#religion

"I have a hundred-year-old aunt who aspires to sainthood, and whose only wish has been to go into the convent, but no congregation, not even the Little Sisters of Charity, could tolerate her for more than a few weeks, so the family has had to look after her. Believe me, there is nothing so insufferable as a saint, I wouldn't sic one on my worst enemy."

"A fundamentalist is someone who wants to substitute what he believes for what you believe,"Max said. "And someone who thinks he knows the will of God better than anyone else."

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion."

"What has he found who has lost God?And what has he lost who has found God?"

"I am striving to give back the Divine in myself to the Divine in the All."

"Once you've condoned faith in general, you've condoned any crazy shit done because of faith."

"I can't understand why people use religion to hurt each other when there's already so much pain in the world."

"Those who feel guilty contemplating "betraying"the tradition they love by acknowledging their disapproval of elements within it should reflect on the fact that the very tradition to which they are so loyal—the "eternal"tradition introduced to them in their youth—is in fact the evolved product of many adjustments firmly but delicately made by earlier lovers of the same tradition."

"I have found God, but he is insufficient."

"Creators aren't gods. They make places, which is quite hard. It's men that make gods. This explains a lot."

"إن عبادة الإله الواحد وحدها ستقرب الانسان من السلام الذي يتكلم عليه الجميع ولايفعل أحد شيئاً لتحقيقه."

"If Christ taught us anything it is this -- not to let our fear of death keep us from doing the good thing."

"If every trace of any single religion were wiped out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again."

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

"One would go mad if one took the Bible seriously; but to take it seriously one must be already mad."

"I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching."

"When you see a man with a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may depend upon it he keeps a very small stock of it within."

"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."

"When the stakes are this high- when calling God by the right name can make the difference between eternal happiness and eternal suffering, it is impossible to respect the beliefs of others who don't believe as you do."

"... challenge the church to do better, be more of who Christ wants us to be ..."