--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: If it is to be established that there is…" description: "\"If it is to be established that there is a God, then we have to have good grounds for believing that this is indeed so. Until and unless some such grou..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7c/antony-flew-26504_agnostic_if-it-is-to-be-established-that-there-is_1747351.jpg" --- # If it is to be established that there is a God, then we… ![“If it is to be established that there is a God, then we have to have good grounds for believing that this is indeed so. Until and unless some such grounds are produced we have literally no reason at all for believing; and in that situation the only reasonable posture must be that of either the…” quote by Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7c/antony-flew-26504_agnostic_if-it-is-to-be-established-that-there-is_1747351.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7c/antony-flew-26504_agnostic_if-it-is-to-be-established-that-there-is_1747351.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7c/antony-flew-26504_agnostic_if-it-is-to-be-established-that-there-is_1747351.jpg) > “If it is to be established that there is a God, then we have to have good grounds for believing that this is indeed so. Until and unless some such grounds are produced we have literally no reason at all for believing; and in that situation the only reasonable posture must be that of either the negative atheist or the agnostic. So the onus of proof has to rest on the proposition of theism.” [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Without evidence, belief in God lacks justification; thus, atheism or agnosticism is the rational stance until proof appears. **In simple terms:** No evidence, no belief in God. Key Takeaway Require evidence before belief. Themes philosophy religion epistemology skepticism Mood critical thoughtful Type analytical philosophical When to use this quote - academic debate - personal belief formation - interfaith dialogue Key Concepts theism atheism agnosticism burden of proof Questions to Reflect On - What constitutes sufficient evidence for belief? - Can moral frameworks exist without a deity? A Different Perspective Some argue faith can be rational without empirical proof. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Agnostic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/agnostic/) [Atheism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/atheism/) [Atheist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/atheist/) [Positive atheism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/positive-atheism/) [Posture](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/posture/) [Reason](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reason/) [Theism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/theism/) ## Related quotes > [Children are often better actors than adults because they have a greater capacity for believing in a situation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-mackendrick/children-are-often-better-actors-than-adults-because-they-have-a/) Alexander Mackendrick > [There can't be a practical reason for believing something that is not true.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bertrand-russell/there-can-t-be-a-practical-reason-for-believing-something-that-is-not/) [Bertrand Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bertrand-russell/) > [There is no reason for believing that any sort of gods exist, and quite good reasons for believing that they do not exist and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/there-is-no-reason-for-believing-that-any-sort-of-gods-exist-and/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [“It’s absurd that having started writing rules at fifteen, I should still be writing them at thirty, without having trusted in, or followed a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/it-s-absurd-that-having-started-writing-rules-at-fifteen-i-should/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) > [“There are no grounds for going beyond a scientific explanation of reality and no sound reason for believing anything but our sense experience. A…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yann-martel/there-are-no-grounds-for-going-beyond-a-scientific-explanation-of/) [Yann Martel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yann-martel/) > [It turns out that the word atheism means much less than I had thought. It is merely the lack of theism.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dan-barker/it-turns-out-that-the-word-atheism-means-much-less-than-i-had-thought/) [Dan Barker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dan-barker/) > [“No one commits mass murder in the name of theism or atheism alone. Additional dogmatic principles are needed to justify such grisly outcomes. In…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/armin-navabi/no-one-commits-mass-murder-in-the-name-of-theism-or-atheism-alone/) [Armin Navabi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/armin-navabi/) > [“Philosophy, that leaned on Heaven before, Shrinks to her second cause, and is no more.