Mignon McLaughlin Quotes

...if you ask me whether or not I'm an atheist, I wouldn't even answer. I would first want an explanation of what it is that I'm supposed not to believe in, and I've never seen an explanation.

I wouldn't call myself an atheist. I neither deny nor accept that there is a God... So I do not laugh at people who believe in God. But I do not necessarily believe in God - nor deny that there could be one.

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.

An agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind.

Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain of.

I choose to believe in God, but I have serious doubts.

Not believing has a sickness which is believing a little.

I don't have enough faith to be an Atheist.

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

I am willing to believe, but I do not have the gift of faith. I'm skeptical.

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 would have far more fear of being mistaken, and of finding that the Christian religion was true, than of not being mistaken in believing it true.

You don’t have to be brave or a saint, a martyr, or even very smart to be an atheist. All you have to be able to say is “I don’t know”.

I think maybe it is better to believe than not to believe. But I couldn't tell you why.

There are, as we know, powerful and illustrious atheists. At bottom, led back to the truth by their very force, they are not absolutely sure that they are atheists; it is with them only a question of definition, and in any case, if they do not believe in God, being great minds, they prove God.

I don't say that I'm an atheist. I don't like that term, because I think it mirrors the certitude of religion. I say I don't know. And if you don't know - and you don't - just man up and say you don't know. Don't turn to silly stories and ancient myths.

I began to feel that if religion was either an illusion or a revelation, it was simpler to accept it as an illusion.

If you call yourself a non-believer, you're referring to disbelief in something, and you're acknowledging that there is something to believe in or not.

I envy people of faith. I'm incapable of believing in anything supernatural.

Who couldn't believe there's a God?

I believe in the gods; or rather I believe that I believe in the gods. But I don't believe that they are great brooding presences watching over us; I believe they are completely absent minded.

People don't so much believe in God as that they choose not to believe in nothing.

In principle I'm an atheist, although in fact I have a lot of faith

I wouldn't like to be a non-believer in anything.

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