Quotes from Dan Barker

Prayer never changes the laws of nature.

If the Prodigal Son's a parable, and if Adam and Eve are metaphors, then maybe God is just figure of speech.

All you have to do is walk into any children's hospital and you know there is no God. Prayer doesn't make any difference. Those people pray for their beloved children to live and they die.

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.

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.

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.

Insanity is believing your hallucinations are real. Religion is believing that other peoples' hallucinations are real.

For my money, I'll bet on reason and humanistic kindness. Even if I am wrong I will have enjoyed my life, the existence of which is under little dispute.

Freethought is respectable. Freethought is crucial. Freethought needs to be publicized.

People are always asking, "What's the purpose of life?" That's easy. Relieve suffering. Create beauty. Make gardens.

You believe in a book that has sticks turning into snakes, and you say we are the ones that need help?

The very concept of sin comes from the Bible. Christianity offers to solve a problem of its own making! Would you be thankful to a person who cut you with a knife in order to sell you a bandage?

You keep accusing me of blasphemy all of the time, but I cannot be convicted of a victimless crime.

Truth does not demand belief. Scientists do not join hands every Sunday, singing, 'Yes, gravity is real! I will have faith!'

Truth does not demand belief.

The Greek god Dionysus was a man-god said to be the "Son of Zeus." He was killed, buried, descended into hell, and rose from the dead to sit at the right hand of the father. His empty tomb at Delphi was long preserved and venerated by believers.

Why is there no governmental oversight of how public money is spent by these organizations and churches? Probably because there is an assumption that if it is religious, it must be good.

Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.

The atheists I know, virtually all of whom are happy and mentally healthy, might more properly be called anti-nihilists. We are mainly optimists who love our lives and find them to be full of meaning and purpose.

But purpose is personal. It can't be right or wrong. It can't be true or false. It can't not be about you. It's how you decide to live your own life. If someone else tells you how to live, you are not free. If you don't choose your own purpose, you are a slave.

What does the number of copies have to do with authenticity?

Bart Ehrman, in Misquoting Jesus, reminds us that there are more variants among the ancient documents than there are words in the New Testament.

Matthew is caught tinkering with the facts. His reliability as a historian is severely crippled.

You can't have the freedom to believe if you do not have the freedom not to believe.