People who profess to have no faith, do not actually have no faith. They simply do not have faith as defined by the rest of the people. Many people who do not have faith as defined by the rest— do have a faith in many other good things— honesty, ...
Religion has no power if God is not truly 'dangerous,' but religion also seeks to manage God, and make God safe. The second commandment speaks against the management of God. We cannot help but make our images of God, for God has given us imagination....
Reality, in fact, is always something you couldn't have guessed. That's one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It's a religion you couldn't have guessed.
It seems to me that no matter what religion you subscribe to, acts of kindness are the stepping-stones to making the world a better place--because we become better people in it.
Religion is tied to the deepest feelings people have. The love that arises from that stewing pot is the sweetest and strongest, but the hate is the hottest, and the anger is the most violent.
We can’t worry about meaning. Ari proposed to us that meaning is a consumer item. Some people manufacture it through religion, philosophy, nationhood, politics, and some people buy it. But an artist is not a manufacturer.
For very few persons are concerned about the way that leads to heaven, but all are anxious to know, before the time, what passes there.
The knowledge of ourselves, therefore, is not only an incitement to seek after God, but likewise a considerable assistance towards finding him.
The worship of God is…the only thing which renders men superior to brutes, and makes them aspire to immortality.
He's never fought with religion; what is the point of railing against such beauty, such intimate theatre, such chime of eternity? He can treasure it without believing in it.
Invasion was never a holy war in Islam, but it was holy in political Islam and the Islamic states and empires; after all, what is better than religion to drive people to war?!
Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, 'I am not the kind of person I want to be.' It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied.
What’s the good of being true to your religion on the outside, if you don’t change what’s on the inside,were it really counts ?
Let us see rather that like Janus—or better, like Yama, the Brahmin god of death—religion has two faces, one very friendly, one very gloomy...
The remnant of the human species must understand that faith was the narcotic that fueled the insanity of religion. Conclusion: Invisible love is wasted. Invisible evidence is worthless. Invisible God is non-existent.
Indeed, of the major religions, Islam offers no discernible sliver of valid notion for How Life Works.
It is easy to find religion; it is salvation most seek. After committing to a life of Christ, salvation is lost in those who stray and do not repent. Those who have not committed cannot stray.
Where questions of religion are concerned, people are guilty of every possible sort of dishonesty and intellectual misdemeanor.
the living used to wonder what happened after death. She said that whole religions were born and evolved around this one simple uncertainty.
More generally, as I shall repeat in Chapter 8, one of the truly bad effects of religion is that it teaches us that it is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding.
Whether you practice a traditional religion or a universal version of spirituality, it is necessary to keep an open mind for learning and growing.
