Changes

* God never wrought miracles to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. - Sir [[Francis Bacon]] <ref name=essays/>

* God never wrought miracles to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. - Sir [[Francis Bacon]] <ref name=essays/>

[[Image:Francis_Bacon.jpg|thumbnail|right|200px|Sir [[Francis Bacon]] ]]

[[Image:Francis Bacon.jpg|thumbnail|right|200px|Sir [[Francis Bacon]] ]]

*"The Scripture saith, The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; it is not said, The fool hath thought in his heart; so as he rather saith it, by rote to himself, as that he would have, than that he can thoroughly believe it, or be persuaded of it....It appeareth in nothing more, that atheism is rather in the lip, than in the heart of man." - Sir Francis Bacon, his essay ''Of Atheism''<ref>Ibid, p. 107.</ref>

*"The Scripture saith, The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; it is not said, The fool hath thought in his heart; so as he rather saith it, by rote to himself, as that he would have, than that he can thoroughly believe it, or be persuaded of it....It appeareth in nothing more, that atheism is rather in the lip, than in the heart of man." - Sir Francis Bacon, his essay ''Of Atheism''<ref>Ibid, p. 107.</ref>

*"Most societies or communities that have espoused atheistic beliefs have not survived more than a century...What I found was the complete lack of a single case of a secular population, community or movement that would just manage to retain replacement level." - Michael Blume, a researcher at the University of Jena in Germany on the fertility rate of atheistic societies <ref name=leake>Leake, Jonathan (January 2, 2011).  [http://www.scilogs.eu/en/blog/biology-of-religion/2011-01-06/atheists-a-dying-breed-as-nature-favours-faithful-sunday-times-jan-02-2011-jonathan-leake-full-draft-version "Atheists a dying breed as nature 'favours faithful'"].  ''London Times'' website.  Reprinted at Biology of Religion blog (Heidelberg, Germany: SciLogs) on January 6, 2011.  Retrieved on January 14, 2015.</ref>  See also: [[Atheism and sexuality]]

*"Most societies or communities that have espoused atheistic beliefs have not survived more than a century...What I found was the complete lack of a single case of a secular population, community or movement that would just manage to retain replacement level." - Michael Blume, a researcher at the University of Jena in Germany on the fertility rate of atheistic societies <ref name=leake>Leake, Jonathan (January 2, 2011).  [http://www.scilogs.eu/en/blog/biology-of-religion/2011-01-06/atheists-a-dying-breed-as-nature-favours-faithful-sunday-times-jan-02-2011-jonathan-leake-full-draft-version "Atheists a dying breed as nature 'favours faithful'"].  ''London Times'' website.  Reprinted at Biology of Religion blog (Heidelberg, Germany: SciLogs) on January 6, 2011.  Retrieved on January 14, 2015.</ref>  See also: [[Atheism and sexuality]]

[[Image:Billcraig_czvx.jpg‎‎|thumb|170px|Dr. [[William Lane Craig]] ]]

[[Image:Billcraig czvx.jpg‎‎|thumb|170px|Dr. [[William Lane Craig]] ]]

* "Readers familiar with [[Reddit atheism|Reddit’s atheism community]], r/atheism, may not be surprised to learn that I think it exemplifies many negative aspects of modern atheism — hatred, prejudice, and belief by cultural conformation rather than rational inquiry." <ref>Chituc, Vlad (June 7, 2013).  [http://nonprophetstatus.com/2013/06/07/the-implosion-of-ratheism-what-reddit-can-tell-us-about-building-community/ "The implosion of r/atheism:  What Reddit can tell us about the building community"].  Patheos website/Nonprophet Status blog.  Retrieved on May 24, 2015.</ref> - Vlad Chituc at Nonprophet Status blog.

* "Readers familiar with [[Reddit atheism|Reddit’s atheism community]], r/atheism, may not be surprised to learn that I think it exemplifies many negative aspects of modern atheism — hatred, prejudice, and belief by cultural conformation rather than rational inquiry." <ref>Chituc, Vlad (June 7, 2013).  [http://nonprophetstatus.com/2013/06/07/the-implosion-of-ratheism-what-reddit-can-tell-us-about-building-community/ "The implosion of r/atheism:  What Reddit can tell us about the building community"].  Patheos website/Nonprophet Status blog.  Retrieved on May 24, 2015.</ref> - Vlad Chituc at Nonprophet Status blog.

