Site uses cookies to provide basic functionality.

OK
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ▲ ▼
Link Quote Stars Tags Author
3300616 I know that you are wise. When you hear a true story, there is a part of you that responds to it regardless of art, regardless of evidence...You believe that the story is true, because you responded to it from that sense of truth deep within you. But that sense of truth does not respond to a story's factuality...[rather] to a story's causality - whether it faithfully shows the way the universe functions. spirituality religion mythology Orson Scott Card
bcdd734 "The old, endless, approachable and always answering Sorrow," says my father Lucifer. "For who calls on me never goes unanswered. Only prayers to God go without answers." -- religion Robert Nye
826b8e4 But then Job was a man. Invisibility was intolerable to men. What complaint would a female Job dare to put forth? And if, having done so, and He deigned to remind her of how weak and ignorant she was, where was the news in that? What shocked Job into humility and renewed fidelity was the message a female Job would have known and heard every minute of her life. women religion Toni Morrison
080da54 How would that premise stand up if he examined it? That was probably why the Communists were always cracking down on Bohemiansism. When you were drunk or when you committed adultery you recognised your own personal fallability of that so mutable substitute for the apostles' creed, the party line. Down with Bohemianism, the sin of Majakowski. religion drink morals communism Ernest Hemingway
8c74860 To deny the necessity or value of metaphysics is to assert a metaphysical principle, just as to say a religion must be without dogmas is to assert a dogma. religion philosophy metaphysics Fulton J. Sheen
9b32798 Life cannot find reasons to sustain it, cannot be a source of decent mutual regard, unless each of us resolves to breathe such qualities into it. religion meaning-of-life science-fiction existentialism ethics prophecy mythology Frank Herbert
62bbde3 Most discipline is hidden discipline, designed not to liberate but to limit. Do not ask Why? Be cautious with How? Why? leads inexorably to paradox. How? traps you in a universe of cause and effect. Both deny the infinite. religion science-fiction Frank Herbert
2e97c30 In the end idealism annoyed Bouvard. 'I don't want any more of it: the famous cogito is a bore. The ideas of things are taken for the things themselves. What we barely understand is explained by means of words that we do not understand at all! Substance, extension, force, matter and soul, are all so many abstractions, figments of the imagination. As for God, it is impossible to know how he is, or even if he is! Once he was the cause of wind, thunder, revolutions. Now he is getting smaller. Besides, I don't see what use he is. idealism spirituality religion god language Gustave Flaubert
38c6b2b At times it may seem worse - harder, at least - to live through the despair of this loss without the temporary comfort of our addictive behaviour. We cannot drown our sorrows. We must face the fact that we don't know, really, where we are, how we got here, how long the pain will last, or how to move past it. That uncertainty may be the most painful part of not knowing a God: no one is there to reassure us that a God will take the pain and confusion away. We simply don't know. And we have no way to numb ourselves or to forget the condition we're in. religion spiritual Marya Hornbacher
13ec223 "We have a predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. The Predator is our lord and master. It has rendered us docile, helpless. If we want to protest, it suppresses our protest. If we want to act independently, it demands that we don't do so... I have been beating around the bush all this time, insinuating to you that something is holding us prisoner. Indeed we are held prisoner! "This was an energetic fact for the sorcerers of ancient Mexico ... They took us over because we are food for them, and they squeeze us mercilessly because we are their sustenance. just as we rear chickens in chicken coops, the predators rear us in human coops, humaneros. Therefore, their food is always available to them." "No, no, no, no," [Carlos replies] "This is absurd don Juan. What you're saying is something monstrous. It simply can't be true, for sorcerers or for average men, or for anyone." "Why not?" don Juan asked calmly. "Why not? Because it infuriates you? ... You haven't heard all the claims yet. I want to appeal to your analytical mind. Think for a moment, and tell me how you would explain the contradictions between the intelligence of man the engineer and the stupidity of his systems of beliefs, or the stupidity of his contradictory behaviour. Sorcerers believe that the predators have given us our systems of belief, our ideas of good and evil, our social mores. They are the ones who set up our hopes and expectations and dreams of success or failure. They have given us covetousness, greed, and cowardice. It is the predators who make us complacent, routinary, and egomaniacal." "'But how can they do this, don Juan? [Carlos] asked, somehow angered further by what [don Juan] was saying. "'Do they whisper all that in our ears while we are asleep?" "'No, they don't do it that way. That's idiotic!" don Juan said, smiling. "They are infinitely more efficient and organized than that. In order to keep us obedient and meek and weak, the predators engaged themselves in a stupendous manoeuvre stupendous, of course, from the point of view of a fighting strategist. A horrendous manoeuvre from the point of view of those who suffer it. They gave us their mind! Do you hear me? The predators give us their mind, which becomes our mind. The predators' mind is baroque, contradictory, morose, filled with the fear of being discovered any minute now." "I know that even though you have never suffered hunger... you have food anxiety, which is none other than the anxiety of the predator who fears that any moment now its manoeuvre is going to be uncovered and food is going to be denied. Through the mind, which, after all, is their mind, the predators inject into the lives of human beings whatever is convenient for them. And they ensure, in this manner, a degree of security to act as a buffer against their fear." "The sorcerers of ancient Mexico were quite ill at ease with the idea of when [the predator] made its appearance on Earth. They reasoned that man must have been a complete being at one point, with stupendous insights, feats of awareness that are mythological legends nowadays. And then, everything seems to disappear, and we have now a sedated man. What I'm saying is that what we have against us is not a simple predator. It is very smart, and organized. It follows a methodical system to render us useless. Man, the magical being that he is destined to be, is no longer magical. He's an average piece of meat." "There are no more dreams for man but the dreams of an animal who is being raised to become a piece of meat: trite, conventional, imbecilic." slavery magic human religion dreams ancient-history cognitive-dissonance anunnaki cosmos occult virus shamanism aliens cause-and-effect manipulation sorcery sorcerer matrix chaos problems beliefs predator important service secrets food mind-control Carlos Castaneda
d744849 But art and religion will always shadow one another through the abstract nouns they both invoke: truth, seriousness, imagination, sympathy, morality, transcendence. religion Julian Barnes
b0ba6d2 "You were baptized?" "My sister told me that yes, Father baptized me shortly after birth. My mother was a Protestant of a faith that deplored infant baptism, so they had a quarrel about it." The Bishop held out his hand to lift the Speaker to his feet. The Speaker chuckled. "Imagine. A closet Catholic and a lapsed Mormon, quarreling over religious procedures that they both claimed not to believe in." religion Orson Scott Card
71a4508 "The Official was bending over his desk, staring at the sergeant. "May I ask you a question?" "Yes." "Have you ever thought you were Christ?" "I can't say that I have. But I have considered that God was good to me to let me find what I was looking for, if that's what you mean." religion Ray Bradbury
fcf614f If you can't test it, it's not theorics -- it's metatheorics. A branch of philosophy. So, if you want to think of it this way, our test equipment is what defines the boundary separating theorics from philosophy. religion science philosophy Neal Stephenson
863a43b But I want to pray to Allah. I want to be a Christian. christianity religion life-of-pi Yann Martel
d7d1dc7 Liberty and Freedom are complex concepts. They go back to religious ideas of Free Will and are related to the Ruler Mystique implicit in absolute monarchs. Without absolute monarchs patterned after the Old Gods and ruling by the grace of a belief in religious indulgence, Liberty and Freedom would never have gained their present meaning. These ideals owe their very existence to past examples of oppression. And the forces that maintain such ideas will erode unless renewed by dramatic teaching or new oppressions. This is the most basic key to my life. freedom religion social-science post-apocalyptic liberty science-fiction theology mythology tyranny power ideology Frank Herbert
