I gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation. The fact that many false religions have spread over large portions of the earth like wild-fire had some weight with me. Beautiful as is the morality of the New Testament, it can hardly be denied that its perfection depends in part on the interpretation which we now put on metaphors and allegories.
But I was very unwilling to give up my belief. Charles Darwin, Autobiography: Religious Belief
Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and have never since doubted even for a single second that my conclusion was correct. I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished.
And this is a damnable doctrine. ibid.
This very old argument from the existence of suffering against the existence of an intelligent first cause seems to me a strong one; whereas, as just remarked, the presence of much suffering agrees well with the view that all organic beings have been developed through variation and natural selection.
At the present day the most usual argument for the existence of an intelligent God is drawn from the deep inward conviction and feelings which are experienced by most persons. But it cannot be doubted that Hindoos, Mahomadans and others might argue in the same manner and with equal force in favour of the existence of one God, or of many Gods, or as with the Buddists of no God. There are also many barbarian tribes who cannot be said with any truth to believe in what we call God: they believe indeed in spirits or ghosts, and it can be explained, as Tyler and Herbert Spencer have shown, how such a belief would be likely to arise.
Formerly I was led by feelings such as those just referred to, (although I do not think that the religious sentiment was ever strongly developed in me), to the firm conviction of the existence of God, and of the immortality of the soul. ibid.
Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.
This conclusion was strong in my mind about the time, as far as I can remember, when I wrote the Origin of Species; and it is since that time that it has very gradually with many fluctuations become weaker. But then arises the doubt – can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe, been developed from a mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animal, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions? May not these be the result of the connection between cause and effect which strikes us as a necessary one, but probably depends merely on inherited experience? Nor must we overlook the probability of the constant inculcation in a belief in God on the minds of children producing so strong and perhaps an inherited effect on their brains not yet fully developed, that it would be as difficult for them to throw off their belief in God, as for a monkey to throw off its instinctive fear and hatred of a snake. ibid.
Belief in God – Religion – There is no evidence that man was aboriginally endowed with the ennobling belief in the existence of an Omnipotent God. On the contrary there is ample evidence, derived not from hasty travellers, but from men who have long resided with savages, that numerous races have existed, and still exist, who have no idea of one or more gods, and who have no words in their languages to express such an idea. The question is of course wholly distinct from that higher one, whether there exists a Creator and Ruler of the universe; and this has been answered in the affirmative by some of the highest intellects that have ever existed.
The belief in God has often been advanced as not only the greatest, but the most complete of all the distinctions between man and the lower animals. It is however impossible, as we have seen, to maintain that this belief is innate or instinctive in man. On the other hand a belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies seems to be universal; and apparently follows from a considerable advance in man's reason, and from a still greater advance in his faculties of imagination, curiosity and wonder. I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for His existence. But this is a rash argument, as we should thus be compelled to believe in the existence of many cruel and malignant spirits, only a little more powerful than man; for the belief in them is far more general than in a beneficent Deity. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man, until he has been elevated by long-continued culture. Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man)
I can’t believe that God created parasites in order to torture small children. David Attenborough, televised interview
I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, I hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that. Thomas Nagel
The process of non-thinking called faith. I’m a scientist and I believe there is a profound contradiction between Science and religious belief. There is no well demonstrated reason to believe in God. And I think the idea of a divine creator belittles the elegant reality of the universe. Professor Richard Dawkins, The Root of All Evil? The God Delusion, Channel 4 2006
I believe in God to exactly the same extent as I believe in fairies and unicorns. I can’t disprove any of them. But there’s no reason positively to believe in any of them. Richard Dawkins, interview Have Your Say
It’s been pointed out that if you were the only person who held those beliefs you'd probably be locked up in an asylum. But because lots of people hold them it becomes a sort of respectable accepted thing. Richard Dawkins, interviewing Ian McEwan
As Dan Dennett noted in Breaking the Spell a bafflingly large number of intellectuals believe in belief, even though they lack religious conviction themselves. Richard Dawkins, lecture I’m an Atheist But ...
What people believe on our planet depends so much on whereabouts on the planet they were born. Dr Richard Dawkins, lecture 1: Waking Up in the Universe, 1991
Rather than adapt to evidence, many of us it seems remain trapped in ways of thinking inherited from our primitive ancestors. Irrational belief, from dowsing to psychic clairvoyance, has roots in early mankind’s habit of attributing spirit and intention to natural phenomena such as water, the sun, a rock or the sea ... Even in the twenty-first century, despite all science has revealed about the indifferent vastness of the universe, the human mind remains a wanton story-teller creating intention in the randomness of reality. Richard Dawkins, Enemies of Reason: Slaves to Superstition, Channel 4 2007
Obviously what we believe is affected by our upbringing. But that doesn’t mean we can’t change our minds. We all have the right to see the evidence and re-evaluate our beliefs. Richard Dawkins, The Genius of Charles Darwin III, Channel 4 2008
Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time. Richard Dawkins
Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence. Richard Dawkins
A theist believes in a supernatural intelligence, who in addition to his main work of creating the universe in the first place, is still around to oversee and influence the subsequent fate of his initial creation ... A deist, too, believes in a supernatural intelligence, but one whose activities are confined to setting up the laws that govern the universe in the first place. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion p18
What’s so special about believing? Isn’t it just as likely that God would reward kindness, or generosity, or humility? ibid. p104
An anthropological survey such as Frazer’s Golden Bough impresses us with the diversity of irrational human beliefs. Once entrenched in a culture they persist, evolve and diverge, in a manner reminiscent of biological evolution. ibid. p188
Evidence is the only reason to believe something. Richard Dawkins
The belief in a supreme being or creator is actually a pernicious belief. It does a great moral and intellectual damage to our poorly evolved primate species. Christopher Hitchens v Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, New York debate 30th January 2008
I think that belief is stupid. And unfounded. And false. And potentially latently always wicked because it is servile in one way and arrogant in another. Christopher Hitchens v Mark Roberts, debate 2007
I have met some highly intelligent believers, but history has no record to say that [s]he knew or understood the mind of god. Yet this is precisely the qualification which the godly must claim – so modestly and so humbly – to possess. It is time to withdraw our ‘respect’ from such fantastic claims, all of them aimed at the exertion of power over other humans in the real and material world. Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
About once or twice every month I engage in public debates with those whose pressing need it is to woo and to win the approval of supernatural beings. Very often, when I give my view that there is no supernatural dimension, and certainly not one that is only or especially available to the faithful, and that the natural world is wonderful enough – and even miraculous enough if you insist – I attract pitying looks and anxious questions. How, in that case, I am asked, do I find meaning and purpose in life? How does a mere and gross materialist, with no expectation of a life to come, decide what, if anything, is worth caring about?