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If faith is a valid tool of knowledge, then anything can be true 'by faith,' and therefore nothing is true. If the only reason you can accept a claim is by faith, then you are admitting that the claim does not stand on its own merits.

Dan Barker

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Dan Barker
Age: 75
Born: 1949
Born: June 25
Musician
Pianist
Songwriter
Writer
Santa Monica
California
Faith
Tools
True
Atheism
Merits
Doe
Accept
Admitting
Anything
Therefore
Valid
Reason
Accepting
Tool
Nothing
Stand
Merit
Knowledge
Claim
Religion
Claims

More quotes by Dan Barker

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People are always asking, What's the purpose of life? That's easy. Relieve suffering. Create beauty. Make gardens.
Dan Barker
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Scientists do not join hands every Sunday and sing Yes gravity is real! I know gravity is real! I will have faith! I believe in my heart that what goes up, up, up must come down, down, down. Amen! If they did, we would think they were pretty insecure about the concept.
Dan Barker
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Even if it is true that all cultures share a common morality, why does this prove a supreme intelligence? After all, don't we humanists sometimes claim that there is a common thread of humanistic values running through history across cultural and religious lines?
Dan Barker
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Look at the posture of prayer. It is the posture of slavery, of bowing before your master. We are a proudly rebellious country. We kicked out the master. Now here comes the government telling us to humbly bow again.
Dan Barker
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Prayer never changes the laws of nature.
Dan Barker
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Either in or out of time, the decision of a personal agency to commit an action happens antecedent to the action itself. Even if the deciding and the acting happened simultaneously, it would still not be true that the acting was antecedent to the deciding. Imagine God saying, Oh, look! I just created a universe. Now I'd better decide to do it.
Dan Barker
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Love is not obedience, conformity, or submission. It is a counterfeit love that is contingent upon authority, punishment, or reward. True love is respect and admiration, compassion and kindness, freely given by a healthy, unafraid human being.
Dan Barker
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You keep accusing me of blasphemy all of the time, but I cannot be convicted of a victimless crime.
Dan Barker
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Asking, ‘If there is no God, what is the purpose of life?’ is like asking, ‘If there is no master, whose slave will I be?’ If your purpose of life is to submit as a slave, then your meaning comes from flattering the ego of a person whom you should detest.
Dan Barker
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To think that the ruler of the universe will run to my assistance and bend the laws of nature for me is the height of arrogance. That implies that everyone else (such as the opposing football team, driver, student, parent) is de-selected, unfavored by God, and that I am special,above it all.
Dan Barker
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I have an Easter challenge for Christians. My challenge is simply this: tell me what happened on Easter. I am not asking for proof. My straightforward request is merely that Christians tell me exactly what happened on the day that their most important doctrine was born.
Dan Barker
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If the Prodigal Son's a parable, and if Adam and Eve are metaphors, then maybe God is just figure of speech.
Dan Barker
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Theology is a subject without an object
Dan Barker
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The longer I have been an atheist, the more amazed I am that I ever believed Christian notions.
Dan Barker
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Atheists are suffering from bad PR. What if Sesame Street had an atheist character?
Dan Barker
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We were blood brothers, pals forever. He was my very best friend. Nobody else could see him. I now know he was just pretend.
Dan Barker
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Insanity is believing your hallucinations are real. Religion is believing that other peoples' hallucinations are real.
Dan Barker
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The 9/11 terrorist attack was a faith-based initiative.
Dan Barker
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I am an atheist because there is no evidence for the existence of God. That should be all that needs to be said about it: no evidence, no belief.
Dan Barker
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Not thinking critically, I assumed that the successful prayers were proof that God answers prayer while the failures were proof that there was something wrong with me.
Dan Barker