Diatribes, Volume 1 Quotes

“There is a time and a place for nice, but there’s a time and a place for ‘fuck you’ as well.  And in this movement we need both.  Nice is good for outreach.  Nice is good for PR.  Nice is good for winning converts and softening our image.  But ‘fuck you’ has its uses, too.  ‘Fuck you’ is good for rallying the troops.  ‘Fuck you’ is good for boiling the blood.  ‘Fuck you’ is good for reminding people why they got active about atheism in the first place.  And what’s more, when people are trying to shove their religion into your schools, your government and your life, ‘fuck you’ is not only useful, it’s the only correct response.”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“As atheists, we stand in awe of a lot of things… but perhaps the thing I’m most in awe of is the stupidity it takes to look past the entire universe of things that actually exist and stand in awe of something that doesn’t.”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“So what exactly did Jesus say about gays?  Well, nothing actually, but he did say something about loving the least of god’s children. What did Jesus say about the right to bear arms? Well, there were no guns at the time, but I seem to recall him being anti-stoning. What did Jesus have to say about capital punishment?  Well, I’m not sure but I’m willing to bet that toward the end of his life he was against it.”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“anything that forces us to stop using our brains is a bad thing but especially when the thing that’s asking us not to use our brains is trying to tell us right from wrong.”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“if takes an asshole to challenge religion, the vanguard of the atheist movement will inevitably over-represent the assholes. Many have argued that we need to combat the narrative by providing the contrary examples and while I agree that this will certainly help, I submit that the best way to combat a stereotype is to hold the people perpetuating that stereotype accountable. ”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“You can believe any insane, detrimental shit you want, but if you used reason to get there, I can reason you back out.  I can show you where you fucked up your chain of logic.  But there’s no way to “faith” you back from the ledge.”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“Critically examining a question isn’t something that comes to us innately; you have to learn how to do it.”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“If your idea has merit, it doesn’t need you there to defend it.  You can simply place it in the public arena and it can fend for itself. ”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“There is no greater threat to liberty, peace and progress than theocracy.  Right now the Muslims just happen to be leading the race when it comes to dismantling rational governments and replacing them with genocidal scripture. ”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“believing in myths is comforting in the moment; in the same way it’s comforting to pretend you can fly when you’re falling.”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“So I was going to let it go.  And then he said something about sickness being 80% mental.  And then the poor victim of his babbling said, “Really?”  And I couldn’t help myself. “No,” I interjected, “not really.”  Because at a certain point my brain ignores the social instinct and says that when people are spreading demonstrably false medical information correcting that is more important than being polite.  So I was an asshole.  And I was just enough of an asshole to make my point without permanently alienating our friendship, because, like I said, I’m good at the asshole thing.”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“And of course, a religious worldview stands in the way of all of that.  It’s not enough to have the right answer if you got there the wrong way. ”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“Eventually you’ll have to come to understand that there is no logical reason to believe in God.  If there was, atheists would believe in God. ”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“Faith is the exact opposite of science and yet they peddle it as a virtue. Religion”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“Religion has had a free ride for too long and despite the growing murmurs of malcontents, the societal privilege afforded to faith remains a national embarrassment. Of”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“The very fact that such a thing as a degree in theology exists is an insult to education. ”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“This person is actually invoking a career in taking advantage of people, deluding people, indoctrinating children, fighting against reality, opposing social progress and believing in fairy tales, and for this he thinks he’s entitled to some level of respect. “I’m”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“I’ll admit that both atheists and Christians are guilty of cherry-picking the Bible.  In a book so long and rambling, I suppose that there’s going to be something to support any view you have.  That being said, I think that atheists can justify the assertion that the bible is, overall, an evil, horrible, demonically misguided book.”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“I would argue that religion itself is a corruption.  Isn’t it good enough to look at Jesus as a dubiously historical moral philosopher that was pretty progressive for his day?  What can we possibly gain from saying that a man’s teachings are immutable and dictated directly from the architect of the heavens?”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“I remember walking past church services and wondering if it was all an elaborate hoax that everyone was in on but me.  It felt like I was the only sane person on the planet. I wanted to grab people as they came out of church and say, “can’t we at least agree that this is exactly what religion would look like if it was just made up out of whole cloth to oppress people? ”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“Psychologists define cognitive dissonance as “The state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs or attitudes; especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change”.  Perhaps nowhere is this cerebral flexibility on better display than in religious claims of divine intervention.  As atheists we are constantly baffled by an acquaintance crediting god with some minor convenience in their lives, seemingly unaware of the horrible moral contradictions that arise when one asserts that a god concerns itself with finding their lost glasses but not with the children sold into sexual slavery.”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“Sure, if you eat enough mushrooms and get in a sweat lodge, you’ll see all the bright lights and pretty colors Hubble has to offer, but there’s nothing there.  Just like every other silly little spiritual distraction, there’s nothing there.  It’s all empty, hollow, meaningless, unsatisfying Chicken Soup for the Brain.  It demands that you suspend your disbelief even to the point of suspending your own senses.  It demands that you practice for years at something you can’t actually get better at.  It demands that you nod along with every stupid post-modernist notion some yoga instructor blurts out because you don’t want to be the only one at the party wearing incredulity.”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope

“There’s always a good reason to berate Oprah.  Her empire is built entirely on bullshit.  She endorses pseudo-science, she promotes psychics, she gives voice to quacks and she endorses magical thinking.  So when news items first started appearing that she’d gone and been a horrible bitch again, I didn’t think it deserved much attention. And then I heard the interview. ”
― Noah Lugeons, Diatribes, Volume 1: 50 Essays From a Godless Misanthrope