Quotes by Michael Martin

“I think everybody, first and foremost, is trying to find ways to buy cheaper gas.”

“These are mandatory repairs,”

“face up to the reality of our national alcohol problem.”

“I was a teenager during the Watergate scandal. It made a tremendous impression on me -- the tapes that werent supposed to be heard by anyone outside a tight little circle were being heard by everyone! And the effect was phenomenal.”

“I put the house I share with my partner, Eric Webb, into a trust to keep it out of harms way, legally. And I arranged to have the Jewel Box Theater cleared of liability. But the Jewel Box owners werent convinced. They didnt want to be involved in anything that had been found illegal in a court.”

“It is definitely a tourist attraction. And for Mexico, it is our Number 1 attraction.”

“Consumers in Sonora know Arizona Mills. They have been to it. They love it. They know exactly what you are talking about.”

“Its a [small] baby industry, pooling its resources.”

“It makes organics seem approachable for mainstream consumers.”

“I do know that some MPs give authority to another MP to put their name on such a motion. But I cant think of any member who would do so in this instance. I will look into the matter. Thats the best I can do and I will continue watching Big Brother in my spare time.”

The aim of this book is not to make atheism a popular belief or even to overcome its invisibility. My object is not utopian. It is merely to provide good reasons for being an atheist. … My object is to show that atheism is a rational position and that belief in God is not. I am quite aware that atheistic beliefs are not always based on reason. My claim is that they should be.

If you look up atheism in the dictionary, you will probably find it defined as the belief that there is no God. Certainly many people understand atheism in this way. Yet many atheists do not, and this is not what the term means if one considers it from the point of view of its Greek roots. In Greek a means without or not and theos means god. From this standpoint an atheist would simply be someone without a belief in God, not necessarily someone who believes that God does not exist. According to its Greek roots, then, atheism is a negative view, characterized by the absence of belief in God.