Sir Francis Bacon
English philosopher and statesman

     • Check out Francis Bacon's More Reasonable Side

I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.
-- Francis Bacon, Of Atheism

A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.
-- Francis Bacon, Of Atheism

Certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.
-- Francis Bacon, upon distinguishing between the "contemplative atheist," a rare form of atheist, and what he called the "scoffing atheist," which he thought to diminish humankind's nobility, Of Atheism, quoted from Jim Herrick, Against the Faith (1985), p. 30

Jim Bakker (b. 1941)
American televangelist convicted of fleecing his flock

I started out by believing God for a newer car than the one I was driving. I started out believing God for a nicer apartment than I had. Then I moved up.
-- Jim Bakker, quoted from http://i.am/not_a_crook

I sorrowfully acknowledge that seven years ago.... I was wickedly manipulated by treacherous former friends and colleagues who victimized me with the aid of a female confederate. They conspired to betray me into a sexual encounter at a time of great stress in my marital life.... I was set up as part of a scheme to co-opt me and obtain some advantage for themselves over me in connection with their hope for position in the ministry.
-- Jim Bakker, I Was Wrong

I studied the book of Revelation, one word at a time. I had time. They don't call it doing time for nothing. I had time. I took every word in the book of Revelation and run it through the Greek, and studied the meaning.... I think that's why I had to go to prison, so I could tell you, when things start falling apart, I've been there, I've done that. Don't jump out a window. My God will go with you. He will never, never, never leave you. He will never, never, never forsake you. When the world starts falling apart, it's when the Church is gonna come together! It's how the bride's gonna be purified!
-- Jim Bakker, in a tape titled "Cleansing the Chamber" from Morningstar Prophetic tape of the Month. Actually, Jim Bakker went to prison because he stole millions of dollars from his trusting supporters.

Bishop Robert J Banks
Roman Catholic bishop; vicar of Boston, Massachusetts, bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin

I can assure you that Father Shanley has no problem that would be a concern to your diocese.
-- Bishop Banks, in a 1990 letter to the San Bernandino diocese recommending serial child-molesting priest Paul Shanley; Father Shanley was an activist in NAMBLA (the North American Man-Boy Love Association), in The New York Times, April 10, 2002, quoted from Robert E Nordlander, in a letter to Cliff Walker (May 02, 2002)

Every time a child says, “I don’t believe in færies,” there is a little færie somewhere that falls down dead.
-- J M Barrie, in Peter Pan, leaving us to wonder whether this form of guilt-shaming of small children is even more damaging than the Christian doctrine of Hell (“Yeah, you’d better look away, buddy!”), quoted from Encarta Book of Quotations (2000) page 63 (British spelling and ligatures ours)

Washington and Lincoln were un-Christian and their names are unworthy of being brought before the public.
-- Rev Romaine F Bateman, New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 18, 1932, on the occasion of his refusal to permit citizens of the community to hold a celebration in honor of George Washington. Mr. Bateman also remarked that Washington's service to his country was "merely incidental compared with his un-Christianity." Quoted by Joseph Lewis in The Ten Commandments p. 563.

We are engaged in a social, political, and cultural war. There's a lot of talk in America about pluralism. But the bottom line is somebody's values will prevail. And the winner gets the right to teach our children what to believe.
-- Gary Bauer (attributed: source unknown)

I'm not blaming the president, but religious conservatives have been doing politics for 25 years and, on every front, are worse off on things they care about. The gay rights movement is more powerful, the culture is more decadent, the life of not one baby has been saved, porn is in the living room, and you can't watch the Super Bowl without your hand on the off switch.
-- Gary Bauer, bemoaning the fact that the Christians who follow him are worse off on things that they have been instructed to care about, quoted from Ralph Z Hallow, "Evangelicals frustrated by Bush" (Washington Times: February 20, 2004)

I don't see why Christians should censor themselves out of any forum in which our perspectives can be heard. I disagree with the theology of many groups that I address; Jews, for example, who do not accept Jesus, or atheists.
-- Gary Bauer, defending his participation at the "Family Federation for World Peace" conference sponsored by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, where Bauer took between $80,000 and $160,000 plus expences from Moon's church to speak at the conference, quoted from "Real People For Real Change," The Skeleton Closet

Every once in a while, a great nation has to deal with a great issue. Millions of people understand that it's not bigotry to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.
-- Gary Bauer, equating patriotism with bigotry while insisting that we all "understand" that it's not really bigotry if enough of us hate the group in question, quoted in Sheryl Henderson Blunt, "'A Man and a Woman'" (Christianity Today: December, 2003)

