Atheists who positively affirm God’s non-existence…without evidence, of course
…at least when it is convenient that is, until they are challenged at which time they switch to the weak, almost certain, 99% sure, etc. sect/denomination of atheism:
Since I first posted this I keep running into so very many Atheists who have apparently not gotten the pop-cyber-Atheist memo that they still positively affirm God’s non-existence.
Thus, some of those listed below are not necessarily “celebrity New Atheists” but hoi polloi Atheists who follow their lead.
Richard Dawkins and Karen Armstrong co-authored an article and so either one or both of them wrote and agree that “God is not dead. He was never alive in the first place.”1
The following Q&A is from the debate between Christopher Hitchens and William Lane Craig, “Does God Exist?,” April 4, 2009 AD, Biola University:
CRAIG: What is your view exactly? Do you affirm God does not exist or do you simply withhold belief?
HITCHENS: I think once I have said that I’ve never seen any persuasive evidence for the existence in something, and I’ve made real attempts to study the evidence presented and the arguments presented, that I will go as far as to say, have the nerve to say, that it does not therefore exist except in the minds of its…
PZ Myers, “gods don’t exist” also “the New Atheist movement is about is saying that God doesn’t exist…The New Atheist movement was established on the basis that there is no God.”2
In his book The Atheist’s Guide to Reality philosopher of science at Duke University, Alex Rosenberg wrote, “Is there a God? No.”
William Provine, “There are no gods, no purposes, and no goal-directed forces of any kind.”
Michael Shermer, “there is no God, intelligent designer, or anything resembling the divinity.”
Victor J. Stenger, “science shows that God does not exist.”
Isaac Asimov:
I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I’ve been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn’t have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I’m a creature of emotion as well as of reason.
Emotionally I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.3
Daniel Dennett, “We atheists don’t believe that there is any God”4 “There is no person who created the universe…there is really nobody to thank for that”5
Lewis Wolpert: I used to pray but I gave it up because when I asked God to help me find my cricket bat, he didn’t help.
Justin Brieley: Right, and that was enough for you to prove that God did not exist.
Lewis Wolpert: Well, yes. I just gave it up completely.6
Lewis Wolpert:, “[I] stopped believing in God when I was 15 or 16 because he didn’t give me what I asked for.”7
Penn Jillette, “I know God doesn’t exist.”
Albuquerque Bernalillo County Deputy Jim Goff, “I am a non-believer, there is no god, there is no Jesus, there is no Satan.”8
Jason Torpy, head of the Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers, told me this about God, “He doesn’t exist…he does not exist.”
Randy Word, President of Metroplex Atheists, wrote the following to me, “I know why, there is no god!!…no god ever worshiped on this planet exists. Of course I cannot prove there is no god but I could care less about doing that since it is irrelevant to me.”
Marie Alena Castle, Communications Director for Atheists For Human Rights, told me that she is a “Strong” Atheist within the context of that being a term referring to someone who positively affirms the non-existence of god(s).
Crispin Sartwell, teacher of philosophy at Dickinson College, “I’m perfectly sincere and definite in my belief that there is no God.”9
Raphael Lataster’s book titles say it all, “There Was No Jesus, There is No God” and “Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate Among Atheists.”
AronRa, “I know that God does not exist.”10
Stephen Hawking, “What I meant by ‘we would know the mind of God’ is we would know everything that God would know if there was a God, but there isn’t.” 11
Professor of Chemistry Peter Atkins in answer to the Templeton Organisation question Does the Universe have a purpose?: “Some are mystified by the existence of evil in a world created by an infinitely loving God, another notion that theologians have invented but which dissolves into nothing once it is realized that there is no God.”
Anne Nicol Gaylor, “There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world.”
As for this last quote: Anne Nicol Gaylor is the principal founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and directed it 1976-2004, the statement was her aphorism. Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor (Anne’s daughter) now direct the FFRF.
The statement is said to not merely be a quote from Anne but is an FFRF maxim that is use every year as a Winter Solstice message that they put on display in order to counter religious displays in government buildings.
Of course, Dan Barker has also stated the following of and for himself: (during his debate with Dinesh D’Souza, heard here):
…a subset of atheists, capital “A” Atheists, positive Atheists you might say, when it comes to a particular definition of a god, when it comes to the Christian God, the God of the Bible – I am a capital “A” positive Atheist. Not only do I say that God does not exists, that God cannot exist. I’m proud to say that I possess not only a belief but a knowledge that that God does not exist…the Christian God cannot and does not exist. Other gods may or may not.
The author of evilbible.com (about which I wrote here) wrote:
The lack of public acceptance for a “lack of belief” definition of “atheism” is reflected in the fact that no reputable dictionary has a “lack of belief” definition for either “atheism” or “atheist”.
However, this has not kept a few morons from incorrectly claiming that various dictionary definitions have a “lack of belief” definition…I have posted some of the arguments these people have used, and I explained why why [sic] they are so damn stupid.
The following examples are taken from Quora:
Jean Marion, “I never believed…I’ve known all along that there was no God.”
Danny Karg, “is it more likely that there simply is no God? Does that explain more? For me, it was like waking up. Giving up the dream of God wasn’t easy, just like I hated to learn that there was no Santa Claus, but there it is…math is my God.”
Beth Green, “My parents never told me that there was a god but they also never told me there wasn’t. I came to the conclusion that there isn’t on my own at a very young age…I came to the conclusion that God was just an imaginary figure.”
Arunav Sanyal, “there can be no god.”
Jeffrey Baird, “I don’t make the claim that God does not exist, simply that God doesn’t need to exist. Then, for me, the most reasonable conclusion is that God does not exist.”
Theis Poulsen, “There is no god, or afterlife. When we die there is nothing.”
The Skeptic Arena’s Neo, “I finally realized that the God I had been taught to believe in, could not possibly exist.”
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- 1. Richard Dawkins and Karen Armstrong, “Man Vs God,” The Wall Street Journal September 12, 2009 AD
- 2. Fiona Hanson, “The New Atheist Delusion: Dawkins and Movement ‘Lost the Heart of the Cause’,” Sputnik News
- 3. Isaac Asimov cited in Paul Kurtz, ed., “An Interview with Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible,” Free Inquiry, Spring 1982 AD, p. 9
- 4. Thank Goodness!
- 5. Thank Goodness Not God on Thanksgiving
- 6. Unbelievable episode, What Does Science Tell Us About God?
- 7. “The Hard Cell,” Third Way, March 2007, p. 16
- 8. See, Albuquerque deputy abuses authority -pushes atheism on others
- 9. “Irrational Atheism – Not believing in God isn’t always based on reasoned arguments—and that’s okay,” The Atlantic, October 11, 2014 AD
- 10. Stated during a Dogma Debate Radio program discussion with Sye Ten Bruggencate see video here
- 11. find article here
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