Quotes About Dogma

Fanatical religion driven to a certain point is almost as bad as none at all, but not quite.

The Christian evangelist falls into a similar trap if he opens up his Bible and says, 'It must be true, it's written here,' – because, of course, the fact that certain assertions are printed in a book does not prove them to be true. He will have to demonstrate that the Bible has that kind of authority, and if he cannot do so, he will have no reason to be annoyed if other people cannot accept what he says.

There ain't nothing like religion to bring out the worst in folks.

Fundamentalists of all faiths are the fundamental evil of our time.

Those sages of the ancient world, unbound by dogma of any kind, thought as we do in terms of physics, or rather, physiology, as applied to the whole universe: they envisaged the end of man and the dying out of this sphere.

Les escarmouches avec les théologiens avaient eu leur charme, mais il savait fort bien qu'il n'existe aucun accommodement durable entre ceux qui cherchent, pèsent, dissèquent, et s'honorent d'être capables de penser demain autrement qu'aujourd'hui, et ceux qui croient ou affirment croire, et obligent sous peine de mort leurs semblables à en faire autant. (L'acte d'accusation)

At the very best there are two major problems with ideology. The first is that it does not represent or conform to or even address reality. It is a straight-edge ruler in a fractal universe. And the second is that it inspires in its believers the notion that the fault here lies with miscreant fact, which should therefore be conformed to the requirements of theory by all means necessary.

Make no mistake: patriotism is a religion, the enemy of lucidity. It is pure obscurantism, an act of faith.

que culminarían en el dogma de la experimentación como único camino para el descubrimiento de la verdad.

If we idolize our theological system, we must demonize other theological systems.

Perché una libertà fossilizzata, materializzata, dogmatizzata diventa una schiavitù, e gli uomini, rimanendo indifferenti alla notizia dell'avvenimento, documentarono la loro liberazione dalla schiavitù del mito cristiano, del materialismo cristiano.

The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion

Civilization and Religion are incompatible" and "Faith is believing what you know isn't true.

You will find men like him in all the world's religions. They know that we represent reason and science, and, however confident they may be in their beliefs, they fear that we will overthrow their gods. Not necessarily through any deliberate act, but in a subtler fashion. Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets.

harsh verdict of the great philosopher Lucretius: all religions were fundamentally immoral, because the superstitions they peddled wrought more evil than good.

Believe me, it gives us no pleasure to destroy men's faiths, but all the world's religions cannot be right, and they know it.

When a man has once brought himself to accept uncritically all the absurdities that religious doctrines put before him and even to overlook the contradictions between them, we need not be greatly surprised at the weakness of his intellect.

The facts of religion were convincing only to those who were already convinced.

In fact – and with very few exceptions – when a man joins a party, he submissively adopts a mental attitude which he will express later on with words such as, 'As a monarchist, as a Socialist, I think that . . .' It is so comfortable! It amounts to having no thoughts at all. Nothing is more comfortable than not having to think.

The less support an idea has,the more fervently it must be believed in, so that a totally preposterous idea requires unflinching faith.

All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. And that's where it turns demonic. Because that's when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake.

Unless biblical literalism is challenged overtly in the Christian church itself, it will, in my opinion, kill the Christian faith. It is not just a benign nuisance that afflicts Christianity at its edges; it is a mentality that renders the Christian faith unbelievable to an increasing number of the citizens of our world. The

When any human group decides that they can define God, the outcome is always predictable. The "true faith," once defined, must then be defended against all critics, and it must also then be forced upon all people—"for their own good, lest their souls be in jeopardy.

However unwillingly a person who has a strong opinion may admit the possibility that his opinion may be false, he ought to be moved by the consideration that, however true it may be, if it is not fully, frequently, and fearlessly discussed, it will be held as a dead dogma, not a living truth.