"Remember, when someone annoys you, it takes 42 muscles in your face to frown. But it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and SMACK THE ASSHOLE UPSIDE THE HEAD"
-- poster found inside Dan Savage's cubicle while infiltrating Gary Bauer's 2000 Presidential Campaign headquarters to do a story, quoted from Dan Savage, "Stalking Gary Bauer," Salon (January 25, 2000)

Rev Michael Baxter
Professor of moral theology at University of Notre Dame

God is acting in all human events, somehow mysteriously, and is acting in this, maybe to bring about a kind of national repentance.
-- Rev Michael Baxter, explaining why the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, came about, yet remaining shrouded as to how he knows all this mysteriousness to be the case, or whether the "fact" that God is "acting" in this event reduces or eliminates the culpability of the individual humans who did the evil deed, quoted from AANEWS #958 from American Atheists (September 14, 2001)

Michael Behe
Biochemist; Christian creationist

There is no publication in the scientific literature -- in prestigious journals, specialty journals, or books -- that describes how molecular evolution of any real, complex biochemical system either did occur or even might have occurred.
-- Michael Behe, although Kenneth R Miller, as described on page 143 of his Finding Darwin's God, found "four glittering examples of what Behe claimed would never be found," Behe quoted originally from his Darwin's Black Box, p. 185, all quoted from and citation notes derived from Victor J Stenger, Has Science Found God? (2001)

Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621)
Church Doctor and Inquisitor who, on biblical grounds, vehemently opposed the Copernican Theory and other forms of scientific scholarship

To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin.
-- Cardinal Bellarmine (attributed: source unknown)

To affirm that the Sun ... is at the centre of the universe and only rotates on its axis without going from east to west, is a very dangerous attitude and one calculated not only to arouse all Scholastic philosophers and theologians but also to injure our holy faith by contradicting the Scriptures.
-- Cardinal Bellarmine (attributed: source unknown)

We, Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, have heard that Mr Galileo Galilei is being slandered or alleged to have abjured in our hands and also to have been given salutary penances for this. Having been sought about the truth of the matter, we say that the above-mentioned Galileo has not abjured in our hands, or in the hands of others here in Rome, or anywhere else that we know, any opinion or doctrine of his; nor has he received any penances, salutary or otherwise. On the contrary, he has only been notified of the declaration made by the Holy Father and published by the Sacred Congregation of the Index, whose content is that the doctrine attributed to Copernicus (that the earth moves around the sun and the sun stands at the center of the world without moving from east to west) is contrary to Holy Scripture and therefore cannot be defended or held. In witness whereof we have written and signed this with our own hands, on this 26th day of May 1616.
-- Cardinal Bellarmine, in a Certificate regarding the Roman Catholic Church's punishment of Galileo for holding the position that the Earth orbits the Sun

David Ben Gurion
One of the founders of modern Israel

We must expel Arabs and take their places.
-- David Ben Gurion, the future Prime Minister of Israel, speaking in 1937, quoted from Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs (Oxford University Press: 1985)

A Christian state should be established [in Lebanon], with its southern border on the Litani river. We will make an alliance with it. When we smash the Arab Legion's strength and bomb Amman, we will eliminate Transjordan too, and then Syria will fall. If Egypt still dares to fight on, we shall bomb Port Said, Alexandria and Cairo.... And in this fashion, we will end the war and settle our forefathers' account with Egypt, Assyria, and Aram.
-- David Ben Gurion, describing Zionist aims using the language of the ancient Hebrew texts (1948), quoted from Michael Santomauro, Reporter's Notebook

We must do everything to insure they [the Palestinians] never do return.... The old will die and the young will forget.
-- David Ben Gurion, assuring his fellow Zionists that Palestinians will never come back to their homes, quoted from Michael Santomauro, Reporter's Notebook

If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?
-- David Ben Gurion, quoted in Nahum Goldmann, Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp. 121-122

The present map of Palestine was drawn by the British mandate. The Jewish people have another map which our youth and adults should strive to fulfill: from the Nile to the Euphrates.
-- David Ben Gurion, quoted from Michael Santomauro, Reporter's Notebook

Congressman Bennett
American representative from Florida

I sincerely hope that the Senate will give its prompt approval to this proposal. In these days when imperialistic and materialistic communism seeks to attack and destroy freedom, we should continuously look for ways to strengthen the foundations of our freedom. At the base of our freedom is our faith in God and the desire of Americans to live by His will and His guidance. As long as this country trust in God, it will prevail. To serve as a constant reminder of this truth, it is highly desirable that our currency and coins should bear these inspiring words "In God We Trust."
-- Congressman Bennett, in support of HR 619, a bill "Providing for the inscription of 'In God We Trust' on all United States Currency and Coins" (June 7, 1955)

