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Victor J. Stenger Biography

Victor J. Stenger

Victor John Stenger (/ˈstɛŋɡər/ January 29, 1935 – August 25, 2014) was an American particle physicist, philosopher, author, and religious skeptic.

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Victor J. Stenger Quotes

Until recent times, absence of evidence for his [Jehovah's] existence has not been sufficient to rule him out. However, we now have enough knowledge that we can identify many places where there should be evidence, but there is not. The absence of that evidence allows us to rule out the existence of this God beyond a reasonable doubt.

Doubt, Existence, Jehovah, Reasonable, Religion, Times

The problem is that people think faith is something to be admired. In fact, faith means you believe in something for which you have no evidence.

Admired, Believe, Fact, Faith, Mean, People

Those who use the Bible as a reference for moral behavior are simply cherry-picking those teachings, such as the Golden Rule, that they have independently decided are moral for other reasons, while ignoring those teachings with which they disagree.

Disagree, Moral, Moral Behavior, Rule, Teaching, Use

I do not think science has to make any apologies. It looks at the world and tells it like it is. And we all live longer, better lives because of this dispassionate view. Sure, it commands awe and provides inspiration. Still, I would rather be operated on by a surgeon who sees me as an assemblage of atoms than one who lovingly tries to manipulate what he or she imagines are my vital energy fields.

Apology, Fields, Inspiration, Surgeon, Thinking, Tries

While science continually uncovers new mysteries, it has removed much of what was once regarded as deeply mysterious. Although we certainly do not know the exact nature of every component of the universe, the basic principles of physics seem to apply out to the farthest horizon visible to us today.

Atheism, Continually, Horizon, Nature, Physics, Principles

Nature is capable of building complex structures by processes of self-organization; simplicity begets complexity.

Complexity, Organization, Processes, Self, Simplicity, Structures

In fact, current cosmological observations indicate that the average density of matter and energy in the universe is equal, within measurement errors, to the critical density for which the total energy of the universe was exactly zero at the beginning.

Average, Errors, Fact, Matter, Zero

Just because quantum mechanics is weird does not mean that everything that is weird is quantum mechanics.

Doe, Everything, Mean, Quantum, Religion

The battle over the validity of evolution has been publicly posed as a scientific one. However, you will find little sign of it in scientific journals, where such quarrels as exist are over details, not the basic concept. . . Evolution has proved so useful as a paradigm for the origin and structure of life that it constitutes the foundation of the sciences of biology and medicine.

Atheism, Biology, Journals, Medicine, Proved, Religion

The belief in supernatural forces remains to this day a yoke on the neck of humanity, but at least Thales made it possible, for those of us who wish it, to be free of that yoke.

Humanity, Neck, Possible, Supernatural, Supernatural Forces, Wish

Reality is what kicks back when you kick it. This is just what physicists do with their particle accelerators. We kick reality and feel it kick back. From the intensity and duration of thousands of those kicks over many years, we have formed a coherent theory of matter and forces, called the standard model, that currently agrees with all observations.

Agreement, Back, Matter, Model, Reality, Science

It was not that I thought I was smarter. I had simply explored science and found what seemed to me a far more powerful authority. And, I did not steal or murder because I thought they were wrong, not because I feared damnation.

Atheism, Authority, Damnation, Powerful, Steal, Thought

Fifteen years of skepticism has done more for me than 20 years of force-fed religion and 30 years of indifference in between.

Atheism, Done, Skepticism, Years

With pantheism. . . the deity is associated with the order of nature or the universe itself. . . when modern scientists such as Einstein and Stephen Hawking mention 'God' in their writing, this is what they seem to mean: that God is Nature.

Associated, Deity, Mean, Order, Universe, Writing

Any strategy that attempts to reinforce faith by undermining science is also doomed to failure. Showing that some scientific theory is wrong will not prove that the religious alternative is correct by default. When the sun was shown not to be the center of the universe, as Copernicus had proposed, the Earth was not moved back to that singular position in the cosmos. If Darwinian evolution is proved wrong, biologists will not develop a new theory based on the hypothesis that each species was created separately by God 6,000years ago.

God, Religion, Religious, Shown, Species, Sun

In a poll taken in 1998, only 7 percent of the members of the US National Academy of Sciences, the elite of American scientists, said they believed in a personal god.

Members, Polls, Sciences, Scientist, Scientists, Taken

People want to be at the center of the Universe. . . and they're going to flock to anybody who tells them that.

Atheism, Center, Fear, Flock, People, Tells

When people start using science to argue for their specific beliefs and delusions, to try to claim that they're supported by science, then scientists at least have to speak up and say, You re welcome to your delusions, but don't say that they're supported by science.

Atheism, People, Religion, Say, Science, Speak

Thought, without the data on which to structure that thought, leads nowhere.

Data, Leads, Nowhere, Positive Atheism, Structure

Any attempt at understanding humanity must include an explanation of the hold that supernatural belief continues to have on most of the human race.

Explanation, Humanity, Race, Understanding

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