Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who also used multiple pseudonyms, was an American atheist activist, founder of American Atheists, and the organization's president from 1963 to 1986. She created the first issues of American Atheist Magazine. One of her sons, Jon Garth Murray, became the nominal president of the organization from 1986 to 1995, but she remained de facto president during these nine years...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth13 April 1919
CountryUnited States of America
Organizing atheists is like hurding cats
An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death.
The fear of hell is the basis for the Christian faith.
You hate me because I am the embodiment of all your doubts.
Atheism is based upon a materialist philosophy, which holds that nothing exists but natural phenomena. There are no supernatural forces or entities, nor can there be any. Nature simply exists.
The relationships that people have - that are sexual, psychological, emotional - these relationships are not open to supervision by parents, schools, churches, or government. Nobody has any right to intervene at all in any kind of relationship like that.
I want three words: Woman, Atheist, Anarchist. That's me.
In an unconstitutional partnership with the state, the church can impose the most irresistible, if covert, controls conceivable.
Religion is induced insanity.
Marx was wrong--religion is not the opiate of the masses, baseball is.
An Atheist loves himself and his fellow man instead of a god. An Atheist knows that heaven is something for which we should work now, here on earth, for all men together to enjoy.
Well, as a militant feminist, I believe in complete equality with men: intellectual, professional, economic, social and sexual; they're all equally essential, and they're all equally lacking in American society today.
But the most heinous crime of the Church has been perpetrated not against churchmen but against churchgoers. With its poisonous concepts of sin and divine punishment, it's warped and brainwashed countless millions. It would be impossible to calculate the psychic damage this has inflicted on generations of children who might have grown up into healthy, happy. productive, zestful human beings but for the burden of antisexual fear and guilt ingrained in them by the Church. This alone is enough to condemn religion.
At no time have I ever said that people should be stripped of their right to the insanity of belief in God. If they want to practice this kind of irrationality, that's their business. It won't get them anywhere; it certainly won't make them happier or more compassionate human beings; but if they want to chew that particular cud. they're welcome to it.