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-pope/philosophy-that-leaned-on-heaven-before-shrinks-to-her-second-cause/) [Alexander Pope](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-pope/) > [“The wrong approaches to faith and to skepticism are equally detrimental to the path. For the former declares its answers too soon and is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/criss-jami/the-wrong-approaches-to-faith-and-to-skepticism-are-equally/) [Criss Jami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/criss-jami/) > [With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-weinberg/with-or-without-religion-you-would-have-good-people-doing-good-things/) [Steven Weinberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-weinberg/) > [It was tremendously exciting to discover that science was not destroying religion, as people popularly believe, but that it could cast light on theism…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-howatch/it-was-tremendously-exciting-to-discover-that-science-was-not/) [Susan Howatch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-howatch/) > [“God is logic's corpse, a wound in reason, grammar's empty skin. (1998) It is as obvious to my left brain that there is no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jamey-hecht/god-is-logic-s-corpse-a-wound-in-reason-grammar-s-empty-skin-1998-it/) Jamey Hecht > [Intellect, at its best, can make you agnostic. Being theist or atheist is still a matter of choice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/raheel-farooq/intellect-at-its-best-can-make-you-agnostic-being-theist-or-atheist/) [Raheel Farooq](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/raheel-farooq/) > [The acute experience of great beauty readily evokes a nameless yearning for something more than earth can offer. Elegant splendor reawakens our spirit's aching…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-dubay/the-acute-experience-of-great-beauty-readily-evokes-a-nameless/) [Thomas Dubay](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-dubay/) > [When life is so harsh that a man loses all hope in himself, then he raises his eyes to a shining rock, worshipping it,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isaac-asimov/when-life-is-so-harsh-that-a-man-loses-all-hope-in-himself-then-he/) [Isaac Asimov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isaac-asimov/) ## More by Antony Flew > [You cannot ... transmute some incoherent mixture of words into sense merely by introducing the three-letter word "God" to be its grammatical subject.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/you-cannot-transmute-some-incoherent-mixture-of-words-into-sense/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [So multiverse or not, we still have to come to terms with the origin of the laws of nature. And the only viable explanation…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/so-multiverse-or-not-we-still-have-to-come-to-terms-with-the-origin/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [However far back we may be able to trace the - so to speak - internal history of the Universe, there can be no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/however-far-back-we-may-be-able-to-trace-the-so-to-speak-internal/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [Science spotlights three dimensions of nature that point to God. The first is the fact that nature obeys laws. The second is the dimension…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/science-spotlights-three-dimensions-of-nature-that-point-to-god-the/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [ I am open to \[the notion of theistic revelation\], but not enthusiastic about potential revelation from God. On the positive side, for example, I… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/i-am-open-to-the-notion-of-theistic-revelation-but-not-enthusiastic/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [I’m thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/i-m-thinking-of-a-god-very-different-from-the-god-of-the-christian/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [“If you had an equation detailing the probability of something emerging from a vacuum, you would still have to ask why that equation applies.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/if-you-had-an-equation-detailing-the-probability-of-something/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [Flew concluded that research into DNA had 'shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/flew-concluded-that-research-into-dna-had-shown-by-the-almost/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [Now, if anything at all can be known to be wrong, it seems to me to be unshakably certain that it would be wrong…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/now-if-anything-at-all-can-be-known-to-be-wrong-it-seems-to-me-to-be/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [In the ordinary, everyday understandings of the words involved, to say that someone survived death is to contradict yourself; while to assert that all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/in-the-ordinary-everyday-understandings-of-the-words-involved-to-say/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It's outstandingly different in quality and quantity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/the-evidence-for-the-resurrection-is-better-than-for-claimed-miracles/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [What would have to occur or to have occurred to constitute for you a disproof of the love of, or the existence of, God?