The diary and photos of Chris Beach. I'm into windsurfing, coding, badminton, drawing and composing music using computers and synths.

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." Steven Weinberg


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Stephen Roberts I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours 376 votes6%6182 votes94%
Seneca the Younger 4 b.c.- 65 a.d. Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. 237 votes6%3703 votes94%
Richard Jeni You're basically killing each other to see who's got the better imaginary friend 177 votes6%2660 votes94%
Blaise Pascal Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions 252 votes8%2801 votes92%
Emo Philips When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me. 474 votes13%3181 votes87%
Epicurus Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? 284 votes10%2615 votes90%
Bertrand Russell And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence 185 votes8%2221 votes92%
George Bernard Shaw The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one 205 votes9%2192 votes91%
unknown Don't pray in my school, and I won't think in your church 411 votes14%2585 votes86%
Doug McLeod I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence 347 votes13%2361 votes87%
Unknown Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. 246 votes11%2069 votes89%
Unknown Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer 105 votes6%1652 votes94%
Gene Roddenberry We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes 138 votes7%1731 votes93%
Richard Lederer (Anguished English) There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages. 228 votes11%1888 votes89%
Steven Weinberg With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. 138 votes8%1651 votes92%
George Carlin Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man -- living in the sky -- who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do.. And if you do any... [more] 116 votes7%1536 votes93%
Carl Sagan You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep-seated need to believe. 199 votes10%1727 votes90%
Unknown George Bush says he speaks to god every day, and christians love him for it. If George Bush said he spoke to god through his hair dryer, they would think he was mad. I fail to see how the addition of a hair dryer makes it any more absurd. 58 votes4%1360 votes96%
Ferdinand Magellan The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church 173 votes10%1504 votes90%
Delos B. McKown The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike 152 votes10%1432 votes90%
Aldous Huxley "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." 37 votes3%1126 votes97%
Albert Einstein A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death 123 votes8%1342 votes92%
unknown Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish 79 votes6%1218 votes94%
Marie Man created God in his image : intolerant, sexist, homophobic and violent. 71 votes6%1153 votes94%
Napoleon Bonaparte Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet 132 votes9%1268 votes91%
Galileo Galilei I do not think it is necessary to believe that the same God who has given us our senses, reason, and intelligence wished us to abandon their use, giving us by some other means the information that we could gain through them 105 votes8%1155 votes92%
Carl Sagan Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence 105 votes8%1139 votes92%
Unknown Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence. 179 votes12%1289 votes88%
Voltaire Those who believe absurdities will commit atrocities 46 votes5%935 votes95%
Bumper sticker You keep believing, I'll keep evolving 193 votes13%1279 votes87%
Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people. 44 votes5%922 votes95%
Robert A. Heinlein Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a God superior to themselves. Most Gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. 81 votes7%1003 votes93%
John Adams, 2nd President of the United States The Government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian religion. 147 votes11%1158 votes89%
Thomas Jefferson I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. 71 votes7%962 votes93%
Giulian Buzila History teaches us that no other cause has brought more death than the word of god. 40 votes4%868 votes96%
William Drummond He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave 57 votes6%910 votes94%
unknown People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs 223 votes15%1288 votes85%
Robert G. Ingersoll As people become more intelligent they care less for preachers and more for teachers 98 votes9%1005 votes91%
Friedrich Nietzsche Which is it, is man one of God's blunders or is God one of man's? 119 votes10%1052 votes90%
Benjamin Franklin The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason 72 votes7%933 votes93%
Justin Brown An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist believes that deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanishe 131 votes11%1069 votes89%
Gustaf Lindborg The sailor does not pray for wind, he learns to sail 139 votes11%1083 votes89%
Coral Yoshi So you really think that God would plant a bunch of bones in the earth to test your faith? Either you're in denial or God has some serious self-esteem issues. 54 votes6%873 votes94%
Justin Brown If the Bible is mistaken in telling us where we came from, how can we trust it to tell us where we're going? 88 votes8%956 votes92%
H. L. Mencken We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart 154 votes12%1100 votes88%
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, 1988 We must conduct research and then accept the results. If they don't stand up to experimentation, Buddha's own words must be rejected. 60 votes6%872 votes94%
Russian Proverb Pray to God, fine; but keep rowing to shore. 68 votes7%875 votes93%
Arthur C. Clarke I would defend the liberty of consenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent. 64 votes7%850 votes93%
Terry Pratchett The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it. 58 votes7%830 votes93%
Mark Twain The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also 96 votes9%921 votes91%
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