eb10675 For instance, if Jesus Christ had died in prison, with no one watching and with no one there to mourn or torture him, would we be saved? With all due respect. According to the agent, the biggest factor that makes you a saint is the amount of press coverage you get. religion palahniuk Chuck Palahniuk
0f2a5a7 Dropping cluster bombs from the air is not only less repugnant: it is somehow deemed, by Western people at least, to be morally superior,' says British psychologist Jacqueline Rose. 'Why dying with your victim should be seen as a greater sin than saving yourself is unclear.'The colonial West had created a two-tier hierarchy that privileged itself at the expense of 'The Rest'. The Enlightenment had preached the equality of all human beings, yet Western policy in the developing world often adopted a double standard so that we failed to treat others as we would wish to be treated. Our focus on the nation seems to have made it hard for us to cultivate the global outlook that we need in our increasingly interrelated world. We must deplore any action that spills innocent blood or sows terror for its own sake. But we must also acknowledge and sincerely mourn the blood that we have shed in pursuit of national interests. Otherwise we can hardly defend ourselves against accusations of maintaining an 'arrogant silence' in the face of others' pain and of creating a world order in which some people's lives are deemed more valuable than others religion neo-colonialism Karen Armstrong
246955b We create our own future by our own beliefs, which control our actions. A strong enough belief system, a sufficiently powerful conviction, can make anything happen. This is how we create our consensus reality, including our gods. universe religion Brian Herbert
23296c1 Will these millions of children, for generations upon future generations, know that some of their atoms cycled through this woman? [...] Will they feel what she felt in her life, will their memories have flickering strokes of her memories, will they recall that moment long ago when she stood by the window, guilt ridden and confused, and watched as the tadr bird circled the cistern? No, it is not possible. [...] But I will let them have their own brief glimpse of the Void, just at that moment they pass from living to dead, from animate to inanimate, from consciousness to that which has no consciousness. For a moment, they will understand infinity. death religion science-fiction Alan Lightman
985ca95 But here God didn't come. We were all on our own. religion god maus holocaust Art Spiegelman
5a29f0c The baby should always be saved in preference to the mother. That is the advice of the Holy Church, you know that. I was only reminding women of their duty. There is no need to make everything so personal, Margaret. You make everything into your own tragedy. women religion personhood Philippa Gregory
3edca47 The position occupied by Toporoff, involving as it did an incongruity of purpose, could only be held by a dull man devoid of moral sensibility. Toporoff possessed both these negative qualities. The incongruity of the position he occupied was this: It was his duty to keep up and to defend, by external measures, not excluding violence, that Church which, by its own declaration, was established by God Himself and could not be shaken by the gates of hell nor by anything human. This divine and immutable God-established institution had to be sustained and defended by a human institution--the Holy Synod, managed by Toporoff and his officials. Toporoff did not see this contradiction, nor did he wish to see it, and he was therefore much concerned lest some Romish priest, some pastor, or some sectarian should destroy that Church which the gates of hell could not conquer. religion state-religion incongruity Leo Tolstoy
3915538 "They have not forgotten the Mysteries," she said, "they have found them too difficult. They want a God who will care for them, who will not demand that they struggle for enlightenment, but who will accept them just as they are, with all their sins, and take away their sins with repentance. It is not so, it will never be so, but perhaps it is the only way the unenlightened can bear to think of their Gods." Lancelet smiled bitterly. "Perhaps a religion which demands that every man must work through lifetime after lifetime for his own salvation is too much for mankind. They want not to wait for God's justice, but to see it now. And that is the lure which this new breed of priests has promised them." doubt religion god salvation rebirth Marion Zimmer Bradley
a142012 "Religious laws, in all the major religious traditions, have both a letter and a spirit. As I understand the words and example of Jesus, the spirit of the law is all-important whereas the letter, while useful... becomes lifeless and deadly without it. In accord with this distinction a yearning to worship on wilderness ridges or beside rivers rather than in churches could legitimately be called evangelical... if your words or deeds harmonize with the example of Jesus, you are evangelical in spirit whether you claim to be or not. When the non-Christian Ambrose Bierce wrote, "War is the means by which Americans learn geography," his words are aimed at the same antiwar end as "Blessed are the peacemakers." nature spirituality religion David James Duncan
cc70df3 the only unfailing guide I've ever found through the innumerable blind alleys of my life as a writer, man, husband, father, citizen, steward, or believer, is the love burning in my heart. for me, prayer is about one thing: making contact with that love. though it burns in there like a candle flame, hot, bright, beautiful, love's flame is so fragile... keeping one's love burning, and living in accord with that burning: this, to me, is prayer. prayer spirituality religion David James Duncan
478f78f There are none so superstitious as the educated, for often they see in their own time - as an article of faith unsubstantiated by experience - the final end of human progress. religion education superstition Charles A. Coulombe
b941a28 (Wallace) Stevens turns to the idea of the weather precisely as the religious man turns to the idea of God. poetry religion wallace-stevens weather Harold Bloom
5ff0ea4 "I [Lorna Craig] would say that teaching a girl that her salvation depends on her having sexual relations with a married man is inherently destructive." Such relationships, Craig argues bitterly, should be considered "a crime, not a religion." rape religion polygamy Jon Krakauer
4f819ba I guess, like some guy once said, if triangles invented a god, the chances are high it would have three sides. religion god Michael Marshall Smith
ea7d21d I have always known that the best of the Saracens could out-Christian many of us Christians. equality goodness religion crusades openmindedness tolerance Ellis Peters
7a32f33 Did he who made the lamb make thee? christianity religion god william-blake innocence William Blake
436f054 ...this clumsy collision of two very impatient forms of ignorance was known as the quarrel of Science and Religion. history religion science statement similarity G.K. Chesterton
083e385 The reverend waited for her to be seated and then he bowed his head and blessed the food and the table and the people sitting at it. He went on at some length and blessed everything all the way up to the country and then he blessed some other countries as well and he spoke about war and famine and the missions and other problems in the world with particular reference to Russia and the jews and cannibalism and he asked it all in Christ's name amen and raised up and reached for the cornbread. religion Cormac McCarthy
2daa31a Ferbin's father had had the same robustly pragmatic view of religion as he'd had of everything else. In his opinion, only the very poor and downtrodden really needed religion, to make their laborious lives more bearable. People craved self-importance; they longed to be told they mattered as individuals, not just as part of a mass of people or some historical process. They needed the reassurance that while their life might be hard, bitter and thankless, some reward would be theirs after death. Happily for the governing class, a well-formed faith also kept people from seeking their recompense in the here and now, through riot, insurrection or revolution. religion government revolution Iain M. Banks
e846496 She was a logical child, as far as children go. She did not understand how such a nice, kind, good God as the one they preyed to, could condemn the whole earth for sinfulness and flood it, or condemn his only Son to a disgusting death on behalf of everyone. This death did not seem to have done much good. religion god punishment logic sin A.S. Byatt
