#religion

"Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity."

"We choose our next world through what we learn in this one. Learn nothing, and the next world is the same as this one, all the same limitations and lead weights to overcome."

"People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.-- Circular Letter to My Friends in Italy"

"But fate, as Merlin always taught us, is inexorable. Life is a jest of the Gods, Merlin liked to claim, and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh, he once told me, or else you'll just weep yourself to death."

"If you know that I am an unbeliever, then you know me better than I do myself. I may be an unbeliever, but I am an unbeliever who has a nostalgia for a belief."

"I believe in God the way I believe in quarks. People whose business it is to know about quantum physics or religion tell me they have good reason to believe that quarks and God exist. And they tell me that if I wanted to devote my life to learning what they've learned, I'd find quarks and God just like they did."

"We owe a huge debt to Galileo for emancipating us all from the stupid belief in an Earth-centered or man-centered (let alone God-centered) system. He quite literally taught us our place and allowed us to go on to make extraordinary advances in knowledge."

"If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it."

"For me, religion is like a rhinoceros: I don't have one, and I'd really prefer not to be trampled by yours."

"I’m an atheist and I thank God for it."

"The natural is so awesome that we need not go beyond it."

"All Christian language about the future is a set of signposts pointing into a mist."

"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it."

"Theology is ignorance with wings."

"I don't want to believe. I want to know."

"O God — please give him back! I shall keep asking You."

"Finaly, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. -Ephesians 6:10-11"

"Only priests and fools are fearless and I've never been on the best of terms with God."

"The minute you get a religion you stop thinking. Believe in one thing too much and you have no room for new ideas."

"There's no guarantee of disaster-free in any world religion,but love, faith and knowledge give men hope and willpower."