Our hope of immortality does not come from any religions, but nearly all religions come from that hope.
Fanaticism exists in every religion, whether Christian, Jewish, or Muslim.
Power is the goal of religion in general.
It is difficult to believe in a religion that places such a high premium on chastity and virginity.
One of the chief uses of religion is that it makes us remember our coming from darkness, the simple fact that we are created.
The ocean doesn't care about you. It makes your boat feel tiny. The oceans are great promoters of religion, or at least of humility-but not in everyone.
There is nothing in religion but fiction.
Most religion-mongers have bated their paradises with a bit of toasted cheese. They have tempted the body with large promises of possessions in their transmortal El Dorado. Sancho Panza will not quit his chimney-corner, but under promise of imaginary islands to govern.
In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.
Religion, whatever it is, is a man's total reaction upon life.
I get the feeling more and more that religion is being left behind.
Don't they get afraid, then?" "They have a religion for that.
If spirituality is not religion or cynicism or sentimentality or narcissism, then what is it?. . . we can confidently say. . . that spirituality is fearlessness. It is a way of looking boldly at this life we have been given, here, now, on earth, as this human being.
I know of no religion or sect that has done or is doing without a house of God, variously described as a temple, a mosque, a church, a synagogue or agiary.
Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy. And in the final tolling it often turns out that the facts are more comforting than the fantasy.
In all the ages the Roman Church has owned slaves, bought and sold slaves, authorized and encouraged her children to trade in them. . . . There were the texts; there was no mistaking their meaning;. . . she was doing in all this thing what the Bible had mapped out for her to do. So unassailable was her position that in all the centuries she had no word to say against human slavery.
In matters of religion, it is very easy to deceive a man and very hard to undeceive him.
When table utensils were invented in the 1100s, the Catholic Church condemned them as obscene and heretical, claiming, 'God gave us fingers with which to eat. ' And we're supposed to get politically discouraged? Oh please. We're being opposed by people who denounced the fork.
Fundamentalism isn't about religion, it's about power.
Go beyond science, into the region of metaphysics. Real religion is beyond argument. It can only be lived both inwardly and outwardly.