#hr

Two or three angels Came near to the earth. They saw a fat church. Little black streams of people Came and went in continually. And the angels were puzzled To know why the people went thus, And why they stayed so long within. ↗

— Stephen Crane

#angels #catholicism #chapel #christianity #church

I don't think it's possible to c-call yourself a C-Christian and... and j-just leave out the awkward bits.' -Wilfred Owen ↗

— Pat Barker

#religion #religion

For glory befits God because of His majesty,while lowliness befits man because it unites us with God. ↗

— St. Diadochos

#humility #mysticism #religion #religion

Not only were science and religion compatible, they were inseparable--the rise of science was achieved by deeply religious Christian scholars. ↗

— Rodney Stark

#science #religion

On the ethics of war the Quran and the New Testament are worlds apart. Whereas Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, the Quran tells us, 'Whoso commits aggression against you, do you commit aggression against him' (2:194). The New Testament says nothing about how to wage war. The Quran, by contrast, is filled with just-war precepts. Here war is allowed in self-defense (2:190; 22:39), but hell is the punishment for killing other Muslims (4:93), and the execution of prisoners of war is explicitly condemned (47:4). Whether in the abstract is is better to rely on a scripture that regulates war or a scripture that hopes war away is an open question, but no Muslim-majority country has yet dropped an atomic bomb in war. ↗

— Stephen R. Prothero

#ethics #islam #religion #scripture #war

Sex is like an atom bomb. A potent weapon which fascinates and frightens. We're afraid to let it loose, yet we all have our finger on the button.” --Zeena Schreck, Cuir Underground: Sado-Magic for Satan Interview, 1998 ↗

— Zeena Schreck

#fear #fear-of-living #fears #left-hand-path #nudism

Why, I can't help wondering, is God thought to need such ferocious defence? One might have supposed him amply capable of looking after himself. ↗

— Richard Dawkins

#religion #science #religion

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

— N.T. Wright

#future #religion #religion

Just as the Torah and Bible teach concern for those in distress, the Koran instructs all Muslims to make caring for widows, orphans, and refugees a priority. ↗

— Greg Mortenson

#christianity #islam #jodaisn #koran #religion

The problem of vindicating an omnipotent and omniscient God in the face of evil is insurmountable. Those who claim to have surmounted it, by recourse to notions of free will and other incoherencies, have merely heaped bad philosophy onto bad ethics. ↗

— Sam Harris

#free-will #god #religion #religion