Religion Quotes

A religion deeply rooted in theology, is never above skepticism hinged upon the twin pillars; of reason & facts.

~ Mamur Mustapha

we are here confronted with an irreducible oddity about all human societies: all are strung around figments of the human imagination.

~ Patricia Crone

As it was a time of war between the Catholics and the Huguenots, and as he saw the Catholics exterminate the Huguenots and the Huguenots exterminate the Catholics--all in the name of religion--he adopted a mixed belief which permitted him to be sometimes Catholic, sometimes a Huguenot. Now, he was accustomed to walk with his fowling piece on his shoulder, behind the hedges which border the roads, and when he saw a Catholic coming alone, the Protestant religion immediately prevailed in his mind. He lowered his gun in the direction of the traveler; then, when he was within ten paces of him, he commenced a conversation which almost always ended by the traveler's abandoning his purse to save his life. It goes without saying that when he saw a Huguenot coming, he felt himself filled with such ardent Catholic zeal that he could not understand how, a quarter of an hour before, he had been able to have any doubts upon the superiority of our holy religion.

~ Alexandre Dumas

Some biblical scholars believe that the story of the fall from the Garden of Eden was a cultural memory of the transition from foraging to agriculture: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” 79 So why did our foraging ancestors leave Eden? For many, it was never an explicit choice: they had multiplied themselves into a Malthusian trap in which the fat of the land could no longer support them, and they had to grow their food themselves. The states emerged only later, and the foragers who lived at their frontiers could either be absorbed into them or hold out in their old way of life. For those who had the choice, Eden may have been just too dangerous. A few cavities, the odd abscess, and a couple of inches in height were a small price to pay for a fivefold better chance of not getting speared

~ Steven Pinker

In allowing the crucifixion to take place, God did the world an incalculable favor. Though infinitely powerful, compassionate, and wise, he could think of no other way to reprieve humanity from punishment for its sins (in particular, for the sin of being descended from a couple who had disobeyed him) than to allow an innocent man (his son no less) to be impaled through the limbs and slowly suffocate in agony. By acknowledging that this sadistic murder was a gift of divine mercy, people could earn eternal life. And if they failed to see the logic in all this, their flesh would be seared by fire for all eternity.

~ Steven Pinker

Scientists are wont to assume that myths and God-ideas are creations of primitive man, and that as spiritual culture “advances”, this myth-forming power is shed. In reality it is the exact opposite, … this ability of a soul to fill its world with shapes, traits and symbols - like and consistent amongst themselves - belongs most definitely not to the world-age of the primitives but exclusively to the springtimes of great Cultures. Every myth of the great style stands at the beginning of an awakening spirituality. It is the first formative act of that spirituality. Nowhere else is it to be found. There - it must be.

~ Oswald Spengler

What is truly arresting about our kind is better captured in the story of the Tower of Babel, in which humanity, speaking a single language, came so close to reaching heaven that God himself felt threatened.

~ Steven Pinker

From the literary point of view, the Koran has little merit. Declamation, repetition, puerility, a lack of logic and coherence strike the unprepared reader at every turn. It is humiliating to the human intellect to think that this mediocre literature has been the subject of innumerable commentaries, and that millions of men are still wasting time in absorbing it. (Orpheus, Salmon Reinach, 1932. See page 175 of the book here)

~ Salomon Reinach

Is there a notion of hope (and of our responsibility to the future) that could be shared by believers and nonbelievers? What can it be based on now? Does an idea of the end, one that does not imply disinterest in the future but rather a constant examination of the errors of the past, have a critical fun

~ Umberto Eco

The conviction reigns that it is only through the sacrifices and accomplishments of the ancestors that the tribe exists--and that one has to pay them back with sacrifices and accomplishments; one thus recognizes a debt that constantly grows greater, since these forebears never cease, in their continued existence as powerful spirits, to accord the tribe new advantages and new strength.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Part of our work as faithful Christians is to learn how to discern when, and by what means, to resist authority.

~ The Liberty Book

God long ago defined what it means to do evil. It is for violations of His standards that we are to be afraid.