5e3c09b Spirituality can go hand-in-hand with ruthless single-mindedness when the individual is convinced his cause is just religion inquisition middle-ages Michela Wrong
a3913e2 In bitter manuscript remarks on other men's notions about solar deities, he had become indifferent to the sunlight. religion apathy George Eliot
f75eb5d Fear not, brothers and sisters, God, who is full of grace and abounding in steadfast love, meets us in our sin and transforms us for God's glory and the healing of God's world. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, your sins are forgiven, be now at peace. religion god love holy-spirit grace son father sin Nadia Bolz-Weber
fc08e5b Faith is the mortar that fills the cracks in the evidence and the gaps in the logic, and thus it is faith that keeps the whole terrible edifice of religious certainty still looming dangerously over our world. reason religion logic Sam Harris
fa6be0e lkhyn@. mndh Tfwltn wlwld wm`lm lmdrs@ ykrrn `l~ msm`n b'nh 'fZ` shy fy lwjwd. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
6056bb3 fy mmlk@ <> ltwtlytry@ t`T~ ljbt msbqan mHriWm@ bdhlk 'y sw'l jdyd. yntj `n dhlk 'n lnsn ldhy ytsl hw l`dw lHqyqy l <>. lsw'l hw mthl mskyn ymzq lqmsh@ lmrswm@ lldykwr fySbH fy lmstT` rw'y@ m ykhtby' khlfh. hkdh shrHt sbyn ltyryz m`n~ lwHth: mn l'mm lkdhb lSrkh, wmn lkhlf lHqyq@ lty l yudrk knhh. l 'n hw'l ldhyn ynDlwn Dd l'nZm@ lmsmW@ twtlytry@ qlaWm ymknhm lnDl mn khll 'sy'l@ wshkwk. fhum 'yDan bHj@ l~ qn`thm wl~ Hqyqthm lbsyT@ lty yftrD 'n yfhmh 'kbr `dd mmkn mn lns w'n tHdth frzan dm`yan jm`yan. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
75b61fe `dt tyryz l~ lnwm mn jdyd. wlknh hw lm ystT` lnwm. kn ytkhylh myt@ wtr~ 'Hlman rhyb@. wlm ykn fy stT`th yqZh l'nh myt@. n`m, hdh hw lmwt: 'n tnm tyryz wtr~ 'Hlman fZy`@ dwn 'n ytmkn mn yqZh. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
9b57c5f w'n hnk 'yDan w'yDan kwkb 'khr~ Hyth ymkn lljns lbshry 'n yld mn jdyd mrtqyan fy kl mr@ drj@an ('y Hy@) `l~ sulaWm lkml. tlk hy lfkr@ lty ykwWnh twms `n l`awd l'bdy. nHn 'yDan skn hdhh l'rD ('y lkwkb rqm wHd, kwkb n`dm lkhbr@), lys fy mknn Tb`an l 'n nkwWn fkr@ GmD@ jdan `m sySyr bHl lnsn fy lkwkb l'khr~. tur~ hl sykwn 'kthr thqlan? hl sykwn lkml fy mtnwl ydh? whl sytmkn mn lwSwl lyh bwsT@ ltkrr? Dmn 'fq hdhh lywTwby wHdh, ymkn lmfhwmy ltshw'm wltfw'l 'n ykwn lhm m`n~: flmtfy'l hw dhlk ldhy ytSwr 'n ltrykh lnsny sykwn 'ql dymwm@ `l~ lkwkb rqm 5. wlmtshy'm hw dhlk ldhy l ySdWq hdh l'mr. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
fdb9791 "But you do believe, don't you," Rose implored him, "you think it's true?" "Of course it's true," the Boy said. "What else could there be?" he went scornfully on. "Why," he said, "it's the only thing that fits. These atheists, they don't know nothing. Of course there's Hell. Flames and damnation," he said with his eyes on the dark shifting water and the lightning and the lamps going out above the black struts of the Palace Pier, "torments." "And Heaven too," Rose said with anxiety, while the rain fell interminably on. "Oh, maybe," the Boy said, "maybe." fiction religion Graham Greene
24eec69 L.P. J.H. No, not at all! It fights the unconsciousness, the blindness, that all myth creates about itself. You never can see the actual myth you are in or only through a glass darkly. myth religion glass-darkly James Hillman
7e17b09 most of us happily disavow fairies, astrology and the Flying Spaghetti Monster, without first immersing ourselves in books of Pastafarian theology etc. religion pz-myers logical-fallacy theology Richard Dawkins
8adaf4f Gods always behave like the people who make them. religion voodoo Zora Neale Hurston
457a71f And you know what? If there is a God, and it's that same God who's so eager to have temples built in honor of his greatness, and wars fought over him, and people dropping to their knees telling him what a wonderful, magnificent being he is? If this all-powerful, all-knowing creature for some reason just can't get by without my worship? Then let him give me some proof. Or at least get over himself if I decide to go out and get some. religion Robin Wasserman
0362aab Eve mused. war religion J.D. Robb
96c9103 He was thankful not to have to believe in God, for then such a condition of things would be intolerable; one could reconcile oneself to existence only because it was meaningless. religion life W. Somerset Maugham
e1ef7bd I am for that thing in your genome that demands it. I am for that thing which keeps you animals alive. I am, at most, a slice of monkey suspended within the stuff of universal intelligence. You are a monkey in nice clothes. In the harsh environment you refer to as a habitable planet, group behaviors are required to survive long enough to procreate. Since you are stupid monkeys, you have no natural affinity for group altruism. And so you have evolved a genetic pump that delivers pleasant chemicals to your monkey brains. One that is triggered by awe and fear of an anthropomorphism of your environment. Earth mothers. Sky gods. Bits of bush that catch fire. Interesting-looking rocks. An oddly-shaped branch. You're not fussy. When your brain does this idiot work, you stop in front of that bump or stick and consider it fiercely. Other monkeys will, like as not, stop next to you and emulate you. Your genetic pump delivers morphine for your souls. You have your fellow monkeys join in. Perhaps so they can feel it too. Perhaps because you feel it might please the stick god to have more monkeys gaze at it in narcotic awe. The group must be defended. Because as many monkeys as possible must please the stick god, and you can continue to get your fix off praying to it. You draw up rules to organize and protect the group. Two hundred thousand years later, you put Adolf Hitler into power. Because you are, after all, just monkeys. I am your stash. religion god Warren Ellis
4a8febd "The method that is required is not one of correlation but of liberation. Even the term "method" must be reinterpreted and in fact wrenched out of its usual semantic field, for the emerging creativity in women is by no means a merely cerebral process. In order to understand the implications of this process it is necessary to grasp the fundamental fact that women have had the power of naming stolen from us. We have not been free to use our power to name ourselves, the world or God. The old naming was not the product of dialogue- a fact inadvertently admitted in the genesis story of Adam's naming the animals and the women. Women are now realizing that the universal imposing of names by men has been false because partial. That is, inadequate words have been taken as adequate." men women religion naming method process sexism Mary Daly
a9fc4b6 Usually, fundamentalists, be they Christian, Muslim, or any faith, shape and interpret religious thought to make it conform to and legitimize a conservative status quo. Fundamentalist thinkers use religion to justify supporting imperialism, militarism, sexism, racism, homophobia. They deny the unifying message of love that is at the heart of every major religious tradition. spirituality religion spiritual religious christianity-faith muslim fundamentalism fundamentalists bell hooks
8b42519 "Waste of time," said the leper. "There's a dozen or more beggars who come here every day, pretending to be cripples, hiring themselves out to the holy men. A couple of drachmas and they'll swear they've been crippled or blind for years then stage a bloody miraculous recovery. Holy men? Healers? Don't make me laugh." "But this man is different," said Christ. "I remember him," said the blind man. "Jesus. He come here on the sabbath, like a fool. The priests wouldn't let him heal anyone on sabbath. He should've known that." "But he did heal someone," said the lame man. "Old Hiram. You remember that. He told him to take up his bed and walk." "Bloody rubbish," said the blind man. "Hiram went as far as the temple gate, then he lay down and went on begging. Old Sarah told me. He said what was the use of taking his living away? Begging was the only thing he knew how to do. You and your blether about goodness," he said, turning to Christ, "where's the goodness in throwing an old man out into the street without a trade, without a home, without a penny? Eh? That Jesus is asking too much of people." "But he was good," said the lame man. "I don't care what you say. You could feel it, you could see it in his eyes." "I never saw it," said the blind man." miracle religion social-commentary Philip Pullman
eedc6f4 Folk tell their children that success lies in working hard and being thrifty, but that is as much nonsense as supposing that a badger, a fox and a wolf could build a church. The way to wealth is to become a Christian bishop or a monastery's abbot and thus be imbued with heaven's permission to lie, cheat and steal your way to luxury. religion success immorality Bernard Cornwell