Saint Bernard (1090-1153)
French theologian

The Christian glories in the death of a pagan because thereby Christ himself is glorified.
-- Saint Bernard, Richard the Lionheart (J Gillingham; 1989), quoted from Encarta Book of Quotations

O mighty soldier, O man of war, at last you have a cause for which you can fight without endangering your soul; a cause in which to win is glorious and for which to die is but gain. Are you a shrewd businessman, quick to see the profits of this world? If you are, I can offer you a bargain which you cannot afford to miss. Take the sign of the cross. At once you will have an indulgence for all the sins which you confess with a contrite heart. The cross is cheap and if you wear it with humility you will find that you have obtained the Kingdom of Heaven.
-- Saint Bernard, sermon at Vézelay referring to the Second Crusade (1147-1148), quoted from Encarta Book of Quotations

Human reason is snatching everything to itself, leaving nothing for faith.
-- Saint Bernard, showing utter disdain for human learning, in Walter Nigg, The Heretics: Heresy Through the Ages (1962), p. 169, quoted from Helen Ellerbe, The Dark Side of Christian History, critical editing by Cliff Walker

Syed Bilal
Former 17-year-old student of Dr. Younus Shaikh; the latter was convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan in August, 2001, for teaching that Mohammed did not practice Islam until after he had received his revelation

     • See also: Asghar Ali Afridi
     • See also: Abdul Wahid Qasmi

Only out of respect, because he was our teacher, did we not beat him to death on the spot.
-- Syed Bilal, relating his alleged response to Dr. Shaikh's teaching, quoted from Barry Bearak, "Death to Blasphemers: Islam's Grip on Pakistan," New York Times, May 12, 2001

Bishop Charles E Blake
Pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles

It would be a horrible mistake for black people to say, as some have said, "We don't recognize him..." If you refuse to deal with him (Bush), the resources at his disposal will be given to others.
-- Bishop Charles E Blake, selling his American heritage (religious Liberty as provided by the Establishment Clause) for a bowl of pottage offered by George W Bush's scheme to funnel tax money into church treasuries, at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, for which organizers refused to release a full list of attendees, February 1, 2001, quoted from Conrad Goeringer, "Bush Promotes Faith at Prayer Breakfast: Bipartisan Support for New White House Office," AANEWS 881, February 2, 2001, from American Atheists

William Blake (1757-1827)
First of the English Romantic poets; artist, engraver, publisher

The Bat that flits at close of Eve
Has left the Brain that won't believe.
The Owl that calls upon the Night
Speaks the Unbeliever's fright.
-- William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence" (1803?), in David V Erdman ed., The Poetry and Prose of William Blake (1965), quoted from Encarta Book of Quotations (1999)

John Blanchard
Christian theologian and writer

God has ensured that those who question his existence, along with those who reject him out of hand, have not a shred of moral integrity in doing so... The Bible makes it clear that those who reject God outright, and those who claim to be sitting on the fence, are refusing to acknowledge what they know to be true.
-- John Blanchard, having read it in a book somewhere (but in truth knowing nothing, first-hand, about the thinking of any person other than himself), Blanchard repeats, as if true, that canard which is most squarely responsible for the antiatheist bigotry we endure today, this being the lie saying that we atheists secretly believe in Jesus, "deep down inside," but we are deliberately lying to others when we tell them that no, we have not fallen for history's cruelest, most destructive hoax, in Does God Believe in Atheists? (2000), p. 483-4, quoted from ReligiousTolerance.org, Atheism: Beliefs about Atheism by some Christians

Boniface VIII (1235?-1303)
Roman Catholic Pope (1294-1303)

     • See Boniface's Rather Bland Utterance (as Papal Bull Goes)

Therefore, if the earthly power errs, it shall be judged by the spiritual power ... but if the supreme spiritual power errs it can be judged only by God, and not by man ... Therefore we declare, state, define and pronounce that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff.
-- Pope Boniface VIII, in the 1302 bull Unam Sanctam, quoted from Helen Ellerbe, The Dark Side of Christian History

Margaret Bowen
Leader of the Church of Advanced Adventists

If Christ does not appear to meet his 144,000 faithful shortly after midnight on February 6th or 7th, it means that my calculations, based on the Bible, must be revised.
-- Margaret Bowen, who foretold that the Messiah would come to Hollywood in 1925. So far as is known, He didn't. Quoted from David Milsted, The Cassell Dictionary of Regrettable Quotations (1999).

