Quotes About Belief

He accepted without question the notion that there is such a thing as 'normal,' that most people have attained it, and that it could be achieved by his patients if only they would have a successful therapy.

In the West, there have been many pre-twentieth century configurations of the self...Each of these selves are part of the heritage of the West. Each of these selves, all sure that they were the one, proper way of being human, all sure that their way of arranging power relations of gender, race, community and age was the one natural arrangement, all sure that their God was the only true God, are the antecedents of our current self. It is a humbling, disorienting vision.

Social psychologists have long known that getting people to publicly commit to a belief is a great way to freeze it in place, making it resistant to change. The stronger the commitment, the greater the resistance.

Kahneman and other pioneers of modern psychology have revealed that our minds crave certainty and when they don't find it, they impose it.

for us to appreciate the nature of Alexander and the world in which he lived, we must set aside our own preconceptions, skepticism, and cynical disbelief to realize that the ancient world was an age of great mystery and magic.

The appropriate attitude to mystical experiences for those who haven't had them is probably one of agnosticism, the withholding of belief either that mystical experiences provide genuine insight into the nature of reality or that they are delusions.

If you are yourself, If you trust yourself, If you believe in yourself your life will be fine As for the rest of it: be generous and warm-hearted And always send a thank you card. This is all you need to know. And if you are really stuck…ask the universe. The answer is out there…

What we think has a strong influence on what we feel. John

Martin Luther said, "A Christian is not someone who has no sin or feels no sin; he is someone to whom, because of his faith in Christ, God does not impute his sin.

The Christian worldview is liturgical as well as cerebral; it culminates with an everlasting crescendo of praise.

In the words of the Puritan William Perkins, "The promises made to Abraham are first made to Christ, and then in Christ to all that believe in him."6

From start to finish, the whole Christian life is by grace through faith. A new life in Christ commences with faith, continues by faith, and will be completed by faith.

A Christian view of art thus stands in opposition to the postmodern assumption that there are no absolutes.

God is not intimidated by such hard and testing questions, nor is he unable to answer them. But we must come with the right kind of skepticism—not the kind that refuses to believe anything at all, but the kind that is committed to believe only what is really true.

People certainly do not want anyone to bring God into the discussion. They talk about the separation of church and state, but often what they mean is the separation of God from daily life. What business does God have telling us what to do, anyway? If people believe in God at all, they like to think of him as a kind of cosmic Santa Claus who is there to do nice things for people, not disapprove of what we are doing.

Many false claims are made about God. They exact a heavy toll on people who believe every utterance from the pulpit must surely be the gospel truth.

I believe God loves everyone.

Every effort to safeguard what is considered truth inevitably leads to the crippling of truth, for the very act of enshrining a belief and treating it as settled truth and infallible doctrine is to declare that the search for truth has concluded. Any religion with a regard for truth must resist every effort to bring its search for truth to an end. This includes the formation of creeds, which by their nature are presented as conclusive and indisputable.

People did not come to God through Jesus as much as they saw the priorities of God in Jesus.

The testimony of the Bible is clear. The God of Jesus, of Peter and of Paul, and of Abraham and Jacob is a living God. He calls himself "I AM," not "I WAS." Scripture isn't a brittle and crumbling letter from a God long silent. The Bible proclaims a God of visions, fresh words, and new revelations. To believe the Bible is to believe in such a God.

One thing my experience has showed me is that spiritually alive people tend to be insatiably curious about the Divine Presence, refuse to settle for cliché-heavy religion, and feel little obligation to believe something because they are told they must.

Avoid those persons who claim always to have believed the same thing and demand you do the same. What they are really saying is that they have refused to permit their encounters with God to reshape their lives.

That was the problem with religion. You no sooner made up your mind about something than you had to change it.

I believe God will save every person.