Religious Quotes - Page 269

You hold onto religion, you know, rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is people's hearts, and that's hard enough.

Man is by his constitution a religious animal; atheism is against not only our reason, but our instincts.

Man is by his constitution a religious animal.

Religion is a light in the fog.

If there were no belief in god, if such a truth were ever realized, then their would be no fear of consequence. Stop for a moment and imagine what this world would be like without consequence and fear. Imagine what we could, what we would do. I dare not think of such a nightmare for it could only be born in pain.

My dad said, "As long as you're happy." I used to think it was kind of a very simple idea or philosophy because he wasn't religious. But you've got to try and be happy. And if you're not happy, you can't help anyone else. So obviously, some crazy people could go to places, but I just think you need to be content within yourself, so that's the thing.

Historically, religious groups have been most effective when they have stood apart from government and critiqued the performance of government in light of their ethical traditions. When churches become cozy with the state, they lose the capacity and the will to criticize unjust policies.

Palestinian believers have a unique experience with US foreign policy and our close ties with Israel. This alliance has many layers, but given the strong support of the US church, and the frequency of religious language surrounding these policies, Palestinian Christian friends raise important and challenging questions about how we understand the intertwining of theology and politics in the US.

This new large-scale spiritual awakening is occurring primarily not within the confines of the established religions, but outside of those structures. Some of it, however, is also happening within the existing churches and religious institutions wherever the members of those congregations do not identify with rigid and exclusive belief systems whose unconscious purpose is to foster a sense of separation on which the egoic mind structures depend for their survival.

There're a lot of old religious beliefs that keep us stuck. Because we're afraid of the answers, a lot of us just don't ask the questions of God.

I thought perhaps it should be recognized that religious people, including fundamentalists, are quite intelligent, many of them are highly educated, and they should be treated with complete respect.

People yearn to be in one of the best--a combat marine regiment, an elite college, the executive committee of a company, a religious sect, a fraternity, a garden club--any collectivity that can be compared favorably with other, competing groups.

Of course, there is no reconciliation between the theory of evolution by natural selection and the traditional religious view of the origin of the human mind.

Temptations are like tramps. Treat them kindly, and they will return bringing others with them. Temptations are never so dangerous as when they come to us in a religious garb.

To God's own heart be true.

People who prefer to believe the worst of others will breed war and religious persecutions while the world lasts.

The games of the ancient Greeks were, in their original institutions, religious solemnities.

Every religion, Eastern and Western, has the same archetype of benevolent guides in Heaven helping us, whether they are called bodhisattvas, deities, devas, or angels, as they are called by the monotheistic religions of the West. Angels can unite people across religious and spiritual divides. Angels are something we all agree on. Nobody fights about angels.

There is no instinct that has been so maligned, suppressed, abused, and distorted by religious teaching as the instinct of sex.

Norman Lear considers almost any Christian who speaks up for and acts on his or her faith to be 'dangerous.'

We going to have the biggest tax cut since Ronald Reagan, we're going to eliminate job-killing regulations which are a disaster, we are going to defend religious liberty.

One of the things that I'm doing and I'm - we have the Johnson Amendment. You know what that is. That Lyndon Johnson in the 1950s passed an amendment because supposedly he was having a hard time with a church in Houston, with a pastor. And he passed an amendment saying basically if you're a pastor, if you're a religious person, you cannot get up and talk politics.

Religious liberty, hey, it's about religious liberty. And there has to be a melding of both. We're living in a time where you have to have a melding of both. But it's very unfair what they're doing to religion in this country.

We need to confront the crisis of Islamic extremism and the Islamists and Islamic terror of all kinds. We must stop what they're doing to inspire, because they do nothing to inspire but kill. Religious leaders must make this absolutely clear. Barbarism will deliver you no glory. Piety to evil will bring you no dignity. If you choose the path of terror, your life will be empty, your life will be brief, and your soul will be fully condemned. And political leaders must speak out to affirm the same idea. Heroes don't kill innocents. They save them.

The evangelical and religious community has much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits.