Quotes About Belief

If heathen prayers were indeed the best of all, then mine should count big time.

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.

Mom went on to tell me, as we sat there, that she really believed your personal life was personal. Secrets, she felt, rarely explained or excused anything in real life, or were even all that interesting. People shared too much, she said, not too little. She thought you should be able to keep your private life private for any reason or for no reason.

Everything would be all right, everything would be possible, anything could be salvaged or averted, as long as we all kept running around.

I'd read in Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith,

Trust is all about instinct. If you had all the facts, you wouldn't need trust. Trust is what is required in the absence of proof. But I believe you can strengthen your instincts by testing them; every time you prove yourself right or wrong, they grow stronger.

Mother sighed with exasperation. "Look, there aren't any "people in charge of death". When you die you move to another part of London, that's all there is to it. Period.

The cynics are correct the sense of freewill is only that feeling which we have when we take the necessitated option that most appeals to us.

Well, it's like this," began Mother, "When you die you go and live in another part of London. And that's it." ~ North London Book of the Dead

We have our moment of origin damage and the belief about the world that it created. In this next step, the character needs to see powerful evidence that their belief is correct.

Whenever and whatever happened to alter the boy's view of the world so radically, from the moment that it happened, Mackay's story becomes one of subservience to the contrary will within him that he calls God.

The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.

You'll only fall if you doubt your balance.

Religion is different from everything else; because in religion seeking is finding.

Where there is great love there are always miracles.

Hamilton's second pamphlet made clear his maturing belief that private interest was the glue that would hold American society together and make it succeed. Just as long as Americans learned to rein in their impulse toward unbridled greed and could control, channel, and regulate their prosperity for the public good, they would be invincible even against English military might. 22

Ik geloof soms dat de koppigheid waarmee mensen aan tradities vasthouden, voldoende is om iedere hoop op te geven dat de mensheid door rationele maatregelen gelukkiger zal worden.

Alles wat geen natuurwet is, is dogma.

Een oude theologische strijdmethode: een stelling poneren, zo belachelijk en dom, dat oppositie ertegen automatisch even belachelijk en dom wordt.

Och Karel, eigenlijk ben je zo goed. Soms wil je alleen het slechtste, het allerslechtste in de mensen zien, maar je meent het niet. Altijd beweer je dat liefde maar onzin is, dat haat en eigenbelang de enige dingen zijn die tussen de mensen blijven op den duur. Eigenlijk houd je veel te veel van mij.

In elk geval komt er een tijd dat het christendom uit boekjes geleerd zal worden op school, net zoals men nu de mythologie van de Grieken en de Romeinen op school leert.

Beliefs indeed can create reality.

Materialism is adept at transforming illusions of possibility into settled verities.

my atheism is a conviction not based on evidence, though it leads me to seek a certain kind of solution to the evident inadequacy of materialism.