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"My theology is a simple muddle. I cannot look at the universe as the result of blind chance, yet I can see no evidence of beneficent design, or indeed of design of any kind." - writing in 1870, quoted in the 1973 Encyclopedia Britannica
"I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. I think that generally (& more & more so as I grow older), but not always, that an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind." - letter to the Rev. J. Fordyce, July 7, 1879, quoted in The Collector, No. 1, 1958
"The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic." - quoted by George Seldes in The Great Quotations
"I cannot see so plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars, or that a cat should play with a mouse." Â quoted by Ira Cardiff in What Great Men Think of Religion
"Science and Christ have nothing to do with each other. I do not believe that any revelation has ever been made." - ibid.
"I do not believe in any revelation." - quoted by Rufus K. Noyes in Views of Religion
[This article is from a chapter in my 1996 book, 2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People With the Courage to Doubt, published by Prometheus Books. All rights reserved.]
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