Whether we like it or not, the one justification for the existence of all religions is death, they need death as much as we need bread to eat.
Interpretation
Religions give meaning to death, just as bread gives life to the body.
This quote by Jose Saramago suggests that death is a fundamental aspect of human existence, and religions arise as a response to this inevitable reality. Just as bread sustains our physical bodies, the concept of death drives our search for spiritual understanding and meaning, illustrating the intrinsic connection between our mortality and the beliefs we hold.
In practice
During a philosophical seminar discussing the purpose of religions.
Why did we become blind, I don't know, perhaps one day we'll find out, Do you want me to tell you what I think, Yes, do, I don't think we did go blind, I think we are blind, Blind but seeing, Blind people who can see, but do not see.
I can't imagine myself outside any kind of social or political involvement. Yes, I'm a writer, but I live in this world, and my writing doesn't exist on a separate level. And if people know who I am and read my books, well, good; that way, if I have something more to say, then everyone benefits.
...you have to leave the island in order to see the island, that we can't see ourselves unless we become free of ourselves, Unless we escape from ourselves you mean, No, that's not the same thing.
With the passage of time, as well as the social evolution and genetic exchange, we ended up putting our conscience in the color of our blood and the salt of our tears.
En ningún momento de la historia, en ningún lugar del planeta, las religiones han servido para que los seres humanos se acerquen unos a los otros. Por el contrario, sólo han servido para separar, para quemar, para torturar. No creo en dios, no lo necesito y además soy buena persona.
Every second that passes is like a door that opens to allow in what has not yet happened, what we call the future, but, to challenge the contradictory nature of what we have just said, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the future is just an immense void, that the future is just the time on which the eternal present feeds.
The most loathsome materialism is not the kind people usually think of, but the sort that attempts to let dead ideas pass for living realities, diverting into sterile myths the stubborn and lucid attention we give to what we have within us that must forever die.
When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world.
I have sinned against my brother the ass.
No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream--alone.
And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away from wherever you are, to look for your soul?
As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this.
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