Francis Collins Quotes

I never graduated to being an atheist. I only graduated to being an agnostic.

A deist is someone who has not lived long enough to be an atheist.

That's true that I'm "not religious as that term is conventionally understood," though I've never been an atheist. Atheism is an active faith; it says, "I believe there is no God." But I don't know what I believe. I was brought up a Lutheran in Jamestown, North Dakota. I have trouble with faith. I'm not proud of this. I don't think it makes me an intellectual. I would believe if I could, and I may be able to before it's over. I would welcome that.

The Atheist is God playing at hide and seek with Himself.

I don't say that I don't believe in God because that implies that there is a God for me not to believe in.

As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.

Every one starts out being an atheist.

Even David Hume, one of history most famous skeptics, said it's just barely possible that God exists.

I am not an atheist. I do not know if I can define myself as a pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds.

I don’t believe in God as you imagine Him to be, but I believe in many things that you could never even dream of.

How did the atheist get his idea of that God whom he denies?

we know God is dead, they've told us, but listening to you I wasn't sure.

Carlyle, a man of strong words and attitudes, a rhetorician out of necessity, constantly aroused by the craving for a strong faithas well as by the feeling of an incapacity for it (Min this respect a typical romantic!).... Fundamentally, Carlyle is an English atheist who makes it a point of honor not to be one.

Our English language really says if you're not a theist, the only alternative is to be an atheist. What I'm trying to do is develop a language that will enable us to talk about God beyond the, what I think, are sterile categories of theism and atheism.

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is.

I grew up Jewish. I am Jewish. I went to an Episcopal high school. I went to a Baptist college. I've taken every comparative-religion course that was available. God? I have no idea.

You happen to be talking to an agnostic. You know what an agnostic is? A cowardly atheist.

I don't know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn't.

What people are really after is, what is my stance on religion or spirituality or God? And I would say, if I find a word that came closest, it would be agnostic.

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.

Questioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always. It's because I'm not quite an atheist and it worries me. There's that little bit that holds on: 'Well, I'm almost an atheist. Give me a couple of months.'

I call myself an agnostic. I'm open to change. I'm the same sort of person, although much less aggressive, as Richard Dawkins.

I'm an agnosto-theist.

I am surprised that anyone can profess to be an atheist.