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Old March 1st, 2011 #21
SmokyMtn
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Seneca. Roman tragedian and philosopher (4 B.C.-A.D. 65):

After death, nothing is. . . . Let the ambitious zealot lay aside his hope of heaven, whose faith is but his pride. . . . Naught's after death, and death itself is naught.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #22
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Diodorus Siculus. Greek historian (c. 1st century A.D.):

The myths about Hades and the gods, although they are pure invention, help to make men virtuous.

It is to the interest of states to be deceived in religion.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #23
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Statius. Roman poet (c. 45-96 A.D.):

It was fear in the world that created the gods.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #24
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Epictetus. Greek stoic philosopher (A.D. 50-135):

Where are you going? It cannot be a place of suffering; there is no hell.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #25
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Tacitus. Roman historian (55-120 A.D.):

Christianity is a pestilent superstition.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #26
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Lucian. Roman poet (c. 120-180 A.D.):

National observances show better than anything else how vague religious theory is. Confusion is endless, and beliefs as many as believers. Scythia makes offerings to a scimeter, Thrace to the Samian runaway Zamolxis, Phrygia to a Month-God, Ethiopia to a Day-Goddess, Cyllene to Phales, Assyria to a dove, Persia to fire, Egypt to water. In Egypt, though, besides the universal worship of water, Memphis has a private cult of the ox, Pelusium of the onion, other cities of the ibis or the crocodile, others again of baboon, cat, or monkey. Nay, the very villages have their specialties; one deifies the right shoulder, and another across the river the left; one a half skull, another an earthenware bowl or platter. Come, my fine fellow, is it not all ridiculous?

The earthly navigator makes his plans, takes his measures, gives his orders, with a single eye to efficiency; there is nothing useless or purposeless on board; everything is to make navigation easy or possible; but as for the navigator [God] for whom you claim the management of this vast ship [the universe], he and his crew show no reason or appropriateness in any of their arrangements; the forestays, as likely as not, are made fast to the stern, and both sheets to the bows; the anchor will be gold, the beak lead, decoration below the water-line and unsightliness above. As for the men, you will find some lazy awkward coward in second or third command, or a fine swimmer active as a cat aloft, and a handy man generally, chosen out of all the rest to--pump. It is just the same with the passengers: here is a gaolbird accommodated with a seat next the captain and treated with reverence, there a debauchee or parricide or temple-robber in honourable possession of the best place, while crowds of respectable people are packed together in a corner and hustled by their real inferiors. . . . If there had been a captain supervising and directing, in the first place he would have known the difference between good and bad passengers, and in the second he would have given them their deserts . . . So too for the crew: the keen sailor would have been made look-out man or captain of the watch, or given some sort of precedence and the lazy shirker have tasted the rope's end half a dozen times a day. The metaphorical ship [of the universe] is likely to be capsized by its captain's incompetence.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #27
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Celsus. Roman philosopher (c. 2nd century, A.D.)--the first ancient author of a whole book attacking Christianity.

Just as the charlatans of the cults [of Cybele, Mithras, etc.] take advantage of a simpleton's lack of education to lead him around by the nose, so too with the Christian teachers: they do not want to give or to receive reasons for what they believe. Their favorite expressions are "Do not ask questions, just believe!" and: "Your faith will save you!" "The wisdom of the world," they say, "is evil"; "to be simple is to be good."

And how can one overlook the fact that Christian teachers are only happy with stupid pupils--indeed scout about for the slow-witted. . . . And to the scum that constitutes their assemblies, they say "Make sure none of you ever obtains knowledge, for too much learning is a dangerous thing; knowledge is a disease for the soul, and the soul that acquires knowledge will perish."

Let's assume for the present that he [Christ] foretold his resurrection. Are you ignorant of the multitudes who have invented similar tales to lead simple-minded hearers astray? It is said that Zamolxis, Pythagoras' servant, convinced the Scythians that he had risen from the dead, having hidden himself away in a cave for several years; and what about Pythagoras himself in Italy! ---or Rhampsinitus in Egypt. . . . What about Orpheus among the Odrysians, Protesilaus in Thessaly, and above all Herakles and Theseus?

It is equally silly of these Christians to suppose that when their God applies the fire (like a common cook!) all the rest of mankind will be thoroughly roasted, and that they alone will escape unscorched--not just those alive at the time, mind you, but (they say) those long since dead will rise up from the earth possessing the same bodies as they did before. I ask you: Is this not the hope of worms?

It is clear to me that the writings of the Christians are a lie, and that your fables have not been well enough constructed to conceal this monstrous fiction. I have even heard that some of your interpreters, as if they had just come out of a tavern, are onto the inconsistencies and, pen in hand, alter the original writings three, four, and several more times over in order to be able to deny the contradictions in the face of criticism.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #28
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Tertullian. Church Father (c. 180-230):

Tertullian's paradox: certum est quia impossibile est. It [the story of Christ] is certain, because it is impossible.