8f6ad54 ...the church I mentioned will be established, but its foundation, in order to be truly solid, will be dug in flesh, its walls made from the cement of renunciation, tears, agony, anguish, every conceivable form of death. religion José Saramago
c1efaf0 Each religion claims the future for its followers; or, at least, the good thereof. The evil is for those benighted ones who will have none of it; seeing the light the true believers worship, as the fishes see the stars, but dimly. The religions come and the religions pass, and the civilisations come and pass, and naught endures but the world and human nature. Ah! if man would but see that hope is from within and not from without--that he himself must work out his own salvation! He is there, and within him is the breath of life and a knowledge of good and evil as good and evil is to him. Thereon let him build and stand erect, and not cast himself before the image of some unknown God, modelled like his poor self, but with a bigger brain to think the evil thing, and a longer arm to do it. religion H. Rider Haggard
a2a0369 In order to understand the intensity of ritual forms, one must rid oneself of the idea that all happiness derives from nature, and all pleasure from the satisfaction of a desire. On the contrary, games, the sphere of play, reveal a passion for rules, a giddiness born of rules, and a force that comes from ceremony, and not desire. sex fun joy religion play seduction games pleasure rules Jean Baudrillard
30aacc0 New Rule: There's only one thing to say about the Christian Film and Television Commission giving me the Bigoted Bile Award and naming the number-one Most Unbearable Movie of 2008: Thank you! You hate me, you really hate me! hate religion humor religulous Bill Maher
00d8b46 I renounce the higher harmony altogether. It's not worth the tears of that one tortured child who...prayed..with...unexpiated tears to 'dear,kind God! religion philosophic-reflection theology pessimism Fyodor Dostoyevsky
87d729a Anyway, I have long had a very definite tendency to tune out the moment I come anywhere near either a pulpit or a soapbox. politics religion speech James Baldwin
de7dfa7 There is yet another class that, having found that their own religion not only prevents free thinking but that some of its philosophies are also against some basic social, economic and scientific concepts of life as required by the progressive society, comes to the illogical conclusion that all religions similarly thwart the growth of progressive societies... Such people fall easy prey to materialism and denounce all religions without having any definite idea of any religion at all. religion atheists dawkins richard-dawkins Mohammed Ali Muhiyaddin
56a05b0 "Mum had a Charles-and-Diana wedding mug that had survived longer than the marriage itself. Mum had worshipped Princess Di and frequently lamented her passing. "Gone," she would say, shaking her head in disbelief. "Just like that. All that exercise for nothing." Diana-worship was the nearest thing Mum had to a religion." worship religion princess-diana Kate Atkinson
f07c15a It's all--let's use a very specific word here--miraculous. You, me, love, quarks, sex, chocolate, the speed of light--it's all miraculous, and it always has been. religion love miracles quarks Rob Bell
3420f28 Mama had greeted him the traditional way that women were supposed to, bending low and offering him her back so that he would pat it with his fan made of the soft, straw-colored tail of an animal. Back home that night, Papa told Mama that it was sinful. You did not bow to another human being. It was an ungodly tradition, bowing to an Igwe. So, a few days later, when we went to see the bishop at Awka, I did not kneel to kiss his ring. I wanted to make Papa proud. But Papa yanked my ear in the car and said I did not have the spirit of discernment: the bishop was a man of God; the Igwe was merely a traditional ruler. religion Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
3861361 "I don't think He bargains." "Oh yes He does. I may not be religious but I know my Bible. My mother saw to that. He bargains all right. But He's supposed to he just. If He wants belief He'd better provide some evidence.' "That He exists?" "That He cares." religion P.D. James
143cbe7 "New Rule: Let the Pope be Pope. An animal-rights group in Italy has asked Pope Benedict to give up his fur-trimmed cape and hat. To which the Pope replied, "Don't be hatin' on my cape, bitch." Sorry, but Popes are the original divas, they invented bling, they've been wearing outlandish outfits for a thousand years--almost as long as Elton John. The clothes, the jewels, the fancy palace...Those aren't just symbols of the Papacy, they are the Papacy. The day the Pope shows up on the balcony in a pair of jeans and polo shirt is the day a billion Catholics go, "What the hell were we thinking?" religion humor Bill Maher
0b7457c Make someone a devout, fanatical anything, and his brain turns to mulch. religion Mercedes Lackey
8e9c84b We were seekers. You are that which is sought, Joshua. You are the source. The end is divinity, in the beginning is the word. You are the word. jesus religion the-word seeking Christopher Moore
194881e "Sometimes I like to compare people who don't like women to vegetarians." "Interesting analogy, and I do like the way your mind works, so lay it on me." He opened the door and waved her in. "If God had meant for people to be vegetarians, a good steak wouldn't taste so divine. Following that line of thinking, neither would a woman." religion love inspirational lesbian Ali Vali
4dd3a58 "Of course, we in the West like to pat ourselves on the back and say we're more tolerant, and we are--but tolerance is not the same thing as acceptance. It just means, "We think you're crazy and going to hell, but we won't kill you for it--we'll you. But you don't know who the Man in the Sky is, and we do." religion humor religious-tolerance tolerance Bill Maher
018e64b [..] as midnight inevitably came and went without the horsemen of the apocalypse making an appearance, Clara surprised herself by falling into a melancholy. For ridding oneself of faith is like boiling sea-water to retrieve the salt something is gained but something is lost. Though her friends Merlin, Wan-Si, et al. clapped her on the back and congratulated her for exorcizing those fervid dreams of perdition and redemption, Clara quietly mourned the warmer touch she had waited for these nineteen years, the all-enveloping bear hug of the Saviour, the One who was Alpha and Omega, both the beginning and the end; the man who was meant to take her away from all this, from the listless reality of life in a ground-floor flat in Lambeth. What now for Clara? Ryan would find another fad; Darcus need only turn to the other channel; for Hortense another date would of course materialize, along with more leaflets, ever more faith. But Clara was not like Hortense. Yet a residue, left over from the evaporation of Clara's faith, remained. She still wished for a saviour. She still wished for a man to whisk her away, to choose her above others so that she might Walk in white with Him: for [she] was worthy. Revelation 3:4. religion end-of-the-world Zadie Smith
e9958af Sometimes the reason people have a problem accepting 'the gospel' is that they sense that the God lurking behind Jesus isn't safe, loving, or good. It doesn't make sense, it can't be reconciled, and so they say no. religion god hell Rob Bell
24e8a7b Rise up smiling, and walk with me. Rise up in the armor of thy body and what shall pass shall make thee unafraid. Walk among the yellow hills, for they belong to thee. Walk upon grass and let thy feet descend into soft soil; in the end when all has failed thee the soil shall comfort thee, the soil shall receive thee and in thy dark bed thou shalt find such peace as is thy portion. In thine armor, hear my voice. In thine armor, hear. Whatsoever thou doest, thy friend and thy brother and thy woman shall betray thee. Whatsoever thou dost plant, the weeds and the seasons shall spite thee. Wheresoever thou goest, the heavens shall fall upon thee. Though the nations shall come unto thee in friendship thou art curst. Know that the Gods ignore thee. Know that thou art Life, and that pain shall forever come into thee, though thy years be without end and thy days without sleep, even and forever. And knowing this, in thine armor, thou shalt rise up. Red and full and glowing is thy heart; a steel is forging within thy breast. And what can hurt thee now? In thy granite mansion, what can hurt thee ever? Thou shalt only die. Therefore seek not redemption nor forgiveness for thy sins, for know that thou hast never sinned. Let the Gods come unto thee. religion philisophy Michael Shaara
