#religion

God is angry with man. Unless we believe and repent we shall all be damned. It is impossible, indeed, for its advocates even to say this without instantly contradicting themselves. Their doctrine frightens them. They explain in various ways that a great many people will be saved without believing, and that eternal damnation is not eternal nor damnation. ↗

— Leslie Stephen

#christianity #god #hell #religion #religion

Are you really surprised by the endurance of religion? What ideology is likely to be more durable than one that conforms, at every turn, to our powers of wishful thinking? Hope is easy; knowledge is hard. Science is the one domain in which we human beings make a truly heroic effort to counter our innate biases and wishful thinking. Science is the one endeavor in which we have developed a refined methodology for separating what a person hopes is true from what he has good reason to believe. The methodology isn't perfect, and the history of science is riddled with abject failures of scientific objectivity. But that is just the point-these have been failures of science, discovered and corrected by-what, religion? No, by good science. ↗

— Sam Harris

#science #skepticism #religion

And then I stand in front of God's Throne squinting up at His blazing glory and He says, 'You had your opportunities, boy. But did you listen? No. You went on heedlesly reading that garbagey magazine with pictures of naked girls in it. How juvenile! I gave geese more sense than that.' Please, God. I'm only fourteen years old. A teenager. Have mercy. Be loving. I was,' says God. 'For eons. And look at what it got me. You.' God turns in disgust, just the way Daddy does. 'Sorry, but I'm the Creator. I take it personally. There are slugs and bugs and night-crawlers I feel better about having created - I mean, there are sparrows - I've got my eye on one right now. Is that sparrow consumed with lust? No. He mates in the spring and that's the end of it. Consider the lilies. Do they think about lily tits all the time? No. They look not and they lust not, and yet I say unto you that you will never be half as attractive as they. Therefore, I say unto you, think not about peckers and boobs and all that nonsense and your Heavenly Father will see that you meet a good woman and marry her, just as I do for the sparrow and walleye - yea verily, even the night-crawler and the eelpout. But I've told you this over and over for nineteen centuries. And now, verily, it's too late. Time's up, buster. Lights out! Game's over! ↗

— Garrison Keillor

#god #jesus #religion #love

Now whenever things are so that a lot of people feel they ought to be doing something, the weak, and those who go weak with a lot of complicated thinking, always make for a sort of do-nothing religion, very pious and superior, and submit to persecution and the will of the Lord. ↗

— H.G. Wells

#religion

I’m less interested in proselytizing or a bigger tent for its own sake than in issues of human flourishing. What are the best conditions in which people live and flourish? It’s more the, How do we get along? What does it mean for living now? ↗

— Karen L. King

#jesus #religion #religion

Let me tell you something. Do you know why those Turkish girls cover their faces? You think it’s because of religion? No. It’s because otherwise no one can stand to look at them! ↗

— Jeffrey Eugenides

#turkish #religion

When God becomes routine rather than revival, it's time to switch things up. ↗

— Lysa TerKeurst

#religion #spiritual-wisdom #religion

إن الدين الذي يريد أن يستبدل التفكير الحر بأسرار صوفية ، وأن يستبدل الحقيقة العلمية بعقائد جامدة ، والفاعلية الإجتماعية بطقوس ، لابد أن يصطدم بالعلم. والدين الصحيح - على عكس هذا - فهو متسق مع العلم. وكثير من العلماء الكبار يسود عندهم الإعتراف بنوع من الوحدانية. وفوق هذا يستطيع العلم أن يساعدالدين في محاربة المعتقدات الخرافية ، فإذا إنفصلا يرتكس الدين في التخلف ويتجه العلم نخو الإلحاد. ↗

— علي عزت بيجوفيتش

#science #religion

I got religion in the third grade, and jeepers, did I need it. The devil was in me, and Hardy Biesterveld wasn't helping. ↗

— Michael Perry

#religion

In Gilead, the narrator's friend's son describes himself not as an atheist but in "state of categorical unbelief." He says, "I don't even believe God doesn't exist, if you see what I mean." I pointed this passage out to Mom and said it closely matched my own views--I just didn't think about religion. ↗

— Will Schwalbe

#believing-in-god #god #religion #religion