#religion

Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them. ↗

— Barry M. Goldwater

#compromise #god #lobbying #politics #preachers

Dancing with the Devil is a lot more fun than dancing alone. ↗

— Trevor Parks

#religion

...much theological discussion is wasted, not because the words used have no possible meaning, but because the people who use them don't mean anything by them. ↗

— Rosemary Haughton

#religion #religion

Justice implies knowledge of the right and proper place for a thing or a being to be; of right as against wrong; of the mean and limit; of spiritual gain as against loss; of truth as against falsehood. ↗

— Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas

#religion

When confronted by a ‘believer’ it is easy for me to contrast the views of the skeptic with those of the rationalist. I simply reach into my pocket and pull out my change. Holding a quarter aloft, I say, ‘This is a most remarkable coin, for it is heavier than all the sins of humanity committed since the beginning of the human race.’ I then hold up a nickel and say, ‘This coin is even more amazing, as it is brighter and shinier than the flames that proceeded from the Burning Bush discovered on Mt. Sinai by Moses.’ Then I raise a penny and state, ‘This portrait of President Lincoln is more realistic and true-to-life than any portrait of Satan ever painted.’ And finally, I hold out a bright, shiny dime and say, ‘And this dime is the most amazing of all because it is heavier and contains more precious metals than all the gold bricks in the streets of Heaven.’ I end with ‘Give to Caesar what is his, and hold the rest of it dear—for it is all you see and touch—and the Christian god can take care of all his things, for they amount to less than this 41 cents I hold here in my hand. ↗

— Emanuel Haldeman-Julius

#heaven #rationality #religion #change

إن القرآن لم يذر وسيلة موصلة إلى إنعاش العقل وتحرير الفكر إلا وتذرع بها، فهو إذا تحاكم فإلى العقل، وإذا حاج فبحكم العقل، وإذا سخط فعلى معطلي العقل، وإذا رضي فعن أولي العقل ↗

— عبد العزيز جاويش

#religion #religion

Well, I think the Yoruba gods are truthful. Truthful in the sense that i consider religion and the construct of deities simply an extension of human qualities taken, if you like, to the nth degree. i mistrust gods who become so separated from humanity that enormous crimes can be committed in their names. i prefer gods who can be brought down to earth and judged, if you like. ↗

— Wole Soyinka

#religion

Every man knows that he will die: and nobody believes it. On that paradox stand not only a host of religions but the entity of a sane being. ↗

— John Myers Myers

#religion

(Prayer is) a fictitious consolation invented by those who have everything in order to keep those who have nothing contented. I belong to the bourgeoisie and I know the only reason my class bothers to show the lower classes that distant paradise full of ineffable pleasures that will one day be theirs is to divert attention from their own bulging coffers and from the abundance of their harvests. ↗

— Eça de Queirós

#religion #religion

I wish all those who've found God, would tell the rest of us where he's been hiding. ↗

— Quentin R. Bufogle

#religion #religion