Greta Christina has been writing professionally since 1989, on topics including atheism, sexuality and sex-positivity, LGBT issues, politics, culture, and whatever crosses her mind. She is author of
The Way of the Heathen: Practicing Atheism in Everyday Life, of
Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God, of
Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why, of
Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, and of
Bending: Dirty Kinky Stories About Pain, Power, Religion, Unicorns, & More, and is editor of
Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients. She has been a public speaker for many years, and many of her talks can be seen on YouTube. Her writing has appeared in multiple magazines and newspapers, including Ms., Penthouse, Chicago Sun-Times, On Our Backs, and Skeptical Inquirer, and numerous anthologies, including
Everything You Know About God Is Wrong and three volumes of
Best American Erotica. (Any views she expresses in this blog are solely hers, and do not necessarily represent this organizations.) She lives in San Francisco with her wife, Ingrid. You can email her at gretachristina (at) gmail (dot) com, or follow her on
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I can’t be bothered to look it up, but thre’s a good quote to the effect of ‘a thousand pairs of hands praying have less effect than one pair working’.
When I was a child, I used to pray to God for a bicycle. Then I
realized that God doesn’t work in that way – so I stole a bicycle
and prayed for forgiveness.
— Emo Phillips
To be fair, I think it’s necessary context to note that Frederick Douglass was an ordained minister and seems to have remained fairly religious throughout, at least as far as I can tell from Wikipedia. It’s a nice quote, but it’s not an endorsement of atheism.
Wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair and all the terrible things that happen to us, come because actually deserve them?
So, now I take comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the Universeâ – Marcus Cole
Douglass also said that he was inspired to escape by a hymn:
“Run to Jesus,
Shun the danger.
I don’t expect to stay much longer here.”
He still has a good point. Even many believers will admit that God helps those who help themselves… which from an atheists point of view means we didn’t need God’s help in the first place.