Quotes from Richard Carrier

God needs blood to fix the universe, but only his own blood had enough magical power to do it, so he gave himself a body and then killed it.

However, though belief on faith alone may be comforting, it is wholly arbitrary and thus does nothing to ensure that you are more correct than anyone else. So it cannot properly be described as knowledge, but rather as a mere wish, a desire that something be true or false, or else it is a naive trust in guesswork or hearsay.

So, too, I and countless others have chosen to give God a fair hearing—if only he would speak. I would listen to him even now, at this very moment. Yet he remains silent.

We start with the evidence, and then figure out what the best explanation of it all really is, regardless of where this quest for truth takes us.

Chemists all agree on the fundamental facts of chemistry.

Such people are trapped in their own hall of mirrors, and for them there is no escape. They can never know whether they are wrong, even when they are. No evidence, no logic, no reason will ever get through to them.

These were well-recognized code words in the mystery cults, which meant the same thing there as they clearly do for Clement here: 'babes' were Christians not yet inducted into the higher mysteries, while the 'mature' had been, and thus knew teachings that other Christians did not. But Clement also indicates in the above quotes that there were also teachings that 'babes' were privy to that non-Christians (the 'profane') were not to be told.

Reason bases its decisions on evidence available to everyone, and allows people to disagree when evidence is lacking. Religion will never do that.

The Christian religion is so manifestly contrary to the facts, belief in it can only be held with the most delusional gerrymandering imaginable.

Christians always write to me threatening me with Hell. Strange how they think this vindicates them and their religion. Threats are the hallmark of a wicked creed.