Jut grabbing a few examples of his work from my collection of notes:
We often heard him claim about religions:
"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."
Never afraid of a controversial truth, he said about Jerry Falwell - evangelical fundamentalist Baptist pastor, televangelist - 1933-2007:
"If he could have been given an enema, he could have been buried in a matchbox"
and who could argue with his claim that
"We don't have any choice but to have free will" and
"God creates us sick and then offers a cure under penalty of eternal torture".
I'm sure the tributes will flow around the atheist blogosphere for a considerable time. Let's hope that some of this tide of adoration leaks out and influences other thinking communities.
5 comments:
Sad to hear of his death, a gifted man who has made us all think more deeply.One quote I have just read:
'He maintained his devout atheism after being diagnosed with cancer in 2010, telling one interviewer: "No evidence or argument has yet been presented which would change my mind. But I like surprises."'
The great and awesome God I serve, is the God of surprises. He is compassionate and Gracious.
Y'know I was thinking, it takes a real lot of faith to be an atheist. When looking all around at the complexity of life and all created things whether animate or not, it must be very difficult not to come to the obvious conclusion that there is in fact a Creator, a Grand Designer, and to go against the grain so to speak, to imagine that actually, all of it happened by mere improbable chance, and not just mere improbable but where the improbability is ridiculously as improbable as to make it pretty much a certainty that such a thing is impossible, then to carry on believing so in the face of abundant evidence to the contrary is nothing short of amazing faith, based on so little as to render it greater by far than the faith needed to believe in a Creator God, or in Jesus Christ for which evidence abounds. So well done all you atheists for having so much faith in so very very little.
I don't think you have really been taken in as much as that by the creationist propaganda have you?
I think this topic could become a new post in a few days to open it up to those who do not read the comments.
Oh - and knowing that you are one of "the vast majority of Christians, get on with their lives quietly and are a tremendous work for the good of society" as you wrote on another post this week (http://somethingsurprising.blogspot.com/2011/12/poes-law-and-lying-for-jesus.html), I think that you have just proved exactly why I feel a need to engage in the discussion about the truth of all religions, including yours. Its all about how we perceive the truth, and our discussions help my own understanding of life. Thank you.
Well I have to say that my comment above is exactly the sort of comment that is constantly being made about those of faith in God. I could equally say how amazing it is that you have been taken in by 'all that atheistic propaganda' It all comes down to different perspectives as to what is true, as you say. In other words it comes down to what we believe. :)
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