Religion Quotes

I am still moved by passages of Marx: the 'Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right,' for example, where, after the famous line about religion being 'the opium of the people,' he goes on to call it 'the heart of a heartless world.'

~ Geoff Dyer

When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all.

~ Alan Watts

But is it not the fact that religion emanates from the nature, from the moral state of the individual? Is it not therefore true that unless the nature be completely exercised, the moral state harmonized, the religion cannot be healthy?

~ Harriet Martineau

By religion, then, I understand a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life.

~ James G. Frazer

My social philosophy may be said to be enshrined in three words: liberty, equality and fraternity. Let no one, however, say that I have borrowed by philosophy from the French Revolution. I have not. My philosophy has roots in religion and not in political science. I have derived them from the teachings of my Master, the Buddha.

~ B. R. Ambedkar

No great advance has been made in science, politics, or religion without controversy.

~ Lyman Beecher

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.

~ Pope John Paul Ii

It is science, and not religion, which has taught men that things are complex and difficult to understand.

~ Émile Durkheim

Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.

~ Carl Sagan

Men have been obliged to make for themselves a notion of what religion is, long before the science of religions started its methodical comparisons.

~ Émile Durkheim

Comparing science and religion isn't like comparing apples and oranges - it's more like apples and sewing machines.

~ Jack Horner

Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.

~ Bertrand Russell

Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition.

~ Alan Turing

There is no conflict between the ideal of religion and the ideal of science, but science is opposed to theological dogmas because science is founded on fact. To me, the universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and never will end. The human being is no exception to the natural order. Man, like the universe, is a machine.

~ Nikola Tesla

Yet higher religion, which is only a search for a larger life, is essentially experience and recognized the necessity of experience as its foundation long before science learnt to do so.

~ Muhammad Iqbal

I say you don't need religion, or political ideology, to understand human nature. Science reveals that human nature is greedy and selfish, altruistic and helpful.

~ Michael Shermer

The constitution of the universe is total natural law. 'Natural law,' we say from the field of science. 'Will of God,' we say from the field of religion. It's the same thing.

~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Go beyond science, into the region of metaphysics. Real religion is beyond argument. It can only be lived both inwardly and outwardly.

~ Swami Sivananda

The only shibboleth the West has is science. It is the premise of modernity and it defines itself as a rationality capable of, indeed requiring separation from politics, religion and really, society. Modernisation is to work towards this.

~ Bruno Latour

Science is increasingly answering questions that used to be the province of religion.

~ Stephen Hawking

Science, like art, religion, commerce, warfare, and even sleep, is based on presuppositions.

~ Gregory Bateson

Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.

~ Thomas Szasz

Conflict between science and religion a dangerous foe.

~ Henry Norris Russell

The major obstacle to a religious renewal is the intellectual classes, who are highly influential and tend to view religion as primitive superstition. They believe that science has left atheism as the only respectable intellectual stance.

~ Robert Bork

I really believe in science. It is a faith. It is a reverence akin to religion. But as we always say, it's different from religion in that, as near as we can tell, it exists outside of us. It has an objective quality, the process of science.

~ Bill Nye

Religion can have psychological and social roles, but in terms of really explaining how things work, science works differently. Science is based on material elements at the core.

~ Lisa Randall

The scientists who attack mainstream religion, rather than striving for peaceful coexistence with it, damage science, and also weaken the fight against fundamentalism.

~ Martin Rees

Corporate America limits the world to consumerism. Science can limit it to the material world. Even religion limits it to a lot of theories that can explain everything. I think we need cinema to break that apart and remind us that we're not in control, and we don't understand as much as we think do.

~ Scott Derrickson

To an honest judge, the alleged marriage between religion and science is a shallow, empty, spin-doctored sham.

~ Richard Dawkins

I do not know what got me interested in technology. What was very clear to me very early on was that I was not interested in religion and that naturally increased my curiosity about science and technology, and I fundamentally believe the two are conflicting.

~ Vinod Khosla

Bad religion is arrogant, self-righteous, dogmatic and intolerant. And so is bad science. But unlike religious fundamentalists, scientific fundamentalists do not realize that their opinions are based on faith. They think they know the truth.

~ Rupert Sheldrake

The wise man regulates his conduct by the theories both of religion and science. But he regards these theories not as statements of ultimate fact but as art-forms.

~ John B. S. Haldane

Science has become something that everybody knows he has to pay attention to, but not everybody is a believer. So I don't think we should equate science with religion. But, that science is progressively playing a more and more important part in the life of every individual is obvious.

~ Chen Ning Yang

I found myself facing a Christian Science Reading Room. My God! It had been eight years. There had never been any renunciation of religion on my part, but like so many people, it was a gradual fading away.

~ Henry Fonda

I was told to challenge every spiritual teacher, every world leader to utter the one sentence that no religion, no political party, and no nation on the face of the earth will dare utter: 'Ours is not a better way, ours is merely another way.

~ Neale Donald Walsch

I study religion because I find it fascinating and problematic. But I struggle with the idea of what religion is, what being religious means. A lot of people assume that if you write about early Christianity, you must be some kind of Sunday-school teacher.

~ Elaine Pagels

Sincerity is the norm of Heaven and the law of our nature. China and the West agree on this point, for without sincerity, no human prince could ever found a state, and no earthly teacher could ever establish a religion.

~ Zhang Zhidong

Diversity of thought and culture and religion and ideas has been the strength of America.

~ Gary Locke