*"Atheism is in [[Global atheism|decline worldwide]], with the number of atheists falling from 4.5% of the world’s population in 1970 to 2.0% in 2010 and projected to drop to 1.8% by 2020, according to a new report by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass." - Michael W. Chapman, ''CNS News'', July 24, 2013<ref>Chapman, Michael W. (July 24, 2013). [https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/global-study-atheists-decline-only-18-world-population-2020 "Global study: atheists in decline, only 1.8% of world population by 2020"]. Cnsnews.com.  Retrieved on July 27, 2014.</ref>

*"Atheism is in [[Global atheism|decline worldwide]], with the number of atheists falling from 4.5% of the world’s population in 1970 to 2.0% in 2010 and projected to drop to 1.8% by 2020, according to a new report by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass." - Michael W. Chapman, ''CNS News'', July 24, 2013<ref>Chapman, Michael W. (July 24, 2013). [https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/global-study-atheists-decline-only-18-world-population-2020 "Global study: atheists in decline, only 1.8% of world population by 2020"]. Cnsnews.com.  Retrieved on July 27, 2014.</ref>

Thomas Raffles (1788-1863) declared:

Thomas Raffles (1788–1863) declared:

{{cquote|We left the [Alps] glacier, and ascending again to the ''hospice'' of Montanvert [the glacier], I sat down upon a block of granite, to take a parting view of the scene.  How poor is language as the expression of one's feelings, at such moments.  The heart is full with thoughts and emotions, that the tongue cannot utter or the pen record.  My mind passed from these sublimest scenes of the ''material'' to the ''immaterial'' world—I seemed, at once, to feel all the littleness and all the greatness of my nature.  How insignificant a creature I appeared amid these gigantic forms—yet I exulted in a conscious being that should survive and surmount them all—that could, even now, commune with Him who bade these billows stiffen, and these summits rise—and say, as the eye embraced the mighty whole, 'My Father made them all'.(* Yet, amid these scenes—surrounded by the sublimest demonstrations of the eternal power and Godhead of the Almighty, a wretch [probably [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]]] has had the hardihood to avow and record his atheism, having written over against his name in the album [kept for visitors] at Montanvert, "''an atheist.''"  It seems as if emotions of shame touched him at the time, for he has written it in Greek.  It caught the eye of a divine who succeeded him, and he very properly wrote underneath it, in the same language, &#x27;''If an atheist, a fool''(**)—''if not, a liar.''&#x27; (** Psalm xiv 1.))<ref>Raffles, Thomas (1818).  [https://archive.org/stream/lettersduringat00raffgoog#page/n6/mode/2up ''Letters, During a Tour through Some Parts of France, Savoy, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands, in the Summer of 1817''] (New York:  Kirk and Merckin), p. 199-200.  Retrieved from Internet Archive on May 28, 2015.  Shelley reference:  [https://books.google.com/books?id=DWJIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA702&lpg=PA702&dq=raffles+a+wretch+has+the+hardihood&source=bl&ots=sqEUP6azUR&sig=oh0L7ciSfPrGpej085uG_SWu6hE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LExnVbeJIYLVoAST44HQCw&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=raffles%20a%20wretch%20has%20the%20hardihood&f=false "Literary Gossip"] (June 1, 1878).  ''The Athenaeum'', no. 2640, p. 702.  Retrieved from GoogleBooks on May 28, 2015.</ref>}}

{{cquote|We left the [Alps] glacier, and ascending again to the ''hospice'' of Montanvert [the glacier], I sat down upon a block of granite, to take a parting view of the scene.  How poor is language as the expression of one's feelings, at such moments.  The heart is full with thoughts and emotions, that the tongue cannot utter or the pen record.  My mind passed from these sublimest scenes of the ''material'' to the ''immaterial'' world—I seemed, at once, to feel all the littleness and all the greatness of my nature.  How insignificant a creature I appeared amid these gigantic forms—yet I exulted in a conscious being that should survive and surmount them all—that could, even now, commune with Him who bade these billows stiffen, and these summits rise—and say, as the eye embraced the mighty whole, 'My Father made them all'.(* Yet, amid these scenes—surrounded by the sublimest demonstrations of the eternal power and Godhead of the Almighty, a wretch [probably [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]]] has had the hardihood to avow and record his atheism, having written over against his name in the album [kept for visitors] at Montanvert, "''an atheist.''"  It seems as if emotions of shame touched him at the time, for he has written it in Greek.  It caught the eye of a divine who succeeded him, and he very properly wrote underneath it, in the same language, &#x27;''If an atheist, a fool''(**)—''if not, a liar.''&#x27; (** Psalm xiv 1.))<ref>Raffles, Thomas (1818).  [https://archive.org/stream/lettersduringat00raffgoog#page/n6/mode/2up ''Letters, During a Tour through Some Parts of France, Savoy, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands, in the Summer of 1817''] (New York:  Kirk and Merckin), p. 199-200.  Retrieved from Internet Archive on May 28, 2015.  Shelley reference:  [https://books.google.com/books?id=DWJIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA702&lpg=PA702&dq=raffles+a+wretch+has+the+hardihood&source=bl&ots=sqEUP6azUR&sig=oh0L7ciSfPrGpej085uG_SWu6hE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LExnVbeJIYLVoAST44HQCw&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=raffles%20a%20wretch%20has%20the%20hardihood&f=false "Literary Gossip"] (June 1, 1878).  ''The Athenaeum'', no. 2640, p. 702.  Retrieved from GoogleBooks on May 28, 2015.</ref>}}