Monday, July 27, 2009

George Bernard Shaw


Continuing on an Irish theme, a hand written joke by the late George Bernard Shaw was discovered recently; it wasn't a particularly funny joke IMO but it gives me a chance to remind myself of some of the cracking Atheistic quotations that he came up with during his life-time, here are a few samples.

- The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.

- We know now that the soul is the body, and the body the soul. They tell us they are different because they want to persuade us that we can keep our souls if we let them make slaves of our bodies.

- What is wrong with priests and popes is that instead of being apostles and saints, they are nothing but empirics who say "I know" instead of "I am learning," and pray for credulity and inertia as wise men pray for scepticism and activity.

- All great truths begin as blasphemies.

- The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

- All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship. (This one is particularly relevant to the latest Blasphemy law in Ireland)

- Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn't!

- Every step of progress means a duty repudiated and a Scripture torn up.

- Beware of the man whose god is in the skies.

- Common people do not pray; they only beg.

I can't help but be left with the thought, where did writers like this go?

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