5493000 He came to put a harlot above a Pharisee, a penitent robber above a High Priest, and a prodigal son above his exemplary brother. To all the phonies and fakers who would say that they could not join the Church because His Church was not holy enough, He would ask, 'How holy must the Church be before you will enter into it?' If the Church were as holy as they wanted it to be, they would never be allowed into it! In every other religion under the sun, in every Eastern religion from Buddhism to Confucianism, there must always be some purification before one can commune with God. But Our Blessed Lord brought a religion where the admission of sin is the condition of coming to Him. 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are ill. christianity jesus spirituality religion the-church sin Fulton J. Sheen
0c7f790 "Well," said St. Clare, "suppose that something shoul bring down the price of cotton once and forever, and make the whole slave property a drug in the market, don't you think we should soon have another version of the Scripture doctrine? What flood of light would pour the church, all at once, and immediately it would be discovered that everything in the bible and reason went the other way." slavery religion Harriet Beecher Stowe
3c0e7f9 Our Blessed Lord left the world without leaving any written message. His doctrine was Himself. Ideal and History were identified in Him. The truth that all other ethical teachers proclaimed, and the light that they gave to the world, was not IN them, but OUTSIDE them. Our Divine Lord, however, identified Divine Wisdom with Himself. It was the first time in history that it was ever done, and it has never been done since. jesus morality religion Fulton J. Sheen
13485d4 The stakes in this game are not low. Our enterprise is no less than the introduction of an alternative language, and with the language an altered perspective, for a group of phenomena that tradition tended to refer to with such words as 'spirituality', 'piety', 'morality', 'ethics' and 'asceticism'. If the manoeuvre succeeds, the conventional concept of religion, that ill-fated bugbear from the prop studios of modern Europe, will emerge from these investigations as the great loser. Certainly intellectual history has always resembled a refuge for malformed concepts - and after the following journey through the various stations, one will not only see through the concept of 'religion' in its failed design, a concept whose crookedness is second only to the hyper-bugbear that is 'culture'. morality spirituality religion piety culture ethics practising Peter Sloterdijk
4003bdb To be an atheist is to maintain God. His existence or his non-existence, it amounts to much the same, on the plane of proof. spirituality religion god science-fiction Ursula K. Le Guin
3a428e7 They don't understand that religion and science are there to serve different purposes. We need science to understand how everything on this planet and beyond works - us, nature, everything we see around us. That's fact - no one with a working brain can question that. But we also need religion. Not for ridiculous counter-theories about things that science can prove. We need it for something else, to fill a different kind of need. The need for meaning. It's a basic need we have, as humans. And it's a need that's beyond the realm of science. Your scientists don't understand that it's a need they can't fulfill no matter how many Hadron colliders and Hubble telescopes they build- and your preachers don'[t understand that their job is to help you discover a personal, inner sense of meaning and not behave like a bunch of zealots intent on converting the rest of the planet to their rigid, literalist view of how everyone should live their lives. religion philosophy raymond-khoury science-and-religion Raymond Khoury
dec88f0 So what actually goes on with all this religion business? Does it really matter whether you're a Gnostic, a Christian, a Muslim, a Shi'ite, a Hindu, a Taoist, a Rosicrucian, a Jew, a Witch or a Jehovah's Witness? Not in the slightest. (Well, it might matter if you're a Jehovah's Witness). Does it matter if you follow the teachings of Confucius, Buddha, Ramakrishna or Mary Baker Eddy? Of course not. Does it matter if your ritual object or talisman is a cup, an amulet, a tabernacle, a horseshoe, holy water, a wishbone, a Sanctus bell, a St. Christopher, a baptismal font, a rabbit's foot, rosary beads, a broomstick or a seven-branched candlestick? No, it's just something to focus your mind on. The real power is within you. Just as long as it doesn't become a cop-out. Which it so often does. Why? I'll tell you. Because Rag, Tag & Bobtail are not willing to take responsibility for their own lives. They need someone to tell them what to do and what to believe. But in reality you don't need anyone. It's all there inside you. You grant your own absolution. Hey, it's your life! You certainly have more control over your ultimate destiny than a priest. religion religion-and-philosophy religion-quotations religion-quotes Karl Wiggins
7fb8911 Of course, when you shut off your brain from rational analysis, book is dangerous. Taking literally ancient parables from thousands of years ago is much more dangerous than playing with a loaded gun. Ancient scrawls, written by different authors in different centuries with different agendas--yeah, let's get mad literal about . The literalness problem is compounded in religion by the circular logic of not being allowed to question anything, or else you're lacking faith. religion humor biblical-literalism literalism rationality logic Bill Maher
8a9fff7 In a typical desperation for quick answers, easily understood, people had turned to primitive worship as the solution. With less than success. Not only had they died as quickly as the rest of the people, but they had died with terror in their hearts, with a mortal dread flowing in their very veins. religion Richard Matheson
1446294 "[T]aking the Third into account does not bring us into the position of pragmatic consideration, of comparing different Others; the task is rather to learn to distinguish between "false" conflicts and the "true" conflict. For example, today's conflict between Western liberalism and religious fundamentalism is a "false" one, since it is based on the exclusion of the third term which is its "truth": the Leftist emancipatory position." religion philosophy Slavoj Žižek
a89a048 Sin is a gravitation. religion sin Victor Hugo
47037cb I never knew before that religion was such a cheerful thing. I always thought it was kind of melancholy, but Mrs. Allan's isn't, and I'd like to be a Christian if I could be one like her. religion L.M. Montgomery
fb82574 The more we listen to the voices of others, voices unlike our own, the more we remain open to the transcendent forces that save us from idolatry. The more we listen to ourselves, the more we create God in our own image until God becomes a tawdry idol that looks and speaks like us. The power of the commandments is found not in the writings of theologians, although I read and admire some, but in the pathos of human life, including lives that are very unlike our own. All states and nations work to pervert religions into civic religions, ones where the goals of the state become the goals of the divine. This is increasingly true in the United States. But once we believe we understand the will of God and can act as agents of God we become dangerous, a menace to others and a menace to ourselves. We forget that we do not understand. We forget to listen. humanity religion pathos idolatry law theology Chris Hedges
10fd338 I had a head for religious ideas. They were the first ideas I ever encountered. They made other ideas seem mean....I had miles of Bible in memory: some perforce, but most by hap, like the words to songs. There was no corner of my brain where you couldn't find, among the files of clothing labels and heaps of rocks, among the swarms of protozoans and shelves of novels, whole tapes and snarls and reels of Bible. religion ideas memoir memory Annie Dillard
72376e1 What is the meaning of life? What is our purpose on earth? These are some of the great, false questions of religion. We need not answer them, for they are badly posed, but we can live our answers all the same. At a minimum, we can create the conditions for human flourishing in this life--the only life of which any of us can be certain. That means we should not terrify our children with thoughts of hell or poison them with hatred for infidels. We should not teach our sons to consider women their future property or convince our daughters that they are property even now. And we must decline to tell our children that human history began with bloody magic and will end with bloody magic in a glorious war between the righteous and the rest. religion philosophy Sam Harris
e45bb0f My dad always says that kindness is our religion and if we treat everybody the way we would like to be treated, the world would be a better place. religion Firoozeh Dumas
67468f3 `ndm hd' Srkhh, nmt qrb twms w'mskt bydh Twl llyl. mndh knt fy lthmn@ why tGfw jm`@ ydyh wmtkhyl@ 'nh tmsk lrjl ldhy tHbh, rjl Hyth. kn mfhwman dhan 'n tshd bhdh l`zm `l~ yd twms. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
