Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen (December 26, 1921 –
October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, musician,
composer, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio,
Allen is best known for his television career. He first gained national
attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. He
graduated to become the first host of The Tonight Show, where he
was instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show.
Thereafter, he hosted numerous game and variety shows, including The
Steve Allen Show, I've Got a Secret, and The New Steve Allen Show,
and was a regular panel member on CBS' What's My Line? Allen was
a credible pianist and a prolific composer, having penned over 14,000
songs, one of which was recorded by Perry Como and Margaret Whiting,
others by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Les Brown, and Gloria Lynne.
Allen won a Grammy award in 1963 for best jazz composition, with his
song The Gravy Waltz. Allen wrote more than 50 books, has two
stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Hollywood theater named in his
honor. (Click here for full Wikipedia
article)
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Asthma doesn't seem to bother me any more unless I'm around cigars or
dogs. The thing that would bother me most would be a dog smoking a cigar.
God is by definition the holder of all possible knowledge, it would be
impossible for him to have faith in anything. Faith, then, is built upon
ignorance and hope.
Humor is a social lubricant that helps us get over some of the bad spots.
I do not understand those who take little or no interest in the subject
of religion. If religion embodies a truth, it is certainly the most
important truth of human existence. If it is largely error, then it is
one of monumentally tragic proportions- and should be vigorously opposed.
I used to be a heavy gambler. But now I just make mental bets. That's
how I lost my mind.
Ideas have consequences, and totally erroneous ideas are likely to have
destructive consequences.
If God exists, his unlimited power can certainly redress imbalances in
the scale of human justice. But if there is no God, then it is up to man
to be as moral as he can.
If the Old Testament were a reliable guide in the matter of capital
punishment, half the people in the United States would have to be killed
tomorrow.
If there is a God, the phrase that must disgust him is- holy war.
If you pray for rain long enough, it eventually does fall. If you pray
for floodwaters to abate, they eventually do. The same happens in the
absence of prayers.
In a rational society we would want our presidents to be teachers. In
our actual society we insist they be cheerleaders.
Is it bigger than a breadbox?
It is not hardness of heart or evil passions that drive certain
individuals to atheism, but rather a scrupulous intellectual honesty.
No actual tyrant known to history has ever been guilty of one- hundredth
of the crimes, massacres, and other atrocities attributed to the Deity
in the Bible.
Old men miss many dogs.
One of the nice things about problems is that a good many of them do not
exist except in our imaginations.
One social evil for which the New Testament is clearly in part
responsible is anti-Semitism.
Ours is a government of checks and balances. The Mafia and crooked
businessmen make out checks, and the politicians and other compromised
officials improve their bank balances.
Religious believers of the world, you are free to continue to debate the
simple, narrow question that divides you from atheists, but you have no
right, in so doing, to treat the Humanists of the world with contempt.
You owe them a deep debt of gratitude, for not only have they shed much
light on a naturally dark world but they have very probably helped
civilize your own specific religion.
The Bible has been interpreted to justify such evil practices as, for
example, slavery, the slaughter of prisoners of war, the sadistic
murders of women believed to be witches, capital punishment for hundreds
of offenses, polygamy, and cruelty to animals. It has been used to
encourage belief in the grossest superstition and to discourage the free
teaching of scientific truths. We must never forget that both good and
evil flow from the Bible. It is therefore not above criticism.
There are hundreds of millions who believe the Messiah has come. If he
did, then it is unfortunately the case that his heroic sacrifice and
death have had no effect whatsoever on the very problem his coming might
have been expected to address, for history demonstrates, beyond
question, that we Christians have been just as dangerous, singly and en
masse, as non-Christians.
To those who wish to punish others- or at least to see them punished, if
the avengers are too cowardly to take matters in to their own hands- the
belief in a fiery, hideous hell appears to be a great source of comfort.
Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized.
We are entitled to make almost any reasonable assumption, but should
resist making conclusions until evidence requires that we do so.
Without laughter life on our planet would be intolerable. So important
is laughter to us that humanity highly rewards members of one of the
most unusual professions on earth, those who make a living by inducing
laughter in others. This is very strange if you stop to think of it:
that otherwise sane and responsible citizens should devote their
professional energies to causing others to make sharp, explosive
barking-like exhalations.
"I want to give you the bad news first- this program is going to go on forever."
-Steve
Allen on the first episode of "Tonight" (later, "The Tonight Show"),
September 27, 1954.
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(December 26 is also the birthday of Henry
Miller )
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