Quotes About Religion

That which, in the language of religion, is called "this world" is the universe of reduced awareness, expressed, and, as it were, petrified by language.

Yes, we inevitably turn to God; for this religious sentiment is of its nature so pure, so delightful to the soul that experiences it, that it makes up to us for all our other losses.

All crosses had their tops cut and became T's.

When for whatever reason, men and women fail to transcend themselves by means of worship good works and spiritual exercises they are apt to resort to religion's chemical surrogates.

The Quakers pray as the spirit moves them; but to let oneself be moved by the spirit is an arduous business. Kindlier and more worldly churches, with a feeling for human weakness, provide their worshipers with rituals, litanies, beads and prayer wheels.

One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons—that's philosophy. People believe in God because they've been conditioned to believe in God.

In so far as it helps the individual to forget himself and his ready-made opinions about the universe, religion will prepare the way for realization. In so far as it arouses and justifies such passions as fear, scrupulosity, righteous indignation, institutional patriotism and crusading hate, in so far as it harps on the saving virtues of certain theological notions, certain hallowed arrangements of words, religion is an obstacle in the way of realization.

Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears - that's what soma is.

When captured and brought to trial, many of those who had taken part in the Sabbath resolutely refused, even under torture, even at the stake, to abjure the religion which had brought them so much happiness.

People believe in God because they've been conditioned to believe in God. (p.207)

Volt valami, amit kereszténységnek hívtak, mint már említettem (…) Az alulfogyasztás etikája és filozófiája…

We now see that all the evils of religion can flourish without any belief in the supernatural, that convinced materialists are ready to worship their own jerry-built creations as though they were the Absolute, and that self-styled humanists will persecute their adversaries with all the zeal of the catholic inquisitors exterminating the devotees of a personal and transcendent Satan.

Drug-taking, it is significant, plays an important part in almost every primitive religion. The Persians and, before them, the Greeks and probably the ancient Hindus used alcohol to produce religious ecstasy; the Mexicans procured the beatific vision by eating a poisonous cactus; a toadstool filled the Shamans of Siberia with enthusiasm and endowed them with the gift of tongues.

But the power problem has its roots in anatomy and biochemistry and temperament. Power has to be curbed on the legal and political levels; that's obvious. But it's also obvious that there must be prevention on the individual level. On the level of instinct and emotion, on the level of the glands and the viscera, the muscles and the blood. If I can ever find the time, I'd like to write a little book on human physiology in relation to ethics, religion, politics and law.

Turning to God without turning from self' - the formula is absurdly simple; and yet, simple as it is, it explains all the follies and iniquities committed in the name of religion.

Why don't you give them these books about God? For the same reason as we don't give them Othello; they're old, they're about God hundreds of years ago. Not about God now. But God doesn't change. Men do though.

As if one believed anything by instinct! One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons -- that's philosophy. People believe in God because they've been conditioned to believe in God.

Uno cree las cosas porque ha sido condicionado para creerlas.... La gente cree en Dios porque ha sido condicionada para creer en Dios.

God as a sense of warmth about the heart, God as exultation, God as tears in the eyes, God as a rush of power or thought—that was all right. But God as truth, God as 2 + 2 = 4—that wasn't so clearly all right.

Christianity without tears-that's what soma is.

But God doesn't change.' 'Men do though.

On croit en Dieu parce qu'on a été conditionné à croire en Dieu.

La literatura de la experiencia religiosa abunda en referencias a aflicciones y terrores que abruman a quienes se han visto, demasiado bruscamente, ante alguna manifestación del Mysterium tremendum

they're old; they're about God hundreds of years ago. Not about God now. But God doesn't change. Men do though. What difference does that make? All the difference in the world