~ The Liberty Book

Jesus not only preached liberty, but has the authority to direct history toward its final victory.

~ The Liberty Book

Where faith increases, liberty follows.-The Liberty Book

~ The Liberty Book

Any religion-based state has a mission to limit the minds of its people, to fight the developments of history and logic, and to dumb down its citizens. It’s important to stand in the way of such a mentality, to deny it from continuing its mission to murder the souls of its people, killing them deep within while they are still alive and breathing.

~ Raif Badawi

States that are built on a religious foundation limit their own people in a circle of faith and fear.

~ Raif Badawi

The past is recorded almost exclusively in the voices of elites and males, in the viewpoints of the wealthy and the powerful, in the visions of the literate and the educated.

~ John Dominic Crossan

And this is the unwritten history of man, his unseen, negative accomplishment, his power to do without gratification for himself provided there is something great, something into which his being, and all beings can go. He does not need meaning as long as such intensity has scope. Because then it is self-evident; it is meaning.

~ Saul Bellow

It is impossible to avoid the suspicion that historical Jesus research is a very safe place to do theology and call it history, to do autobiography and call it biography.

~ John Dominic Crossan

[C]ontemporary Jesus research is still involved in textual looting, in attacks on the mound of Jesus tradition that do not begin from any overall stratigraphy, do not explain why this or that item was chosen for emphasis over some other one, and give the distinct impression that the researcher knew the result before beginning the search.

~ John Dominic Crossan

There were always historians who said [historical Jesus research] can not be done because of historical problems. There were always theologians who said it should not be done because of theological objections. And there were always scholars who said the former when they meant the latter.

~ John Dominic Crossan

To fall for the notion of a 'double truth' and argue there was one set of truths for reason and another for faith and never the two shall meet made nonsense of the idea of truth itself.

~ Arthur Herman

It is often said that Islam is an egalitarian religion. There is much truth in this assertion. If we compare Islam at the time of its advent with the societies that surrounded it—the stratified feudalism of Iran and the caste system of India to the east, the privileged aristocracies of both Byzantine and Latin Europe to the west—the Islamic dispensation does indeed bring a message of equality. Not only does Islam not endorse such systems of social differentiation; it explicitly and resolutely rejects them. The actions and utterances of the Prophet, the honored precedents of the early rulers of Islam as preserved by tradition, are overwhelmingly against privilege by descent, by birth, by status, by wealth, or even by race, and insist that rank and honor are determined only by piety and merit in Islam.

~ Bernard Lewis

It's possible to satisfy the needs of the inner life by an intimate communion with nature, or by knowledge of the past.

~ Adolf Hitler

While we cannot live without history, we need not live within it either.

~ Amartya Sen

The greatest literature is the Biblical stories.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

We encounter great souls, who lived in historical times, in ancient books.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

There lived great souls in the history of the world.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Stop explaining to others, people will only understand from their level of discernment.

~ Abhysheq Shukla

Fear is the most prodigious enemy of our soul

~ Abhysheq Shukla

Respect is reverence out of love, Fear is reverence out of hate.Choose Wisely

~ Abhysheq Shukla

Heaven lies in the heart of humankind.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Let's pray for grace to live heavenly on earth.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Praying purifies the human heart.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

The sole duty of a man is to love his Maker with all his soul.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Real religion does not mean Gods - it does not mean Angels and Demons - it does not mean miracles of healing. Real religion is all about you and your fellow humans. There is nothing else.

~ Abhijit Naskar

It is your existential responsibility to raise your child as a human being above everything else – catholic, muslim, jew, asian, caucasian or whatever.

~ Abhijit Naskar

It's not man's job to think about whether God exists or not, especially when you know that right in front of your eyes one person is stepping on another's neck.

~ Eka Kurniawan

Love has no gender - compassion has no religion - character has no race.

~ Abhijit Naskar

If your nationality is lost, nothing is lost – if your religion is lost, nothing is lost – if your ethnicity is lost, nothing is lost – but if your character is lost, then you are more lost than Donald Trump.

~ Abhijit Naskar