We have been deformed by educational and religious institutions that treat us as members of an audience instead of actors in a drama, so we become adults who treat democracy as a spectator sport.
I think you can get to a point where nihilism, if that's the right word, is overwhelming, and the basic laws that society has set up - either religious or social laws - become meaningless.
I believe that nothing enjoys a higher estate in our society than the right given by the First and Fourteenth Amendments freely to practice and proclaim one's religious convictions.
The idea is, we're still a society where we recognize and see and even sometimes seek members of our own tribe, whatever that tribe is. It could be ethnic, religious, geographic, political.
Religion united its influence with those of loyalty and love, and the order of knighthood, endowed with all the sanctity and religious awe that attended the priesthood, became an object of ambition to the greatest sovereigns.
Provincial governments in Canada have terminated the positions of marriage commissioners who have, for personal religious convictions, not performed same sex marriages. It has happened in Saskatchewan.
Secular humanists suspect there is something more gloriously human about resisting the religious impulse; about accepting the cold truth, even if that truth is only that the universe is as indifferent to us as we are to it.
I pay attention when the Academy Awards come around. I haven't watched them in a while, but I used to watch them religiously when I was a kid.
Human beings can remain spiritual and religious while enjoying the benefits of rational administration of their affairs.
I'm not a religious person; I'm more of a spiritual person, so I follow the rules of the Bible that coordinate with and connect with the Hebrew culture.
But alas, they are all sadly deficient, because they leave us under the domination of political and religious prejudices; and they are as inefficient as the sleepy dose of an ordinary sermon.
I have always noticed that deeply and truly religious persons are fond of a joke, and I am suspicious of those who aren't.
At some point we must make a decision not to allow the mere threat of charges of cultural or religious insensitivity to stop us from dealing with this evil.
The only way to be true to our American tradition is to maintain absolute governmental neutrality regarding religious beliefs and practices.
The turmoil and dislocations confronting present-day society will not be solved until both the scientific and religious genius of the human race are fully utilized.
Most terrorists are people deeply concerned by what they see as social, political, or religious injustice and hypocrisy, and the immediate grounds for their terrorism is often retaliation for an action of the United States.
I once dieted so religiously I quit eating in church.
However, intention needn't enter in, and if a reader sees things in a religious way, and the work is dogmatically acceptable, then I don't see why it should not be interpreted in that way, as well as in others.
I was raised a Catholic. But I am not religious. In my work, I am interested in real flesh and blood.
I do not believe in the government of the lash, if any one of you ever expects to whip your children again, I want you to have a photograph taken of yourself when you are in the act, with your face red with vulgar anger, and the face of the little ch...
[Reese and Floyd are trying to get a lynch mob together after Stoddard kills Valance] Tom Doniphon: Can't a man have a drink around this town in peace? [grabs Floyd and throws him through the door] Reese: No one's bothering you, Doniphon. Tom Donipho...
