Margaret Atwood Quotes

I gave up religious thinking a long time ago and am really just an agnostic now.

I would say I'm a humanist. I like that. I mean, I don't claim to know anything, but I'm curious about it all. I'm always fascinated when people really fervently believe, because I have such a hard time believing anything.

I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say that one is an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or agnostic. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect that he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.

As to the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or do not exist.

I can't be sure God does not exist. On a scale of seven, where one means I know he exists, and seven I know he doesn't, I call myself a six. That doesn't mean I'm absolutely confident, that I absolutely know, because I don't.

There is something pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In short, I deny nothing, but doubt everything.

Agnosticism has nothing to impart. Its sermons are the exhortations of one who convinces you he stands on nothing and urges you to stand there too.

Most atheists bristle at the thought that atheism has anything to do with faith, but not Penn Jillette.

How can you be an atheist and have an ideology to go with it? To be an atheist is to be free of some areas of belief. I don't see how that can become an ideology.

No man can be an agnostic who has a sense of humour.

Rather than say he's an atheist, a friend of mine says, 'I'm a tooth fairy agnostic,' meaning he can't disprove God but thinks God is about as likely as the tooth fairy.

I may have had a prejudice against agnosticism as a body of thought: sort of a fence-sitting theory, where you can't make up your mind one way or another.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist.

The older I get, the less I know. By that I mean the less I am sure of. I view people with strong opinions on the big stuff with distrust. I don't think we should have certain certainties on faith and politics; I think we should be open-minded.

I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means.

I think of myself as a positive agnostic. I don't know, therefore I'm open. I don't know, therefore I'm interested.

I'm not sure about anything as far as religion and spirituality go.

I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.

As to gods, I have no way of knowing either that they exist or do not exist, or what they are like.

I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means.

Do I believe in aliens? No. I think there could be. Do I believe in God? No, I think there could be. Do I believe that Jesus actually existed? No. I think he could have done. A few things I've seen. A few things I've read. A few things I've watched have sparked my interest. Do I think it could all be rubbish? Yeah. I do.

Faith is the effort to believe what your common sense tells you is not true.

Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them.

I am not an atheist. An atheist is someone who has compelling evidence that there is no Judeo-Christian-Islamic God. I am not that wise, but neither do I consider there to be anything approaching adequate evidence for such a god. Why are you in such a hurry to make up your mind? Why not simply wait until there is compelling evidence?

I have no faith at all. I only hold convictions.