
That's how I saw the quote, which is why it makes no sense. Those who have no conception of "God" are atheists, whether they know it or not. We can still come up with the concept whether we have a specific word for it or not.
Oh, I get it. If there were no God then there would be no people because nothing would exist – no Creator no Universe. Okay…
What? That's not what I'm saying at all. Assuming beliefs correspond with reality, the premise that there's no "God" leads to everyone being atheist. So the quote makes no sense.
Sorry, that wasn't directed at you but rather at the quotation you cited. I realize that replying to your comment made it seem otherwise. I get what the quotation is trying to say. It assumes that if there was no God then nothing would exist because there would be no creator.
Ah. It seems I missed the point of the quote then. Seems rather pointless in that light.
The way I saw the quote was that if there were no "God" idea, there would be no people who were called "atheists", because there would be nothing to disbelieve. Similarly with the unpopularity of people who believe in fairies. There are no people who are "afairy" (do not believe in fairies), simply because that covers the vast majority of the population.
Yes, but the point is that if the concept doesn't exist (i.e. nobody has ever heard the term "God" before) then there is no word to describe people who don't believe in the concept. Just as there are no people to describe disbelievers in the wooplung fairy.
My point is, you can look at the de re interpretation or the de dicto interpretation. You can look those terms up. The de re interpretation is the most relevant, & the quote makes no sense that way. On a de dicto interpretation, it's just semantics and the quote is pointless.
I don't quite understand how that relates to the quote. The quote is simply in the style of "If X did not happen, Y does not exist". It's simple association. For instance, "If Karl Marx had not been born, Marxism would not exist" is a completely valid point. The only reason Marxism is around is because Karl Marx came up with it. If someone else had come up with it, it wouldn't have been called Marxism. The same thing applies to the quote we have here. If "God" (as an idea) had not been invented, there would be no people who claim to be disbelievers in God. Yes, technically atheists would exist in the passive form (just as trees are technically atheists – as far as we know), but the word wouldn't exist in it's current form.
The quote was also about God creating everything. It required re-interpretation (as did the others) so I could post it here.
In the case of the quote it doesn't apply. Even if the idea of God never existed, that would just make everyone an atheist (de re interpretation), whether the idea of atheism exists or not.
Which is why I stated that in the previous response. They would be passive atheists, but the fact still remains that the word "atheist" would not exist, nobody would identify as an "atheist", so for the point of the quotation, there would be no "atheists".
No. The quote says there would be no atheists, not that there would be no concept of atheism.
"Atheists do not exist, because they say they don't believe in God, and in order for something do be not believed in, that something must exist, thus atheist actually attest his existence when they say they don't believe in him, thus they don't really exist!" (my religion teacher), my response: "I don't believe in the existence of God! Suck it!"
A fair number of those quotes are from the same few people, i.e., C.S. Lewis, the Schaeffers, and G.K. Chesterson account for almost one quarter of the quotes. A few of them seem to be irrelevant (26, 27, 28, 36, and 84). I can see how they might be relevant in certain contexts, but isn't the whole point of a list like this to find quotes that can stand on their own?
does it really matter what you say? i would lean towards no, because if, when you die, you want to argue with God, then that is your choice. but here is a quote for you: "when you argue against God, you argue against the one that gave you the power to argue."
Of course when you argue against science you are limiting your own gods abilities.
Oh boy. You guys are so hilarious. Kinda stupid, but my amusement is what you're here for. so carry on and make me laugh. lol
Athiests??? hahaha. freaks!!! I agree with David and the majority of people in the world. But you just can't reason with people like Athiests. They aren'e hardly people at all. More like……….. monkeys, or dogs.
Perhaps the theory of evolution is still around today because it's correct? Don't be a smartass and expect that you're correct.
Good sir, on behalf of the internets, I have to ask you to GTFO and take your FAIL with you.