Note: This is the likely origin of the modern phrase, "I believe because it is impossible."
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #29
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Porphyry. Scholar of Tyre (c. 232-305):

A famous saying of the Teacher [Christ] is this one: "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have no life in yourselves." [John 6.54] This saying is not only beastly and absurd; it is more absurd than absurdity itself and more beastly than any beast; that a man should savor human flesh or drink the blood of a member of his own family or people--and that by doing this he should obtain eternal life! Tell us: in recommending this sort of practice, do you not reduce human existence to savagery of the most unimaginable sort?
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #30
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Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri. Syrian poet (973-1057):

The world holds two classes of men--intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #31
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Frederick II. Holy Roman Emperor (1194-1250):

Accused by Pope Gregory IX of having said the world had been deceived by three impostors--Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #32
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Pope Boniface VIII. (1235-1303)--charged with heresy after his death based on testimony that he had made these remarks:

So that God gives me the good things of this life, I care not a bean for that to come. A man has no more a soul than a beast. Did you ever see any one who had risen from the dead?

Christ! he was no Son of God; he was a man, eating and drinking like ourselves; he never rose from the dead; no man has ever risen. I am far mightier than he. I can bestow kingdoms and humble kings.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #33
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Leonardo da Vinci. Italian artist (1452-1519):

Take no miracles on trust; always look for causes.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #34
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Pietro Pomponazzi. Italian philosopher (1462-1525):

[The statesmen] have set up for the virtuous eternal rewards in another life, and for the vicious, eternal punishments, which frighten greatly. And the greater part of men, if they do good, do it more from fear of eternal punishment than from hope of eternal good, since punishments are better known to us than that eternal god. And since this last device can benefit all men, of whatever degree, the lawgiver regarding the proneness of men to evil, intending the common good, has decreed that the soul is immortal, not caring for truth but only for righteousness, that he may lead men to virtue.

Note: As the most influential philosopher of the Italian Renaissance, Pomponazzi was able to make this statement by using Averroes' "double truth," a common rhetorical strategy at the time that let him justify heresy by contrasting it with orthodox arguments which could be ignored by readers aware of his intentions. Pomponazzi also argued in essays published after his death that the soul is mortal, that angels, demons and miracles are fictitious, that religions are born and die, and that prayers go unanswered.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #35
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Niccolo Machiavelli. Italian author (1467-1527):

It is therefore the duty of princes and heads of republics to uphold the foundations of the religion of their countries, for then it is easy to keep their people religious and consequently well conducted and united. And therefore everything that tends to favor religion (even though it were believed to be false) should be received and availed of to strengthen it; and this should be done the more, the wiser the rulers are, and the better they understand the natural course of things.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #36
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Pope Leo X. The son of Lorenzo de' Medici (1475-1521):

We owe all this to the fable of Jesus Christ.

Note: It was widely held that Leo made this remark, but there is no solid evidence that he did.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #37
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Hermann van Ryswyck. Dutch priest burned at the stake in 1512:

J.M. Robertson: In 1502, Ryswyck told his inquisitors "with his own mouth and with sane mind" that the world is eternal, and was not created as was alleged by "the fool Moses"; that there is no hell, and no future life; that Christ, whose whole career was flatly contrary to human welfare and reason, was not the son of Omnipotent God, but a fool, a dreamer, and a seducer of ignorant men, of whom untold numbers had been slain on account of him and his absurd evangel; that Moses had not physically received the law from God; and that "our" faith was shown to be fabulous by its fatuous Scripture, fictitious Bible, and crazy Gospel.

I was born a Christian, but am no longer one: they are the chief fools.

Note: A decade later Ryswyck was brought before the Inquisition once again, and, upon repeating his heretical argument, was burned at the stake later in the day.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #38
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Jacques Gruet. Swiss Protestant executed in 1547:

All so-called laws, divine as well as human, are made at the will of men.

Note: At the order of Calvin, Gruet was executed for this quotation and other infractions that were less obviously heretical. According to one account his execution was particularly violent: "His half-dead body was beheaded on the scaffold, the torso being tied and the feet nailed thereto."
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #39
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Michel de Montaigne. French essayist (1533-1592):

Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.

Men make themselves believe what they believe.

Men of simple understanding, little inquisitive and little instructed, make good Christians.

Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen.

To know much is often the cause of doubting more.

Philosophy is doubt.
 
Old March 1st, 2011 #40
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Giordano Bruno. Italian philosopher (1548-1600):

Nothing appears to be really durable, eternal and worthy of the name of principle, save matter alone.

It is more appropriate to say, then, that matter contains the forms and implies them, than to think that it is empty of them and excludes them. That matter, then, which unfolds what it has enfolded must be called the divine and excellent progenitor, generator and mother of natural things; or, in substance, the entire nature.

There is then a kind of substratum from which, with which, and in which, nature effects its operations and its work; and which is by nature endowed with so many forms that it presents for our consideration such a variety of species.

The universe is, then, one, infinite, immobile.

The foolish renounce this world and pursue an imaginary world to come.

To his holy inquisitors upon being sentenced to burn at the stake: "You are more afraid to pronounce my sentence than I to receive it."

Last words: unspoken. Bruno's tongue was tied to prevent any final speech before he was burned at the stake. When a crucifix was presented for him to kiss, he pushed it aside.

Note: Like both Epicurus and Lucretius, Bruno proposed that we live in an infinite universe in which time, motion and location are relative. He also argued that the universe includes countless stars and planets similar to the sun and earth that move freely in space rather being limited to orbits around a central body such as the sun.
 
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