Atheism and Criticism of Religion
The Ancient Greek philosopher and critic of social mores Diogenes of Sinope was recorded as living with many dogs, seeing their freedom from self-consciousness and sincere enjoyment of simple physical pleasure to be admirable role models.
In an article in the New York Times Magazine atheist Natalie Angier quoted Frans de Waal, a primatologist at Emory University:
- "I've argued that many of what philosophers call moral sentiments can be seen in other species. In chimpanzees and other animals, you see examples of sympathy, empathy, reciprocity, a willingness to follow social rules. Dogs are a good example of a species that have and obey social rules; that's why we like them so much, even though they're large carnivores."
In 1808 the English poet Lord Byron expressed similar thoughts in his famous poem Epitaph to a Dog:
- But the poor dog, in life the firmest friend,
- The first to welcome, foremost to defend,
- Whose honest heart is still his master's own,
- Who labors, fights, lives, breathes for him alone,
- Unhonored falls, unnoticed all his worth,
- Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth –
- While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven,
- And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven.
Read more about this topic: Dogs In Religion
Famous quotes containing the words atheism and, atheism, criticism and/or religion:
“He talks about the Scylla of Atheism and the Charybdis of Christianity—a state of mind which, by the way, is not conducive to bold navigation.”
—Norman Douglas (1868–1952)
“We find the most terrible form of atheism, not in the militant and passionate struggle against the idea of God himself, but in the practical atheism of everyday living, in indifference and torpor. We often encounter these forms of atheism among those who are formally Christians.”
—Nicolai A. Berdyaev (1874–1948)
“People try so hard to believe in leaders now, pitifully hard. But we no sooner get a popular reformer or politician or soldier or writer or philosopher—a Roosevelt, a Tolstoy, a Wood, a Shaw, a Nietzsche, than the cross-currents of criticism wash him away. My Lord, no man can stand prominence these days. It’s the surest path to obscurity. People get sick of hearing the same name over and over.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“The religion of England is part of good-breeding. When you see on the continent the well-dressed Englishman come into his ambassador’s chapel and put his face for silent prayer into his smooth-brushed hat, you cannot help feeling how much national pride prays with him, and the religion of a gentleman.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)