“And these two elements are at odds with one another because Freud is utterly adversary to almost all the ways of structuring the human experience found in Western religions. No Western religion can countenance Freud's view of man.”
Religion asks the biggest questions and offers answers that millions of people organize their lives around. These quotes approach faith traditions with respect and curiosity, exploring belief, doubt, ritual, and the search for something larger than yourself.
“The fact that religion plays such a part in how people vote troubles me, troubles me as a minister's daughter. Because I always felt that the separation of church and state was what our forefathers and foremothers really fought for.”
“And these two elements are at odds with one another because Freud is utterly adversary to almost all the ways of structuring the human experience found in Western religions. No Western religion can countenance Freud's view of man.”
“Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.”
“Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.”
“Catholicism is not a soothing religion. It's a painful religion. We're all gluttons for punishment.”
“I hate organized religion. I think you have to love thy neighbor as thyself. I think you have to pick your own God and be true to him. I always say 'him' rather than 'her.' Maybe it's because of my generation, but I don't like the idea of a female God. I see God as a benevolent male.”
“Anyone with sincere religious beliefs cannot say that all religions are true. That is so illogical it is pathetic. All religion cannot be true because some of them are so diametrically opposed to each other.”
“9/11 was a deliberate, carefully planned evil act of the long-waged war on the West by Koran-inspired soldiers of Allah around the world. They hated us before George W. Bush was in office. They hated us before Israel existed. And the avengers of the religion of perpetual outrage will keep hating us.”
“Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one's own religion.”
“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple the philosophy is kindness.”
“I like to say magic is the world's second oldest profession, a mystical and often awe-inspiring spectacle that, throughout the ages, has blended superstition, trickery and religion.”
“What use is revelation or religion if it doesnt change anything?”
“There can be no truce between science and religion.”
“The major civilizing force in the world is not religion, it is sex.”
“You can't write about the past and ignore religion. It was such a fundamental, mind-shaping, driving force for pre-modern societies. I'm very interested in what religion does to us - its capacity to create love and empathy or hatred and violence.”
“Someone once told me that religion is like a knife: You can stab someone with it, or you can slice bread with it.”