Linda Bowles
Anti-Separationist writer

Since the congress has not proposed, contemplated or passed any law establishing a state religion, what is the Supreme Court ruling on? For over 150 years after the Constitution was ratified, children prayed in schools and teachers were not terrified of using the word "God" in the classroom. At no time did religious freedom in schools put America in any danger of becoming a theocracy, nor was the singing of a Christmas carol considered to constitute such a danger.
     Spare me legal sophistry.
-- Linda Bowles, in a typical misrepresentation of the Establishment Clause, peppered with lies about how long public schools have existed, plus misrepresentations about the aims of state-church separationists, in "Supreme Court saves us from religion"

We have arrived at a time in America when God is viewed as a moral nag, that is to say, the Ultimate Parent, against whom childish man is in rebellion. In other words, religion stands between many Americans and what they want to do and be. As a nation, we are running from eternal truths in desperate fear that they may overtake us.
-- Linda Bowles, misrepresenting, once again, the atheistic position by portraying us as secretly "knowing" that a god exists but denying this "fact" so that we may be free to "sin" as we will, in "Supreme Court saves us from religion"

The Boy Scouts of America

The Boy Scouts of America maintain that no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing his obligation to God.
-- Boy Scouts of America, statement on contractual form that is signed by adult volunteers (emphasis ours)

Duty to God is not a mere ideal for those choosing to associate with the boy Scouts of America; it is an obligation which has defined good character for youth of Scouting age through Scouting's 92-year history.
-- Boy Scouts of America, statement issued February, 2002, quoted from Freedom From Religion Foundation press release, "If Boy Scouts Stands for Bigotry, It Should Stand Alone"

[The BSA] has made a commitment to provide faith-based values to its constituency in a respectful manner.
-- Boy Scouts of America, statement issued February, 2002, quoted from Freedom From Religion Foundation press release, "If Boy Scouts Stands for Bigotry, It Should Stand Alone"

The recognition of God as the ruling and leading power in the universe and the grateful acknowledgment of His favors and blessings are necessary to the best type of citizenship.
-- Boy Scouts of America, policy (ca, 1970)

William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925)
American political leader, editor, and lecturer; Christian fundamentalist who argued for the prosecution in the Scopes trial

If we have to give up either religion or education, we should give up education.
-- William Jennings Bryan, contribution to The Commoner (January, 1923), quoted from George Seldes, ed, The Great Thoughts (1985)

All the ills from which America suffers can be traced back to the teaching of evolution. It would be better to destroy every other book ever written, and save just the first three verses of Genesis.
-- William Jennings Bryan, address to Seventh Day Adventists (1924), quoted from David Milsted, The Cassell Dictionary of Regrettable Quotations (1999)

There is no more reason to believe that man descended from an inferior animal than there is to believe that a stately mansion has descended from a small cottage.
-- William Jennings Bryan, speech, Scopes Trial (1925), quoted from George Seldes, ed, The Great Thoughts (1985)

Man is not a mammal.
-- William Jennings Bryan, during the Scopes Trial, attorney Clarence Darrow forced Bryan to repeat this "fact" numerous times (1925), quoted from George Seldes, ed, The Great Thoughts (1985)

Tennessee: Unlawful to Teach Science (Accurately) till 1967

"It shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the universities, normals, and all other public schools of the state which are supported in whole or in part by public funds of the state, to teach any theory that denies the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower state of animals."
-- Statute of the State of Tennessee, 1925 (not repealed until 1967), quoted from David Milsted, The Cassell Dictionary of Regrettable Quotations (1999)

Ted Bunde (1860-1925)
American serial killer whose uniquely misaligned teeth combined with the fatal mistake of biting one of his victims made his conviction relatively straightforward; catching up with him was a different story, though, due to his charm, wit, education, and remarkably high intelligence

You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body. You're looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!
-- Ted Bundy, quoted from William Hart, Evil: A Primer (2004), page 3

You are going to kill me, and that will protect society from me. But out there are many, many more people who are addicted to pornography, and you are doing nothing about that.
-- Ted Bundy, to anti-porn crusader, televangelist James Dobson, in an interview hours before he was strapped into Florida's electric chair and put to death; quoted from a monograph available from obscenitycrimes.org (which is not Dobson's group)

Pat Buchanan (b. 1938)
US Presidential Candidate 2000, 1996, etc., too radical even for many in the Radical Religious Right

     • Check our Big Scary List of Pat Buchanan Quotations

We're going to bring back God and the Bible and drive the gods of secular humanism right out of the public schools of America.
-- Pat Buchanan, campaign address at an anti-gay rally in Des Moines, Iowa, February 11, 1996

