religion

"Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee."

"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind, and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.[Letter to William Bradford Jr. April 1 1774]"

"Religious moderation is the product of secular knowledge and scriptural ignorance."

"I cannot choose but adhere to the word of God, which has possession of my conscience; nor can I possibly, nor will I even make any recantation, since it is neither safe nor honest to act contrary to conscience! Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God! Amen."

"We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid."

"Could it be, as one writer puts it, that every knock at the door of a brothel is actually a knock at the heart of God?"

"It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us; it is the very sign of His presence."

"ugd بگذار هرکجا تنفراست بذرعشق بکارم هرکجا آزادگی هست ببخشایم وهر کجا غم هست شادی نثار کنم الهی توفیقم ده که بیش ازطلب همدلی همدلی کنم بیش از آنکه دوستم بدارند دوست بدارم زیرا در عطا کردن است که ستوده می شویم و در بخشیدن است که بخشیده می شویم"

"A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows."

"But I was always coming here. I though about one of my favorite Sufi poems, which says that God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you are standing right now. I was never not coming here. This was never not going to happen."

"Think of God and not religion, of ecstasy and not mysticism. The difference between the theoretician of faith and the believer is as great as between the psychiatrist and the psychotic."

"There is no limit to the amount of intelligence invested in ignorance when the need for illusion runs deep."

"Out of 100 men, one will read the Bible, the other 99 will read the Christian."

"Faith is not so much something we believe; faith is something we live."

"Who are your favorite heroines in real life? The women of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran who risk their lives and their beauty to defy the foulness of theocracy. Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Azar Nafisi as their ideal feminine model."

"The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us."

"For it is the bitter grief of theology and its blessed task, too, always to have to seek (because it does not clearly have present to it at the time)...always providing that one has the courage to ask questions, to be dissatisfied, to think with the mind and heart one ACTUALLY has, and not with the mind and heart one is SUPPOSED TO have."

"To judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude that God created most men simply with a view to crowding hell."

"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."

"You believe in God?"demanded Billy Karma."I believe in thirty-seven separate and distinct gods,"answered Argyle proudly. "That puts me thirty-six ahead of you.""It makes you a pagan.""It makes you a man of limited vision,"said Argyle."