Paulo Bittencourt

Paulo Bittencourt (born December 20, 1966) is an Austrian author, known also for being a vocal advocate for Freethought, Humanism and Atheism. The explosive growth of Evangelicals and the rise to power of ultraconservative Jair Bolsonaro in his native country, Brazil, compelled Paulo Bittencourt to write about the evils of mixing religion into politics and the benefits of being a freethinker. ^[1]

ISBN: 979-8436056692 ^[2]

• “Where there is no reflection, there is manipulation.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Liberated from Religion, p. 7)

• “Any ideology that threatens with punishment those who reject it is perverse and deserves to be rejected.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Liberated from Religion, p. 7)

• “There is no greater pleasure than to be a freethinker.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Liberated from Religion, p. 9)

• “One of the principal reasons why so many people believe the evidently fantastic stories of the Bible is the fact that it’s an ancient book. If it had been written these days, an overwhelming majority would not think twice before considering it a work of fiction.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Liberated from Religion, p. 66)

• “Unless we are children, or retards, when we are told a story we instinctively feel whether it’s plausible or fanciful. Instinctively, Christians feel that the stories told by the holy books of other religions are fantastical. Yet, as incredible as it seems, they don’t sense the smell of fantasy of the stories told by their own holy book, more or less like someone who is used to his own foot odor.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Liberated from Religion, p. 79)

• “Those who believe in a supernatural being can’t have difficulty believing in other supernatural beings, such as angels, demons, witches, spirits, ghosts, apparitions and hauntings, nor in superstitions, conspiracy theories and folkloric figures, such as the Headless Mule, by the way a legend based on a woman who supposedly was cursed by God. Those who believe in God cannot find it wrong to believe in the existence, for example, of the Werewolf and Chupacabra, since they can very well be diabolical manifestations. Christians and Muslims are fully convinced that demons exist. On what rational basis could they, then, contest the existence, for example, of vampires? In contrast, a person who doesn’t believe in deities and demons is immune to all kinds of old wives’ tales.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Liberated from Religion, p. 109)

• “How many pieces of evidence are needed to recognize that the Creator of the Universe either doesn’t exist or doesn’t give a damn about his creation? For me, one is sufficient: churches that collapse on believers during worship service.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Liberated from Religion, p. 149)

• “Some more than others, but all religions are dictatorships of thought, because they dictate how their adherents must think, what they can accept and what they must reject.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Liberated from Religion, p. 173)

• “Religion is the illusion of having answers to questions to which no one has answers.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Liberated from Religion, p. 180)

• “I’m not against God existing. I just have no reasons to believe that he exists. Believing is not a virtue. I’m not able to accept incoherences, nor do I know why I should. If what is incoherent deserves to be rejected, how much more what is perverse!”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Liberated from Religion, p. 188)

• “If Humanity can be saved and this Pale Blue Dot transformed into a really good place to live, at least without poverty and wars, then not by people who see life as worthless and spend it dreaming of mansions of gold in an imaginary world, but by people who don’t flee from reality and are guided not by primitive mythological beings, but by reason: freethinkers.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Liberated from Religion, p. 191)

ISBN: 979-8841422839 ^[3]

• “I don’t want to believe, I want to know.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Wasting Time on God, p. 8)

• “Next to the history of Christianity, the scariest horror movie is comedy.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Wasting Time on God, p. 20)

• “Isn’t it ironic that religious freedom comes precisely from secularism, that is, from vetoing the intrusion of religion into politics?”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Wasting Time on God, p. 31)

• “Yahweh is comparable to the powerful boss of a mafia clan who spreads fear through threats, violence and murder in order to gain power, control and respect. Of what value are worship and obedience out of fear? Taking pleasure in this kind of devotion is typical of dictators.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Wasting Time on God, p. 34)

• “In addition to torture (the scourge of Christ) and cannibalism (drinking the blood and eating the flesh of Christ, the ritual known as the Holy Communion), it’s indisputable that Christianity is founded on human sacrifice and filicide. What is the Son’s death on the cross, if not human sacrifice to placate the Father’s wrath?”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Wasting Time on God, p. 66)

• “If life on Earth is evidence of God’s existence, the absence of life on seven planets and five dwarf planets wins 12 to 1 as evidence of his nonexistence.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Wasting Time on God, p. 77)

• “We were born atheists. Therefore, it’s normal to be an atheist. If we were born believing in God, that is, knowing that God exists, there would be only one god and everyone would worship him.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Wasting Time on God, p. 93)

• “To exist, religions need religious freedom, but religious freedom can exist only where what religions fight against is permitted: disbelief. After all, believers too are disbelievers: they disbelieve other religions. Religions combating disbelief is, therefore, schizophrenia and self-destruction. Instead of threatening them with Hell and trying to convert them, Christians should thank God for the existence of skeptics, doubters, disbelievers, infidels, blasphemers and atheists.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Wasting Time on God, p. 112)

• “Either God is love or he is not. If he is love, he cannot punish his creatures just for not believing in him.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Wasting Time on God, p. 118)

• “I find it extremely unlikely that God exists. Yet, if he does exist, let him exist! So what? If God exists, it’s not necessary to believe in him, and if he doesn’t, much less.”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Wasting Time on God, p. 123)

• “The gods of religions are ridiculous, there is no evidence, let alone convincing, that God exists and, in and of itself, the idea of God doesn’t even make sense. Believing in God is, therefore, a tremendous waste of time (and, if you are a church member, money).”
  • Paulo Bittencourt (Wasting Time on God, p. 124)

• Paulo Bitencourt's official website
• Paulo Bitencourt's article Thinking Made Me an Atheist, on the Free Inquiry magazine