61c3e4e Sadly, it is within the religious domain that the phenomenon of rhetorical hysteria takes its most devastating form. I am aware that, in some minds, this tends to be regarded as a delicate subject. Let me declare very simply that I do not share such a sentiment. There is nothing in the least delicate about the slaughter of innocents. We all subscribe to the lofty notions contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but, for some reason, become suddenly coy and selective when it comes to defending what is obviously the most elementary of these rights, which is the right to life. One of my all-time favourite lines comes from the black American poet Langston Hughes. It reads, simply, 'There is no lavender word for lynch'. religion right-to-life Wole Soyinka
b861949 We are medium-sized mammals who only prosper because we've developed a half-arsed ability to terraform the less suitable bits of the planet we evolved on, and we're conscious of our inevitable decay and death, and we can't live anywhere else. There is no invisible sky daddy to give us immortal life and a harp and wings when we die. humanity death religion life Charles Stross Cory Doctorow
1f9e1f5 'Dft lmSwWr btHbWb 'mwmy : <<'jsd `ry@. wlkn hdh 'mr Tby`y jdan! wkl m hw Tby`y jmyl!>>. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
e22da21 thm ql <>. sd Smt jdyd thm qT`h qy'lan: <>. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
0f4e270 bmkn lkwkb 'n ythw~ `l~ 'thr tfjyr lqnbl. wymkn llwTn 'n ynhbh kl ywm mkhtls jdyd, wymkn lskn lHy jmy`hm 'n yusqw l~ ktyb@ l`dm. ymknh 'n ytHml kl hdh bshwl@ 'kbr mm yjrw' `l~ lqwl, wlknh Gyr qdr `l~ tHml lHzn ldhy ysbbh Hlm wHd mn 'Hlm tyryz. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
9f171ca yntj `n dhlk 'n lwfq ltm m` lky'n ytkhdh mthlh l'`l~ `lman yuntf~ mnh lbrz, wytSrf kl wHd fyh wk'n lbrz Gyr mwjwd. hdh lmthl ljmly yd`~ <>. <> hy klm@ 'lmny@ Zhrt fy 'wsT lqrn lts` `shr l`Tfy, thm ntshrt b`d dhlk fy jmy` llGt. wlkn st`mlh bkthr@ 'zl dllth lmytfyzyqy@ l'Sly@ why: klm@ kytsh fy l'ss nfy mTlq llbrz. wblm`n~ lHrfy km blm`n~ lmjzy <> tTrH jnban kl m hw Gyr mqbwl fy lwjwd lnsny. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
4136e82 fy mjtm` tt`ysh fyh tyrt shtW~ wHyth ymkn lt'thyr hdhh ltyrt 'n yumH~ 'w yHdW bshkl mtnwb, ybq~ fy lmstT` lflt tqryban mn mHkm <>. wymkn llfrd `ndy'dh 'n yHfZ `l~ tmyzh, wllfnn 'n ykhlq '`mlan fnyW@ mdhsh@. wlkn fy lbldn lty yst'thr fyh Hzb sysy blslT@ klh, njd 'nfsn Hlan fy mmlk@ <> ldkttwry@. dh knt 'qwl dykttwry@ fny 'qSd bdhlk 'n kl m yT`n b <> mlG~an mn lHy@: kl Zhr llfrdy@, (l'n 'y nshz hw bSf@ fy wjh l'khwW@ lbsm@) wklW shk (l'n mn ybd' blshk fy ltfSyl lSGyr@ ytwSl fy nhy@ lmTf l'n yshk fy lHy@ bHd dhth). kdhlk lskhry@ (l'n kl shy fy mmlk@ <> yw'khdh `l~ mHml ljd), w'yDan l'm lty hjrt `y'lth, 'w lrjl ldhy yfDWl lrjl `l~ lns mhddan bdhlk lsh`r lmqds <>. nTlqan mn wjh@ lnZr hdhh, fn m ysm~ b <> ymkn `tbrh thGr@ `fn@ yrmy fyh <> ltwtlytry b'wskhh. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
ef84c65 Back home, my favorite part of Mass was during communion, when I'd stand at the rail and hold a little gold platter under people's chins. The pretty girls would line up for communion (I confess to Almighty God). They'd kneel (and to you my brothers and sisters), cast their eyes demurely down (I have sinned through my own fault), and stick out their tongues (in my thoughts and in my words). Their tongues would shine, reflected in the gold platter, and since the wafer was dry, the girls would maybe lick their lips (and I ask Blessed Mary ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you my brothers and sisters) before they swallowed (to pray for me to the Lord our God). It was all I could do not to pass out. religion Rob Sheffield
6f2244a `ndm kn symwn yfkr fy dhlk llq kn ysh`r blkhjl mn wahalh. mn lmw'kd 'nh lm yu`jb 'bh. 'm hw f'u`jb b'byh. kn ytdhkr kl klm@ tfwWh bh mstSwban mwqfh 'kthr f'kthr. hnk jml@ `l~ l'khS `lqt bdhkrth: <>. w`ndm wD` `mW Sdyqth ktb ltwr@ byn ydyh, t'thr bklmt ysw` lty tqwl: <>. kn y`rf 'n 'bh mlHd wlkn ltshbh byn ljmltyn kn blnsb@ lh wk'nh rmz khfy y`ny 'n 'bh ystHsn lTryq lty khtrh. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
8660966 knt tkhf mn 'n yuGlq `lyh dkhl n`sh w'n tudlaW~ fy 'rD 'myrk. ldhlk ktbt wSy@ shtrTt fyh 'n tuHrq jthth b`d mwth, w'n yunthr rmdh fy lhw. tyryz wtwms mt tHt sh`r lthql. 'm hy f'rdt 'n tmwt tHt sh`r lkhf@. swf tSyr 'khf mn lhw. wHsb r'y brmynyd, fn mwth tHwWl mn lslby l~ lyjby. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
3d18a47 tjwzt md@ ltmthyly@ lmrtjl@ lHdwd. kn frnz yjd 'n hdhh lmlh@ (lty kn yqrW b'nh sHr@ `l~ kl Hl) qd Tlt 'kthr mn llzm. f'msk lqb`@ lrjly@ byn 'Sb`yh wntz`h `n r's sbyn whw ybtsm, thm `lqh fwq lq`d@. . kn l'mr kmn ymHw shrbyn rsmhm wld `fryt `l~ Swr@ mrym l`dhr. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
9c518c6 mdh bqy mn mHtDry kmbwdy? Swr@ kbyr@ llnjm@ l'myrky@ tHml byn dhr`yh Tflan 'Sfr. mdh bqy mn twms? ktb@u: 'rd mmlk@ llh `l~ l'rD. mdh bqy mn bythwvn? rjl mqTb lwjh, msh`th lsh`r kmjnwn wynTq bSwt mkty'b <> <>. mdh bqy mn frnz? ktb@u: b`d Twl Dll, l`wd@. whkdh dwlyk, whkdh dwlyk. qbl 'n nunsa~ ntHwl l~ <>. <> hw mHT@ tSl byn lky'n wlnsyn. sex psychological political religion love philosophy جنس friedrich-nietzche milan-kundera neitzsche اجتماع كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة religion-and-philoshophy حب philosophy-of-life friedrich-nietzsche sociology novel psychology ميلان كونديرا
4a79c58 The Indians around here tell a cautionary fable about a great saint who was always surrounded in his Ashram by loyal devotees. For hours a day, the saint and his followers would meditate on God. The only problem was that the saint had a young cat, an annoying creature, who used to walk through the temple meowing and purring and bothering everyone during meditation. So the saint, in all his practical wisdom, commanded that the cat be tied to a pole outside for a few hours a day, only during meditation, so as to not disturb anyone. This became a habit - tying the cat to the pole and then meditating on God - but as years passed, the habit hardened into religious ritual. Nobody could meditate unless the cat was tied to the pole first. Then one day the cat died. The saint's followers were panic-stricken. It was a major religious crisis - how could they meditate now, without a cat to tie to a pole? How would they reach God? In their minds, the cat had become the means. india religion meditation Elizabeth Gilbert
cde921d "The Fremen have a simple, practical religion," he said. "Nothing about religion is simple." religion nothing practical simple Frank Herbert
1634ed4 So when modern-day religious conservatives wax nostalgic about how marriage is a sacred tradition that reaches back into history for thousands of uninterrupted years, they are absolutely correct, but in only one respect--only if they happen to be talking about Judaism. marriage religion Elizabeth Gilbert
600a3d7 We have a disturbed relationship with our past which religion cannot explain. We are primitive in unexplainable ways, our lives woven of the familiar and the strange, the reasonable and the insane. religion insanity Frank Herbert
c4492be "We shouldn't have tried to create new symbols," he said. We should've realized we weren't supposed to introduce uncertainties into accepted belief, that we weren't supposed to stir up curiosity about God. We are daily confronted by the terrifying instability of all things human, yet we permit our religions to grow more rigid and controlled, more conforming and oppressive. What is this shadow across the highway of Divine Command? It is a warning that institutions endure, that symbols endure when their meaning is lost, that there is no summa of all attainable knowledge. "Admission" of C.E.T. Chairman Toure Bomoko, in "Appendix II: The Religion of Dune" religion Frank Herbert
01700ac "Scientists have an expression for hypotheses that are utterly useless even for learning from mistakes. They refer to them as being "not even wrong." Most so-called spiritual discourse is of this type." spirituality religion science new-ge Christopher Hitchens
d29743e "Philosophy is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat. Metaphysics is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat that isn't there. christianity religion science philosophy metaphysics hinduism theology islam Anonymous
5886dfc What kind of God is it who's upset by a cartoon in Danish? religion god mohammed-cartoons freedom-of-expression orthodoxy satire Salman Rushdie
8f144d1 What Christians see, or claim to see, in Genesis 1-3 changed as the church itself changed from a dissident Jewish sect to a popular movement persecuted by the Roman government, and changed further as this movement increasingly gained members throughout Roman society, until finally even the Roman emperor himself converted to the new faith and Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire. religion Elaine Pagels
