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The mission of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science is to support scientific education, critical thinking and evidence-based understanding of the natural world in the quest to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and suffering.
The Magic of Reality
for the iPad
Sean Faircloth:
Attack of the Theocrats!
As somebody on the Rational Responders site wrote: contrary to what this dimwit might think, Abraham Lincoln was an atheist (most of his life anyway). Here are some choice quotes:
"My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them."
-- Abraham Lincoln, to Judge J S Wakefield, after Willie Lincoln's death, quoted by Joseph Lewis in "Lincoln the Freethinker."
âWhat is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.â
-- Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Mary Todd Lincoln in William Herndon's Religion of Lincoln, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beleifs of Our Presidents, p. 118
âIt will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to Infidelity.â
-- Abraham Lincoln, Manford's Magazine, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, p. 144
âThe Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession.â
-- Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Joseph Lewis in "Lincoln the Freethinker"
âThe only person who is a worse liar than a faith healer is his patient.â
-- Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Victor J Stenger in Physics and Psychics
âBoth read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not that we be not judged.â
-- Abraham Lincoln, sarcasm in his Second Innaugural Address (1865)
âIt is an established maxim and moral that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false is guilty of falsehood, and the accidental truth of the assertion does not justify or excuse him.â
-- Abraham Lincoln, chiding the editor of a Springfield, Illinois, newspaper, quoted from Antony Flew, How to Think Straight, p. 17
âOh, that [his Thanksgiving Message] is some of Seward's nonsense, and it pleases the fools.â
-- Abraham Lincoln, to Judge James M Nelson, in response to a question from Nelson: "I once asked him about his fervent Thanksgiving Message and twitted him with being an unbeliever in what was published." Quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, p. 138
âThe United States government must not undertake to run the Churches. When an individual, in the Church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest he must be checked.â
-- Abraham Lincoln, regarding the Churches, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, p. 143
Permalink Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:25:00 UTC | #148505