Quotes About Religion

If faith were rational , it wouldn't be -by definition- faith.

Religious ceremonies are of paramount importance in Bali ( an island, don't forget, with seven unpredictable volcanoes on it-you would pray, too).

God does not live in a dogmatic scripture or in a distant throne in the sky, but instead abides very close to us indeed—much closer than we can imagine, breathing right through our own hearts.

It's good to be sorry - but don't make a fetish of it. The one good thing about being Protestant is that we are not expected to cringe forever in contrition. Yours was a venial sin, Vivian, but not a mortal one.' 'I don't know what that means.' 'I'm not sure I do, either. It's just something I once read. Here is what I do know, however: sins of the flesh will not get you punished in the afterlife. They will only get you punished in this life. As you've now learned.

If faith were rational, it wouldn't be—by definition—faith. Faith is belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch.

Some people like to argue about God." "Not necessary," he said. "I have good idea, for if you meet some person from different religion and he want to make argument about God. My idea is, you listen to everything this man say about God. Never argue about God with him. Best thing to say is, 'I agree with you.' Then you go home, pray what you want. This is my idea for people to have peace about religion.

Nunca discutas sobre Dios. Lo mejor es decir 'Estoy de acuerdo contigo'. Entonces vas a tu casa y rezas lo que tú quieres. Esta es mi idea para que las personas estén en paz con la religión.

Si la fe fuese racional, no sería fe. La fe es la creencia en lo que no se puede ver ni tocar. La fe es caminar —de frente y a toda velocidad— hacia las tinieblas. Si realmente tuviéramos todas las respuestas en cuanto al significado de la vida y la naturaleza de Dios y el destino del alma, la religión no sería un acto de fe ni un valiente acto de humanidad; sería simplemente... una prudente póliza de seguros.

What the deuce does religion have to do with being a good minister? It is a profession like any other profession, young man. You fit yourself to the task, and keep your opinions private. That is what all good ministers do—or should!

Every religion in the world has had a subset of devotees who seek a direct, transcendent experience with God, excusing themselves from fundamentalist scriptural or dogmatic study in order to personally encounter the divine.

Read your Bible, child; this world is not a paradise but a vale of tears.

Be very careful, warns this tale, not to get too obsessed with the repetition of religious ritual just for its own sake.

Nunca discutas sobre Dios. Lo mejor es decir «Estoy de acuerdo contigo». Entonces vas a tu casa y rezas lo que tú quieres. Ésta es mi idea para que las personas estén en paz con la religión.

Didn't Catholicism deal with blood and resurrected flesh on a daily basis? Wasn't it expert in superstition?

They will have difficulties to overcome,' I admitted. 'Including the differences in their religions. However, marriage is always a chancy business, Katherine. I have known individuals who appeared perfectly suited, by family background, religion, and nationality, who were thoroughly miserable.' 'So you believe in taking the chance?' 'Certainly. What is life without some risk?

Ora so che l'amore è l'unica cosa che valga davvero la pena di avere. Tutto il resto, talento, lavoro, arte, religione, conoscenza e tutti gli altri terreni affanni altro non sono che rimedi con i quali coloro che non amano, coloro che non sono amati, tentano di attenuare le loro pene, di anestetizzarsi.

Virginia had, however, long felt that her mother was not truly religious—not truly and seriously, as she and Stephen were. No doubt she thought she was, and perhaps she was, in some queer way; but were queer ways of being religious permissible? Weren't they as bad, really, as no ways at all?

And then I think of the Velvet Underground's doleful song Jesus, from their third and least renowned or appreciated album. It is my favorite. Jesus / Help me find my proper place / Help me in my weakness / 'Cause I'm falling out of grace. The only words in the song, repeated repeatedly, composed by Lou Reed, a Jew. You see, in the hour of darkness, it is easier to turn to the Son of God than to God Himself, for some reason. I'm not sure why.

some say that the difference between catholic guilt and jewish guilt is that the former emanates from the knowledge that we are all born already fallen, that there is nothing we can ever do to overcome the original sin; the latter springs from a sense that every one of us was created in god's image and has the potential for perfection. so catholic guilt is about impossibility, while jewish guilt is about an abundance of possibility.

That's when I understood deeply that with all my studies of other religions, basically I really am devoted to Jesus. I am not a church-going Christian, not a conventional one by most standards, but in my heart, Jesus is my guru.

I have always known that the best of the Saracens could out-Christian many of us Christians.

The fact that people have religious experiences is interesting from the psychological point of view, but it does not in any way imply that there is such a thing as religious knowledge...Unless he can formulate this 'knowledge' in propositions that are empirically verifiable, we may be sure that he is deceiving himself.

Yet it puzzled me that no one around me seemed to take God very seriously. We neither believed nor disbelieved. He was our oldest habit.

One God, one law, one element,And one far-off divine event,To which the whole creation moves.