Quotes About God

If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in this exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you.

A deist, too, believes in a supernatural intelligence, but one whose activities were confined to setting up the laws that govern the universe in the first place. The deist God never intervenes thereafter, and certainly has no specific interest in human affairs.

Pantheists don't believe in a supernatural God at all, but use the word God as a non-supernatural synonym for Nature, or for the Universe, or for the lawfulness that governs its workings.

It is possible to conceive, Anselm said, of a being than which nothing greater can be conceived. Even an atheist can conceive of such a superlative being, though he would deny its existence in the real world. But, goes the argument, a being that doesn't exist in the real world is, by that very fact, less than perfect. Therefore we have a contradiction and, hey presto, God exists!

Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. 'I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.

Even if it were true that we need God to be moral, it would of course not make God's existence more likely, merely more desirable (many people cannot tell the difference).

Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

Deists differ from theists in that their God does not answer prayers, is not interested in sins or confessions, does not read our thoughts and does not intervene with capricious miracles.

Paul Davies's The Mind of God seems to hover somewhere between Einsteinian pantheism and an obscure form of deism—for

The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant'? Instead they say, 'No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.

frequently recommend Miller's book, Finding Darwin's God

God exists, if only in the form of a meme with high survival value, or infective power, in the environment provided by human culture.

But we exist now. We are caring, intelligent animals and can treasure our brief lives. Why is eternal better than temporal, or supernatural higher than natural? Doesn't rarity increase value? God is an idea, not a natural creature. Why should his image be more valuable than our own nature?

To succumb to the God Temptation in either of those guises, biological or cosmological, is an act of intellectual capitulation.

Abraham was left in no doubt that the future lay with his seed, not his individuality. God knew his Darwinism.

Perhaps reading and writing books is one of the last defences human dignity has left, because in the end they remind us of what God once reminded us before He too evaporated in this age of relentless humiliations—that we are more than ourselves; that we have souls.

No way. You won't catch Notley working weekends. Calls it the American disease, working all the hours God sends you.

You know God does not manifest Himself," Halgan shouted. "That is also heresy. The Revelation is not corporeal. You know this. Why do you persist in this perverted speech?" "I like perverted. Maybe you would, too, if you gave it a chance." "Leave my men alone," Rakan said coldly. "Degenerate." Ringil smooched a kiss at him.

Yes, and Duchamp too, when he was asked what he thought about God, said, 'Let's not talk about that. That's man's stupidest idea.' — Nikša Gligo (1972)

One of the reasons many of us avoid meditation is that we think of it as work—and work we may not do perfectly. What if we didn't have to do it perfectly? What if we didn't have to "do" it at all? What if we could rest—and let God do the rest?

And why are we supposed to be serious about God? Did God show up and crack the whip? "You there, Annie in Ohio, I see you laughing a lot and frankly it really pisses Me off . . . " (50)

Today, I release the urgency of outer events. I listen to the inner rhythm of God. I set my pace by divine guidance. The world and its busy agendas do not control my soul.

Why indeed must "God" be a noun? Why not a verb... the most active and dynamic of all? MARY DALY THEOLOGIAN

If you want the truth, I will tell you the truth: Friend, listen: the God whom I love is inside.   KABIR