I stumbled upon this list of Atheist quotes....
[I]f I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul. - Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov - another of my heroes.
I have a odd little story about a picture of Asimov. Back in 99 I started a long journey towards getting a degree, and eventually even a graduate degree, by going to school at night after work. in one of my first classes, a critical thinking class if I recall correctly, we had to debate the existence of God.
My team met at a Borders in Seal Beach under a portrait of Isaac Asimov. I thought it was funny given the assignment, but then again, I did not pick the spot.
I viewed the project as an intellectual exercise. I did not care which side I represented, only that we met the course objects, which were to develop at least 6 arguments as a team, present a paper, and then conduct a live debate. Of course, we had to represent both sides of the argument in the paper and face off in the debate.
I was with a group of 6 other students, all were 30 something mothers and true believers. We drew straws - I ended up on the "no god" team. My three partners soon refused to do anything that might cast a shadow on their beliefs. One lady - I think her name was Pam, asserted that no atheist had ever brought anything of value to the world. She said it with tears in her eyes. She was a true believer and could not step outside of her role for the project.
I thought about her comments for a few seconds and then looked up at Asimov. I said to Pam, "do you like science fiction?" She responded in the affirmative, but I could see she thought I was trying to trap her. I asked her what her favorite book was, she responded with I, Robot. I pointed to the picture above her head and said "written by Isaac Asimov, one of the most famous atheist I know of." She grew read faced in her embarrassment, yelled something about the devil, grabbed her books and then ran out of the bookstore. I never saw her again.
I had to do the debate as the sole representative of the "No God" team. Our professor failed the rest of my team for non-performance.
(Posted while listing to No Doubt - DJ's - off Look At All The Love We Got.)
