Quotes About Religion

Generally religion and puritanism prevail in periods when the laws are feeble and morals must bear the burden of maintaining social order; skepticism and paganism (other factors being equal) progress as the rising power of law and government permits the decline of the church, the family, and morality without basically endangering the stability of the state.

it was fear that first made the gods"25 —fear of hidden forces in the earth, rivers, oceans, trees, winds, and sky. Religion became the propitiatory worship of these forces through offerings, sacrifice, incantation, and prayer.

Death is the origin of all religions, and perhaps if there had been no death there would have been no gods.

the decline of religious belief,which has all sorts of effects on morals and even on politics because religion has been a tool of politics. But today in Europe it ceases to be a tool, it has very little influence in determining political decisions—

Religion begins by offering magical aid to harassed and bewildered men; it culminates by giving to a people that unity of morals and belief which seems so favorable to statesmanship and art; it ends by fighting suicidally in the lost cause of the past. For

Hence a certain tension between religion and society marks the higher stages of every civilization. Religion begins by offering magical aid to harassed and bewildered men; it culminates by giving to a people that unity of morals and belief which seems so favorable to statesmanship and art; it ends by fighting suicidally in the lost cause of the past.

Belief in God, said Diderot, is bound up with submission to autocracy; the two rise and fall together; and "men will never be free till the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

Racial" antipathies have some roots in ethnic origin, but they are also generated, perhaps predominantly, by differences of acquired culture—of language, dress, habits, morals, or religion. There is no cure for such antipathies except a broadened education.

What I am not," he says, most truthfully, "that for me is God

Protestantism and beer have dulled German wit.

The causes of atheism are, divisions in religion, if they be many; for any one division addeth zeal to both sides; but many divisions introduce atheism . . . . And lastly, learned times, especially with peace and prosperity; for troubles and adversities do more bow men's minds to religion.

A little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.

When Germany defeated Napoleon it was a disastrous to culture as when Luther defeated the Church.

Here Ibn Hawqal, about 970, found some 300 mosques, and 300 schoolteachers who were highly regarded by the inhabitants "in spite of the fact," says the geographer, "that schoolteachers are notorious for their mental deficiency and light brains.

The first principle of his policy was that the various peoples of his empire should be left free in their religious worship and beliefs, for he fully understood the first principle of statesmanship—that religion is stronger than the state.

In some way the god had to be appeased and satisfied; for his worshipers had made him in the image and dream of themselves, and he had no great regard for human life, or womanly tears.

As long as there is poverty, there will be gods

heresy or blasphemy must be punished with death, even if the heretic should be one's closest kin.

fue el miedo lo que en primer lugar creó a los dioses»:1 el miedo a fuerzas ocultas en la tierra, los ríos, los océanos, los árboles, los vientos y el cielo. La religión se convirtió en el culto propiciatorio de esas fuerzas a través de ofrendas, sacrificios, conjuros y oraciones.

La historia ha justificado a la Iglesia en la creencia de que las masas de la humanidad desean una religión pródiga en milagros, misterio y mitos.

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

When mere creeds or ceremonies usurp priority over moral excellence as a test of religion, religion has disappeared

The religion of Assyria, like its language, its science and its arts, was imported from Sumeria and Babylonia, with occasional adaptations to the needs of a military state.