FAITH - Part 1:

AMIS, KINGSLEY, English novelist (1922-1995):
•“He was of the faith chiefly in the sense that the church he currently did not attend was Catholic.” (One Fat Englishman, 1983)

BARKER, DAN, American freethought activist, former evangelical minister (b.1949):
•“Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits.” (Losing Faith in Faith, 1992)

BIERCE, AMBROSE, American journalist (1842-1914):
•“Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.” (The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911)

CARLYLE, THOMAS, Scottish historian, critic, sociological writer (1795-1881):
•“Just in ratio as knowledge increases, faith diminishes."

DICKINSON, EMILY, American poet (1830-1886):
•“Faith is doubt.” (The Atheist’s Bible, Joan Konner, ed. 2007)

EMERSON, RALPH WALDO, American essayist, philosopher, poet (1803-1882):
•“The faith that stands on authority is not faith.”

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, American statesman, scientist, author (1706-1790):
•“Lighthouses are more helpful than churches. The way to see faith is to shut the eye of reason.”

HOFFER, ERIC, American author, philosopher (1902-1983):
•“ . . Faith organizes and equips man’s soul for action. To be in possession of the one and only truth and never doubt one’s righteousness; to feel that one is backed by a mysterious power whether it be God, destiny or the law of history; to be convinced that one’s opponents are the incarnation of evil and must be crushed; to exult in self-denial and devotion to duty—these are admirable qualifications for resolute and ruthless action in any field.” (The True Believer, 1951, p. 126)

HUXLEY, THOMAS H., English biologist (1825-1895):
•“What are among the moral convictions most fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people? They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of belief; that merit attaches to readiness to believe; that the doubting disposition is a bad one, and skepticism a sin; that when good authority has pronounced what is to be believed, and faith has accepted it, reason has no further duty.” (What Great Men Think of Religion, by Cardiff)