2925f06 Die Einfachheit und Nacktheit des primitiven Menschen hatte wenigstens den Vorteil, dass er sich in der Natur als Gast fuhlte. War er durch Nahrung und Schlaf erquickt, dann dachte er wieder ans Weiterziehen. Er lebte in der Welt gleichsam wie in einem Zelt, durchstreifte die Taler, uberquerte die Ebenen oder kletterte auf Berge. Aber die Menschen haben sich zu Werkzeugen ihrer Werkzeuge gemacht! Der Mensch, der sich frei und unabhangig Beeren pfluckte, wenn er hungrig war, ist Farmer geworden, und der einst unter einem Baum Schutz suchte, Hausbesitzer. Wir schlagen nicht mehr fur eine Nacht unser Zelt auf, sondern haben uns auf der Erde ansassig gemacht und den Himmel vergessen. Wir haben die christliche Kultur angenommen, doch nur als verbesserte Methode der Agri-Kultur. Wir haben fur diese Welt ein Familienhaus und fur die andere ein Familiengrab errichtet. religion mensch natur Henry David Thoreau
9f3f1d5 In the early days of the December that my father was to die, my younger brother brought me the news that I was a Jew. I was then a transplanted Englishman in America, married, with one son and, though unconsoled by any religion, a nonbelieving member of two Christian churches. On hearing the tidings, I was pleased to find that I was pleased. religion atheism jews Christopher Hitchens
653243b Nothing discourages unwanted questions as much as a flow of pious bleating religion George R.R. Martin
845aecc I believe that, in this country, the press exerts a greater and a more pernicious influence than the church did in its worst period. We are not a religious people, but we are a nation of politicians. politics religion Henry David Thoreau
591c658 Mahound comes to me for revelation, asking me to choose between monotheist and henotheist alternatives, and I'm just some idiot actor having a bhaenchud nightmare, what the fuck do I know, yaar, what to tell you, help. Help. religion muhammad muslim islam Salman Rushdie
e6c432c Government cannot be religious and self-assertive at the same time. Religious experience needs a spontaneity which laws inevitably suppress. And you cannot govern without laws. Your laws eventually must replace morality, replace conscience, replace even the religion by which you think to govern. Sacred ritual must spring from praise and holy yearnings which hammer out a significant morality. Government, on the other hand, is a cultural organism particularly attractive to doubts, questions and contentions. I see the day coming when ceremony must take the place of faith and symbolism replaces morality. religion law Frank Herbert
09e94a9 "If the only thing wrong with mosques, Lent, chanting, ?Mecca, confession, or reincarnation is that they're not yours- well maybe the problem is "YOU" the-reb mitch-albom religion Mitch Albom
13d7464 How we think about God matters. It affects the credibility of religion in general and of Christianity in particular. Our concept of God can make God seem real or unreal, just as it can also make God seem remote or near. christianity religion god Marcus J. Borg
43ac554 "Then the true name for religion,' Fat said, 'is death.' 'The secret name,' I agreed. 'You got it. Jesus died; Asklepios died - they killed Mani worse than they killef jesus, but nobody even cares; nobody even remembers. They killed the Catharist in southern France by the tens of thousands. In the Thirty Years War, hundreds of people died. Protestants and Catholics - manual slaughter. Death is the real name for it; not God, not the Savior, not love - death. Kevin is rights about his cat. It's all there in his dead cat. The Great Judge can't answer Kevin: "Why did my cat die?" Answer: "Damned i I knoe." There is no answer; there is only a dead animal that just wanted to cross the street. We're all animals that want to cross the street only something mows us down half-way across that we never saw. Go ask Kevin. "Your cat was stupid." "Who made the cat? Why did he make the cat stupid? Did the cat learn by being killed, and if so, what did he learn? Did Sherri learn anything from dying of cancer? did gloria learn anything-' 'Okay, enough,' Fat said. 'Kevin is right,' I said. 'Go out and get laid.' world humanity spirituality religion god life science-fiction irrationality human-nature Philip K. Dick
6a3842c When it comes to choosing a savior, they won't settle for just a human being. religion savior Chuck Palahniuk
2c0f073 the most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend no farther than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or, at most, the probability, of a future state, there is nothing, except a divine revelation, that can ascertain the existence, and describe the condition of the invisible country which is destined to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body. faith religion eternal-life Edward Gibbon
74c2224 A state of scepticism and suspense may amuse a few inquisitive minds. But the practice of superstition is so congenial to the multitude, that if they are forcibly awakened, they still regret the loss of their pleasing vision. Their love of the marvellous and supernatural, their curiosity with regard to future events, and their strong propensity to extend their hopes and fears beyond the limits of the visible world, were the principal causes which favoroud the establishment of Polytheism. So urgent on the vulgar is the necessity of believing, that the fall of any system of mythology will most probably be succeeded by the introduction of some other mode of superstition. (...) an object much less deserving would have been sufficient to fill the vacant place in their hearts. religion superstition Edward Gibbon
7879b53 I want to think about trees. Trees have a curious relationship to the subject of the present moment. There are many created things in the universe that outlive us, that outlive the sun, even, but I can't think about them. I live with trees. There are creatures under our feet, creatures that live over our heads, but trees live quite convincingly in the same filament of air we inhabit, and in addition, they extend impressively in both directions, up and down, shearing rock and fanning air, doing their real business just out of reach. fate seeing free light poem prayer nature poetry freedom joy spirit wonder faith beauty religion science god philosophy enoughness exultant illumination intricacy joyfulness living-in-the-present-moment religious-diversity stalking-the-gaps the-tree-with-the-lights-in-it gaps philosopher-s-stone multiplicity praying prayers hallelujah life-force seeking exploration praise joyful mindfulness epiphany tolerance grace energy disbelief watching trees growth belief fearless humility consciousness walking fire mystery curiosity power soul poet creation Annie Dillard
0c741fe If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. His words, in His Bible. The Book of Genesis, chapter eleven So our God, our all -powerful God got so scared He scattered the human race across the face of the earth, and shattered their language to heep His children apart. An almighty God this insecure? Who pits his children against each other, to keep them weak. This is the God we're supposed to worship? religion Chuck Palahniuk
00ee58a "[H]as it really been so long since religions persecuted people, burning them as heretics, drowning them as witches, that you can't recognize religious persecution when you see it?" [ religion witch-hunts intolerance heresy orthodoxy freedom-of-thought persecution Salman Rushdie
777c837 The present importance of the Book of Job cannot be expressed adequately even by saying that it is the most interesting of ancient books. We may almost say of the Book of Job that it is the most interesting of modern books. In truth, of course, neither of the two phrases covers the matter, because fundamental human religion and fundamental human irreligion are both at once old and new; philosophy is either eternal or it is not philosophy. The modern habit of saying, 'This is my opinion, but I may be wrong,' is entirely irrational. If I say that it may be wrong I say that is not my opinion. The modern habit of saying 'Every man has a different philosophy; this is my philosophy and its suits me'; the habit of saying this is mere weak-mindedness. A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon. religion philosophy truth worldview G.K. Chesterton
