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A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

What would we think of a father, who should give a farm to his children, and before giving them possession should plant upon it thousands of deadly shrubs and vines; should stock it with ferocious beasts, and poisonous reptiles; should take pains to put a few swamps in the neighborhood to breed malaria; should so arrange matters, that the ground would occasionally open and swallow a few of his darlings, and besides all this, should establish a few volcanoes in the immediate vicinity, that might at any moment overwhelm his children with rivers of fire? Suppose that this father neglected to tell his children which of the plants were deadly; that the reptiles were poisonous; failed to say anything about the earthquakes, and kept the volcano business a profound secret; would we pronounce him angel or fiend?
And yet this is exactly what the orthodox God has done.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1872-01-29), “The Gods,” Fairbury Hall, Fairbury, Illinois

More about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

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A quotation from Montaigne

Pleasure chews and grinds us; according to the old Greek verse, which says that the gods sell us all the goods they give us; that is to say, that they give us nothing pure and perfect, and that we do not purchase but at the price of some evil.

[L’aise nous masche. C’est ce que dit un verset Grec ancien, de tel sens : Les dieux nous vendent tous les biens qu’ils nous donnent: c’est à dire, ils ne nous en donnent aucun pur & parfaict, & que nous n’achetions au prix de quelque mal.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 20 (2.20), “We Taste Nothing Pure [Nous ne goustons rien de pur]” (1578) [tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

More info about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…

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A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

The instant we admit that a book is too sacred to be doubted, or even reasoned about, we are mental serfs. It is infinitely absurd to suppose that a god would address a communication to intelligent beings, and yet make it a crime, to be punished in eternal flames, for them to use their intelligence for the purpose of understanding his communication. If we have the right to use our reason, we certainly have the right to act in accordance with it, and no god can have the right to punish us for such action.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1872-01-29), “The Gods,” Fairbury Hall, Fairbury, Illinois

More info about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

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A quotation from Wendell Berry

The ecological teaching of the Bible is simply inescapable: God made the world because He wanted it made. He thinks the world is good, and He loves it. It is His world; He has never relinquished title to it. And He has never revoked the conditions, bearing on His gift to us of the use of it, that oblige us to take excellent care of it.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (1988), “God and Country,” What Are People For? (1990)

More info about this quote: wist.info/berry-wendell/17399/

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