#be

To be a philosophical Sceptic is the first and most essential step towards being a sound, believing Christian. ↗

— David Hume

#christianity #religion #skepticism #nature

As I work in the afternoon on committing to paper some of my morning's thoughts, I find myself just about to close on the knotty question of whether or not I believe in God. In fact I am about to type, 'I do not believe in God', when the sky goes black as ink, there is a thunderclap and a huge crash of thunder and a downpour of epic proportions. I never do complete the sentence. ↗

— Michael Palin

#atheism #belief #religion #religion

What people really believe doesn't feel like a BELIEF, it feels like the way the world IS. ↗

— Eliezer Yudkowsky

#religion #religion

If you ask the religious person "What do you believe in?" he will tell you about one thing. But if you ask him "What do you not believe in?" he will tell you about many, many things! And if you ask an atheist "What do you believe in?" he will say "Nothing." The only difference between an atheist and a religious person, is one thing. If one thing isn't there, there would be no difference at all! When I say I am losing my religion, I am not saying that I'm losing my belief; but I am saying that I'm losing my disbeliefs. ↗

— C. JoyBell C.

#learning-to-believe #letting-go-of-disbelief #losing-my-religion #religion #religion

I don't differentiate much, except in degree, between people who believe in religion from those who believe in astrology, magic or the supernatural. ↗

— Andy Rooney

#astrology #atheism #belief #beliefs #magic

Submitting seemed to me a lot like giving up. If God gave us the strength to bail- the gumption to try and save ourselves- isn't that what he wanted us to do? ↗

— Jeannette Walls

#god #hard-work #religion #religion

I don't like to hear cut and dried sermons. No—when I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#chapel #church #god #preacher #preaching

Leaders that wear the largest hats have few armies to attack a land so this leads them to be sly and cunning as they extend their hand. ↗

— Stanley Victor Paskavich

#religion

Every organized religion holds that certain behaviors, rituals, personalities, places, and/or books are sacred. These organized teachings are proper in their own place, but they are mere options for the one infused with devotion. To such a one, God is direct and spontaneous, providing him with an immediate source of guidance and direction. His relationship with God is not mediated through anyone or anything. (104) ↗

— Prem Prakash

#devotion #god #personality #religion #rituals

the bombers of Manhattan represent fascism with an Islamic face. . . . What they abominate about ‘the West,’ to put it in a phrase, is not what Western liberals don’t like and can’t defend about their own system, but what they do like about it and must defend: its emancipated women, its scientific inquiry, its separation of religion from the state. Loose talk about chickens coming home to roost is the moral equivalent of the hateful garbage emitted by Falwell and Robertson. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#liberal #terror #religion