It is now generally admitted, at any rate by philosophers, that the existence of a being having the attributes which define the god of any non-animistic religion cannot be demonstratively proved... [A]ll utterances about the nature of God are nonsensical.

A.J. Ayer
About This Quote

This quote by Bertrand Russell is an example of how religion can be used to explain anything. Russell wrote this to explain that all utterances about the nature of God are nonsensical. He was trying to show that it is impossible to prove the existence of any being with these attributes, much less the God of theism. This statement is often used as an argument against religion.

Source: Language, Truth, And Logic

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More Quotes By A.J. Ayer
  1. It is now generally admitted, at any rate by philosophers, that the existence of a being having the attributes which define the god of any non-animistic religion cannot be demonstratively proved... [A]ll utterances about the nature of God are nonsensical.

  2. I do not believe in God. It seems to me that theists of all kinds have very largely failed to make their concept of a deity intelligible; and to the extent that they have made it intelligible, they have given us no reason to think...

  3. ...His argument, as set out in The Problems of Philosophy, was based on the empirical fact that we are not only aware of things but are also, very frequently, aware of being aware of them.

  4. ... It is possible to be a meta-physician without believing in a transcendent reality; for we shall see that many metaphysical utterances are due to the commission of logical errors, rather than to a conscious desire on the part of their authors to go beyond...

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