Quotes About Belief

But in resisting, we may actually be missing an invitation to take a sacred journey, where we let go of needing to be right and trust God regardless of what we feel we know or don't know.

If I were king of Christianity, after limiting church services to forty-five minutes and sermons to ten, as well as outlawing church "share time" altogether, I would proclaim a kingdom-wide decree that, at least for a while until we get it, "believe" should be stricken from all of our Bibles and replaced with trust.

Perhaps her long dark night fueled her life, where she kept moving anyway, as an act of trust so deep it cannot be rationally explained—and indeed would look foolish if anyone tried. And the result was about as clear a Jesus movement as you can point to in recent history. Mother Teresa learned

But a faith that requires us to hold on to what we "know" becomes, we eventually discover, inadequate for handling the peaks and valleys of our humanity. It's also exhausting to try to hold it all together as it once was.

trust—not clarity, not certainty, but trust in God. And all of that poured out to the people around her.

I am amazed and encouraged by those who have lived through these moments of hell on earth and have continued on in the life of faith anyway. They have something to teach people like me: no matter what we think we know, no matter how sure we happen to think we are, suffering is the place where our sense of certainty about God's ways fades like a dream and forces us to consider that what we know may not be as central to our faith as we might think.

Adjusting our understanding of God isn't a sign of weak faith, nor is it an attack on faith—it is faith.

I feel that if we do not engage Scripture with future believers in mind, we will unwittingly erect unnecessary and tragic obstacles to belief. Part of what drives this book is my concern to help prevent that scenario.

Doubt is God's way of helping us not go there, though the road may be very hard and long.

The root of the conflict for many Christians is not scientific or even theological, but group identity and fear of losing what it offers.

When Christians feel crushed by such "people of God," faith is exposed as something that just doesn't work here and now. And if something doesn't work, intellectual arguments for staying in the faith lose their appeal over time. Why bother?

Probably for the first time in my life I was beginning to comprehend that trust was a habit I would need to cultivate.

Typical case, educated way, way beyond her IQ, with ambition stronger than ability. She's just another cause fascist, son, and that's the worst kind; they always know they're right. Anyone who dissents for whatever reason is evil and an enemy, existing only to be crushed.

Political policies determine how the human race confronts this crisis. War doesn't have that ability. War has only one outcome. War is stupid, Ralph. It is the desecration of the human spirit, martyring yourself for someone else's dream. It is for people who do not believe in themselves.

It's not a god he worships, it's the devil.

The human race, for all our facets and our institutional stupidity, is something I believe in. I admire our diversity, our stubbornness. The dynamic of conflict is one of our greatest traits.

That was the trouble with freethinkers, they had overactive imaginations that made them uncertain.

Another religious fanatic to whom facts and reality took second place to dogma.

He'd learned long ago that logic and facts never meant anything to true believers—of anything.

You think that isn't you? You believe you are noble and kind? Do you know how the dominance works?

Who wants to wind up living in a theocracy?

You know what I think? Edenists don't get caught in the beyond because you're cool enough under pressure to figure your way out. Well, me too, pal. Laton said there was a way out. I believe him. The Kiint found it. Just knowing that it's possible is my ticket to exit.

Always trust in proven survivors.

Horst didn't believe in ghosts.