God is merciful to all, as he has been to you; he is first a father, then a judge.

During this time I came to understand a lot about myself, human beings, faith and the meaning ofmarriage and friendship. The world is not black and white, nothing is what it seems, and we are...

The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice and the desire for personal independence — these are the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars...

Nell did not imagine that Constable Moore wanted to get into a detailed discussion of recent events, so she changed the subject. “I think I have finally worked out what you were trying to tell...

What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects–with their Christianity latent.

Yes. There is one God, and he lives in the sky, and he hears all of us. It is just that here on earth, we are confused about how to believe in him. But what...

Your religious beliefs are your business. They are not and should not be the basis for law. If you use them as justification to discriminate against others, don’t be upset when others decide you’re an...

I think all the politicians in Brazil use God. They always present themselves as the defenders of God. This is because power searches for its legitimation starting from God, religious legitimation. (Carlos Mesers, p. 123)

It is no longer a question of a Christian going about to convert others to the faith, but of each one being ready to listen to the other and so to grow together in mutual...

Free will? Either you follow the word of God, or you’ll be punished with eternal hellfire. That’s the same kind of “choice” an abuse boyfriend gives you: ‘Either you do exactly what I say, or...

Every faith has logic even though people after developing faith forget the logic behind the faith. There is a strong logic behind the creation of religion—the greatest symbol of human faith—that has provided a common...

I am fashionably unimpressed with the material world. I am moved by the beauty of aspiration, and I hope that I can elevate myself to the standards I have imposed on others.

In silence alone does a man’s truth bind itself together and strike root.

The biblical account of Noah’s Ark and the Flood is perhaps the most implausible story for fundamentalists to defend. Where, for example, while loading his ark, did Noah find penguins and polar bears in Palestine?

Love is the theme of all religions but making it commercial is satanic”.

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

One would go mad if one took the Bible seriously; but to take it seriously one must be already mad.

It was pitiful for a person born in a wholesome free atmosphere to listen to their humble and hearty outpourings of loyalty toward their king and Church and nobility; as if they had any more...

Actually, it meant a great deal: a very great deal. You don’t have to believe that God exists to see that a story in which God takes on human form is a very different story...

Winter arrived with December, and the world continued to suffer the loss of the Internet and most forms of communication. Supply chains were disrupted. The only mass form of personal communication was the letter, and...

Faith is a luxury for those who are able to ignore what the rest of us must see every day. Pessimism, distrust, and irony are the holy trinity of my religion, irony in particular.

For I do not believe God means us thus to divide life into half halves – to wear a grave face on Sunday, and to think it out-of-place to even so much as mention Him...

The Bible looks like it started out as a game of mad libs.

The new atheists show a disturbing lack of understanding of or concern about the complexity and ambiguity of modern experience, and their polemic entirely fails to mention the concern for justice and compassion that, despite...

If we who follow Christ, with all the facts before us and knowing what we are about, deliberately choose the kingdom of God as our sphere of interest, I see no reason why anyone should...

He preached the love of God but burned people alive.

The difference between God and the Devil, is that God creates and organizes, while the whole study of the Devil is to destroy.

My fear was not the fear of God but, as in the case of the whole Turkish secular bourgeoisie, fear of the anger of those who believe in God too zealously(…) I experienced the guilt...

Much of the genre pretty much sounds like popular acoustic songs you’d hear on mainstream radio. The only difference here is that the front man, instead of singing “I love her,” switches the words to...

I fully recognize there is an urgent need for constructing the _strategic we-nes-in-sameness_ and promoting the _solidarity of sameness_. The sheer realization of the inextricable interconnectedness of I-ness/me-ness and we-ness/us-ness is the round for an...

Glory be to Him who changes others and remains Himself unchanged!

We’re screwed.

I was asked by a concerned church-goer: “Is your relationship with God okay?” and I answered “My relationship with God is far better than yours. You have to be in a certain place, with a...

His church is the old one at the edge of town, and I now realize why he’s chosen to live here. The church is too far away for him to really help anyone, so this...

For too long, our controversies seem to boil down to conservatives and liberals (or, if you prefer, traditionalists and progressives) talking past each other for the benefit of stirring up their loyalists, as partisans do...

If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them, and...

Religion is nothing more than the study of other people’s experiences with God. But true spirituality is the opportunity to have your own experience with God.

I think we place the wrong emphasis upon examples, that we’re treading on very weak ground when we set ourselves up as examples for others to become religious. If people are going to look at...

I say this because all religions, accurately understood, will take away your fear of not being enough. I believe there is a way to understand the tenets of your religion, right now, that will take...

Christians often ask why God does not speak to them, as he is believed to have done in former days. When I hear such questions, it always makes me think of the rabbi who asked...

Technically, according to the notion of the will of God, there is no such a thing as a competent surgeon.

We make time for what we truly value. We build habits and routines around the things that really matter to us. This is an important principle to understand as we seek to build our lives...

Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.

Any civilization where the main symbol of religious veneration is a tool of execution is a bad place to have children.

He’s Darkness. Unpleasant. I wouldn’t trust him. Nor do I trust every mortal I meet. I don’t know where evil comes from, and frankly it doesn’t matter. Not right now. Histories and myths are renamed...

About once or twice every month I engage in public debates with those whose pressing need it is to woo and to win the approval of supernatural beings. Very often, when I give my view...

Shariyat-Ki-Sugmand, Buch I, Seite 112f

To ‘choose’ dogma and faith over doubt and experience is to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid.

But when a man draws a lifeless thing into his passionate longing for dialogue, lending it independence and as it were a soul, then there may dawn in him the presentiment of a world-wide dialogue...

It can certainly be misleading to take the attributes of a movement, or the anxieties and contradictions of a moment, and to personalize or ‘objectify’ them in the figure of one individual. Yet ordinary discourse...