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/what-would-have-to-occur-or-to-have-occurred-to-constitute-for-you-a/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [Pascal makes no attempt in this most famous argument to show that his Roman Catholicism is true or probably true. The reasons which he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/pascal-makes-no-attempt-in-this-most-famous-argument-to-show-that-his/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [Although I was once sharply critical of the argument to design, I have since come to see that, when correctly formatted, this argument constitutes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/although-i-was-once-sharply-critical-of-the-argument-to-design-i-have/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) > [It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism,](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antony-flew/it-has-become-inordinately-difficult-even-to-begin-to-think-about/) [Antony Flew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) [Explore all 21 Antony Flew quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antony-flew/) ## More Agnostic quotes > [“She herself vacillated when it came to belief. She did not particularly believe in God. Or, rather, she didn't believe in a particular God.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/allegra-goodman/she-herself-vacillated-when-it-came-to-belief-she-did-not/) [Allegra Goodman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/allegra-goodman/) > [The prayer of the agnostic: "O God, if there is a God, save my soul if I have a soul."](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-renan/the-prayer-of-the-agnostic-o-god-if-there-is-a-god-save-my-soul-if-i/) [Ernest Renan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-renan/) > [I'm actually, for the most part, a complete agnostic politically.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-witten/i-m-actually-for-the-most-part-a-complete-agnostic-politically/) [Edward Witten](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-witten/) > [Even when I was saying I was Agnostic and trying to figure out my thoughts, I felt God was allowing me to do that.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfre-woodard/even-when-i-was-saying-i-was-agnostic-and-trying-to-figure-out-my/) [Alfre Woodard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfre-woodard/) > [There is, in fact, nothing about religious opinions that entitles them to any more respect than other opinions get. On the contrary, they tend…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/there-is-in-fact-nothing-about-religious-opinions-that-entitles-them/) [H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/) > [“Some people are so stiff and inhumane as the dogma's they believe in”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bangambiki-habyarimana/some-people-are-so-stiff-and-inhumane-as-the-dogma-s-they-believe-in/) [Bangambiki Habyarimana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bangambiki-habyarimana/) > [“An atheist is someone who is disappointed in his search of god. He is a man who strongly needed god but couldn't find him.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bangambiki-habyarimana/an-atheist-is-someone-who-is-disappointed-in-his-search-of-god-he-is/) [Bangambiki Habyarimana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bangambiki-habyarimana/) > [If a humanist or an atheist or an agnostic says, "We'll bake you a pie," we can go right into the kitchen and bake…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/madalyn-murray-o-hair/if-a-humanist-or-an-atheist-or-an-agnostic-says-we-ll-bake-you-a-pie/) [Madalyn Murray O'Hair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/madalyn-murray-o-hair/) > [I'm agnostic because I went through the usual process of parents insisting you go to church, and yet they didn't. So there's me, sitting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ridley-scott/i-m-agnostic-because-i-went-through-the-usual-process-of-parents/) [Ridley Scott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ridley-scott/) > [Intellect, at its best, can make you agnostic. Being theist or atheist is still a matter of choice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/raheel-farooq/intellect-at-its-best-can-make-you-agnostic-being-theist-or-atheist/) [Raheel Farooq](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/raheel-farooq/) > [To be agnostic is to be open-minded.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/to-be-agnostic-is-to-be-open-minded/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [All Gaza's temples are torn down and burned and the city is cleansed of every belief but the Christian faith. The most stubborn opponents,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ramsay-macmullen/all-gaza-s-temples-are-torn-down-and-burned-and-the-city-is-cleansed/) [Ramsay MacMullen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ramsay-macmullen/) > [I'm still agnostic. But in the words of Elton Richards, I'm now a reverant agnostic. Which isn't an oxymoron, I swear. I now believe…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/i-m-still-agnostic-but-in-the-words-of-elton-richards-i-m-now-a/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“I'm agnostic. By definition, I'm unsure of what to believe in, but I'm also borderline-capable of believing in anything and everything, or nothing at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lauren-lola/i-m-agnostic-by-definition-i-m-unsure-of-what-to-believe-in-but-i-m/) [Lauren Lola](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lauren-lola/) > [“The Agnostic is one who asserts 'what no one denies' that there are limits to the sphere of human intelligence.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leslie-stephen/the-agnostic-is-one-who-asserts-what-no-one-denies-that-there-are/) [Leslie Stephen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leslie-stephen/) [Browse all 492 Agnostic quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/agnostic/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "If it is to be established that there is a God, then we have to have good grounds for believing that this is indeed so. 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