aa6917c "Have you heard the songs they sing here in Kilanga?" he asked. "They're very worshipful. It's a grand way to begin a church service, singing a Congolese hymn to the rainfall on the seed yams. It's quite easy to move from there to the parable of the mustard seed. Many parts of the Bible make good sense here, if only you change a few words." He laughed. "And a lot of whole chapters, sure, you just have to throw away." "Well, it's every bit God's word, isn't it?" Leah said. "God's word, brought to you by a crew of romantic idealists in a harsh desert culture eons ago, followed by a chain of translators two thousand years long." Leah stared at him. "Darling, did you think God wrote it all down in the English of King James himself?" "No, I guess not." "Think of all the duties that were perfectly obvious to Paul or Matthew in that old Arabian desert that are pure nonsense to us now. All that foot washing, for example. Was it really for God's glory, or just to keep the sand out of the house?" Leah sat narrow-eyed in her chair, for once stumped for the correct answer. "Oh, and the camel. Was it a camel that could pass through the eye of a needle more easily than a rich man? Or a coarse piece of yarn? The Hebrew words are the same, but which one did they mean? If it's a camel, the rich man might as well not even try. But if it's the yarn, he might well succeed with a lot of effort, you see?" He leaned forward toward Leah with his hands on his knees. "Och, I shouldn't be messing about with your thinking this way, with your father out in the garden. But I'll tell you a secret. "When I want to take God at his word exactly, I take a peep out the window at His Creation. Because that, darling, He makes fresh for us every day, without a lot of dubious middle managers." spirituality religion religion-and-philosophy Barbara Kingsolver
10f84b0 "Why do religions have edges?" asked Teresa.... "God is here," said the printed text on the wall. "Yes," said Sophie. "But," she asked, "isn't He everywhere? Then why do they make Him little?" And she thought of those edges, pressing against each other, hurting, jarring, offending, barring one human being from another, shutting away their understanding and their souls. Yet if you have no edges, thought Sophie, how lonely, how drifting, you must consent to be." religion Rumer Godden
9177faa In his early text, somewhat cumbersomely titled 'Towards a Critique of Hegel's PHILOSOPHY OF RIGHT,' the young Karl Marx famously noted that religion - the Christian faith, he meant primarily - is 'the opiate of the people.' It's a drug, and it's a 'downer' or 'depressant' insulating people from the pain of oppressive social realities and consoling them with a dream world of heavenly bliss. Alternatively, religion can function as an 'upper,' a 'stimulant' energizing people for the tasks at hand - a function of religion Marx failed to grasp. religion opiate-of-the-people Miroslav Volf
af29bb0 O, how easy it is to do religious things if other people are watching! Preaching, praying, attending church, reading the bible, acts of kindness and charity-they all take on a certain pleasantness of the ego if we know that others will find out about them and think well of us. It is a deadly addiction for esteem that we have. prayer faith religion pride John Piper
fdb20a6 Then, as now, there would always be people who preferred the option of devoting their religious energies to sacred space over the more difficult duty of compassion. religion sacred-space Karen Armstrong
369d051 The modern mind is merely a blank about the philosophy of toleration; and the average agnostic of recent times has really had no notion of what he meant by religious liberty and equality. He took his own ethics as self-evident and enforced them; such as decency or the error of the Adamite heresy. Then he was horribly shocked if he heard of anybody else, Moslem or Christian, taking his ethics as self-evident and enforcing them; such as reverence or the error of the Atheist heresy. And then he wound up by taking all this lop-sided illogical deadlock, of the unconscious meeting the unfamiliar, and called it the liberality of his own mind. Medieval men thought that if a social system was founded on a certain idea it must fight for that idea, whether it was as simple as Islam or as carefully balanced as Catholicism. Modern men really think the same thing, as is clear when communists attack their ideas of property. Only they do not think it so clearly, because they have not really thought out their idea of property. morality religion philosophy medieval toleration st-francis G.K. Chesterton
b13133b So you see systems of thought and religion coming out of the kinds of societies that invented them. The means by which people feed themselves determine how they think and what they believe. Agricultural societies believe in rain gods and seed gods and gods for every manner of thing that might affect the harvest (China). People who herd animals believe in a single shepherd god (Islam). In both these kinds of cultures you see a primitive notion of gods as helpers, as big people watching from above, like parents who nevertheless act like bad children, deciding capriciously whom to reward and whom not to, on the basis of craven sacrifices made to them by the humans dependent on their whim. The religions that say you should sacrifice or even pray to a god like that, to ask them to do something material for you, are the religions of desperate and ignorant people. It is only when you get to the more advanced and secure societies that you get a religion ready to face the universe honestly, to announce there is no clear sign of divinity, except for the existence of the cosmos in and of itself, which means that everything is holy, whether or not there be a god looking down on it. religion reflections Kim Stanley Robinson
0763c1a Once, I believed that space could have no power over faith, just as I believed the heavens declared the glory of God's handwork. Now I have seen that handwork, and my faith is sorely troubled. religion science-fiction sci-fi Arthur C. Clarke
9b573e9 "The color-patches of vision part, shift, and reform as I move through space in time. The present is the object of vision, and what I see before me at any given second is a full field of color patches scattered just so. The configuration will never be repeated. Living is moving; time is a live creek bearing changing lights. As I move, or as the world moves around me, the fullness of what I see shatters. "Last forever!" Who hasn't prayed that prayer? You were lucky to get it in the first place. The present is a freely given canvas. That it is constantly being ripped apart and washed downstream goes without saying; it is a canvas, nevertheless. But there is more to the present than a series of snapshots. We are not merely sensitized film; we have feelings, a memory for information and an eidetic memory for the imagery of our pasts. Our layered consciousness is a tiered track for an unmatched assortment of concentrically wound reels. Each one plays out for all of life its dazzle and blur of translucent shadow-pictures; each one hums at every moment its own secret melody in its own unique key. We tune in and out. But moments are not lost. Time out of mind is time nevertheless, cumulative, informing the present. From even the deepest slumber you wake with a jolt- older, closer to death, and wiser, grateful for breath. But time is the one thing we have been given, and we have been given to time. Time gives us a whirl. We keep waking from a dream we can't recall, looking around in surprise, and lapsing back, for years on end. All I want to do is stay awake, keep my head up, prop my eyes open, with toothpicks, with trees." fate seeing free light poem prayer nature poetry freedom joy spirit wonder faith beauty religion science god philosophy enoughness exultant illumination intricacy joyfulness living-in-the-present-moment religious-diversity stalking-the-gaps the-tree-with-the-lights-in-it gaps philosopher-s-stone multiplicity praying prayers hallelujah life-force seeking exploration praise joyful mindfulness epiphany tolerance grace energy disbelief watching growth belief fearless humility consciousness walking fire mystery curiosity power soul poet creation Annie Dillard
587c15b Then too you are in love. Do not forget that is a religious feeling. religion Ernest Hemingway
374f324 "Can I ask you, what is your relationship to God?" "Limited," I say. "Limited with the exception of spontaneous prayer in times of distress." humour religion god prayers A.M. Homes
d0e4db4 Moral beauty existed as clearly as any other form of beauty and perhaps that was where we could find the God who was so vividly, and sometimes bizarrely, described in our noisy religious explanations. It was an intriguing thought, as it meant that a concert could be a spiritual experience, a secular painting a religious icon, a beguiling face a passing angel. religion Alexander McCall Smith
8f93c64 Religion is about integration, about successfully bringing the selfish ego into line with the centre of the personality where God exists, as a divine spark, in every human being. Religion is about helping man to live in harmony with his true self and to become the person God's designed him to be. faith religion god Susan Howatch
9e14d99 Science destroys only the false ideas about religion; the true ideas it complements and explores.) religion science Susan Howatch
5d7c085 Science tries to record and explain the factual character of the natural world, whereas religion struggles with spiritual and ethical questions about the meaning and proper conduct of our lives. The facts of nature simply cannot dictate correct moral behavior or spiritual meaning. morality religion science ethics Stephen Jay Gould
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ▲ ▼