“I think the real problem for American religion are those minority of fundamentalists who try to identify political policies with religion.”
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.
“We are punished by our sins, not for them.”
“I think the real problem for American religion are those minority of fundamentalists who try to identify political policies with religion.”
“I am fascinated with religion or things that people believe in and question that. I think it's interesting.”
“Religion enables us to ignore nothingness and get on with the jobs of life.”
“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 try to just talk about human stories and what I think about religion or teapots or whatever.”
“Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.”
“If there ever was a militant religion, it was that of early New England.”
“Every fundamentalist movement I've studied in Judaism, Christianity and Islam is convinced at some gut, visceral level that secular liberal society wants to wipe out religion.”
“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”
“Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other.”
“We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.”
“We know too much, and are convinced of too little. Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.”
“It is commonly said and known that each civilization has its own religion. Now my claim is that if we look deeper, the different civilizations were brought into being by the different revelations.”
“The spiritual element, the really important part of religion, has no concern with Time and Space, temporary mundane laws, or conduct.”
“I am a deeply religious nonbeliever - this is a somewhat new kind of religion.”