Quotes About Belief

Heaven and utopia are buckets in a well: when one goes down the other goes up; when religion declines Communism grows.

But something of the skepticism that injured my religious faith has overflowed into timid doubts of science

The distinctive feature of the unintelligent man is the hastiness and absoluteness of his opinions; the scientist is slow to believe, and never speaks without modification.

that I think many things with the clearest conviction, . . . which I never have the courage to say; but I will never say anything which I do not think.

The cleverest defenders of a faith are its greatest enemies; for their subtleties engender doubt and stimulate the mind.

How can we understand man if we do not understand religion?

the development of the Christian ethic slowly eroded Christian theology. Christ destroyed Jehovah.

As long as there is poverty there will be gods."32

The ancient [pagan] faith was diseased at the bottom and at the top. The deification of the emperors revealed not how much the upper classes thought of their rulers, but how little they thought of their gods.

a barbarian was a man content to believe without reason and to live without liberty.

Religion does not prosper under prosperity;

religion stands, and philosophy accompanies it to the grave. In the beginning of all cultures a strong religious faith conceals and softens the nature of things, and gives men courage to bear pain and hardship patiently; at every step the gods are with them, and will not let them perish, until they do. Even then a firm faith will explain that it was the sins of the people that turned their gods to an avenging wrath;

Intolerance is the natural concomitant of strong faith; tolerance grows only when faith loses certainty; certainty is murderous.

The man who says to me, 'Believe as I do, or God will damn you,' will presently say, 'Believe as I do, or I shall assassinate you.'"70 "By what right could a being created free force another to think like himself?"71 "A fanaticism composed of superstition and ignorance has been the sickness of all the centuries.

I know that I am not right about everything, and yet I am simultaneously convinced that I am. I believe these two things completely, and yet they are in catastrophic logical opposition to each other.

Exposure to a mixed body of evidence made both sides even more convinced of the fundamental soundness of their original beliefs.' Confirmation bias is profoundly human and it is appalling. When new information leads to an increase in ignorance, it is the opposite of learning, the death of wisdom.

People don't read their Bibles. They hire pastors to preach to them. And some pastors will preach total nonsense if it will tickle the congregations' ears enough to open their purses... And they'll defend the delusions... indoctrinated in them to the death.

A Bible-quoting group of killers. I don't like it

A reverent agnosticism can be on occasion a better evangelism than a religion which knows all the answers.

Kincaid, there's a reason why stereotypes become stereotypes. It's because they're true. - Harold Sacks

This life's dim windows of the soul Distorts the heavens from pole to pole And leads you to believe a lie When you see with, not through, the eye.

When i tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do.

Everything to be imagined is an image of truth.

If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out.