Our culture is superior. Our culture is superior because our religion is Christianity and that is the truth that makes men free.
-- Pat Buchanan, speaking before the Christian Coalition in 1993, quoted from Political Amazon's "Quotes from Hell"

Gay rights activists seek to substitute, for laws rooted in JudeoChristian morality, laws rooted in the secular humanist belief that all consensual sexual acts are morally equal. That belief is anti-biblical and amoral; to codify it into law is to codify a lie.
-- Pat Buchanan, Wall Street Journal, January 21, 1993, quoted from Political Amazon's "Quotes from Hell"

[The courts and the media elite] are abolishing America, they are deconstructing our country ... they have dethroned our God.
-- Pat Buchanan, quoted from Thomas B Edsall, "Buchanan Declares Culture War," The Washington Post, Sept. 18, 2000

There were no politics to polarize us then, to magnify every slight. The "negroes" of Washington had their public schools, restaurants, bars, movie houses, playgrounds and churches; and we had ours.
-- Pat Buchanan, when discussing race relations in the 1950s, in Right from the Beginning, Buchanan's 1988 autobiography, quoted from Political Amazon's "Quotes from Hell"

There is nothing wrong with us sitting down and arguing that issue that we are a European country.
-- Pat Buchanan, Newsday, November 15, 1992, quoted from Political Amazon's "Quotes from Hell"

Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path.
-- Pat Buchanan, in a 1977 column, The Guardian, January 14, 1992, quoted from Political Amazon's "Quotes from Hell"

The real liberators of American women were not the feminist noise-makers, they were the automobile, the supermarket, the shopping center, the dishwasher, the washer-dryer, the freezer.
-- Pat Buchanan, Right from the Beginning, quoted from Political Amazon's "Quotes from Hell"

William F Buckley, Jr.
American Conservative commentator and social critic

The principal sponsors of the terrorists are not religious fanatics. "Palestine's Yasser Arafat, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, and Syria's Assad family have made themselves the icons of Islamism despite the fact that they are well-known atheists who live un-Muslim lives and have persecuted unto death the Muslim movements in their countries."
-- William F Buckley, Jr., quoting and fully agreeing with Angelo M Codevilla, professor of international relations at Boston University and a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute, in his column for the National Review, "A Way to Go 'It's the Regime, Stupid'" (December 14, 2001)

George Herbert Walker Bush The 41st President of the United States

No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God.
-- George Bush, to American Atheists' reporter Robert Sherman in 1987, while serving as vice-president

George W Bush The 43rd President of the United States (2001)

     • Check our Big Scary List of GW Bush Quotes
     . Check this! Bush Gets it Right for Once!

I ask Americans to bow our heads in humility before our Heavenly Father, a God who calls us not to judge our neighbors, but to love them, to ask His guidance upon our nation and its leaders in every level of government.
-- George W Bush, National Day of Prayer Proclamation of January 20, 2001, one of his first acts as United States President, quoted from "President Bush Announces Religious Agenda on Inauguration Day: Bush Presents Himself as 'Determined Foe of Church-State Separation,' Says Americans United," January 20, 2001

There ought to be limits to freedom. We're aware of the site, and this guy is just a garbage man.
-- George W Bush, commenting on the website www.gwbush.com, a parody of his campaign website

I don't think that witchcraft is a religion. I wish the military would rethink this decision.
-- George W Bush, to ABCNEWS, June, 1999, regarding Ft. Hood's decision to allow Wiccan rituals just as all military bases allow rituals of the Christian faith. Bush Campaign HQ told Cliff Walker this was simply his personal opinion. Guess again:

I do not think witchcraft is a religion, and I do not think it is in any way appropriate for the US military to promote it.
-- George W Bush, October 15, 2000, Web, White & Blue 2000, Rolling Cyber Debate question

Robert Byrd
US Senator, Democrat from West Virginia

Can it be that we, too, are ready to embrace the foul concepts of atheism? Somebody is tampering with America's soul, I leave it to you who that somebody is.
-- Robert Byrd, in response to the US Supreme Court's verdict in Engle v. Vitale (barring school-sponsored prayer), quoted from Robert E Nordlander, "Madalyn Murray O'Hair: The Making of a Modern Myth" (Freethought Today, November, 1988)

Hardesty: Byrd Kept Constitution 'the Heartbeat'

"The principles of the United States Constitution are, because of Senator Byrd, still the heartbeat of the US Senate."
-- David C Hardesty, Jr., overdoing it more than just a little, in, "Senator Robert C Byrd: West Virginian of the Century"

The Subtle Fulmination of the Encircled Sea

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