The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.
Thomas PaineRead
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The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.
Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
For 12 long years I lived within the narrow-minded confines of the 'straightjacket world' created by my strong belief that Elijah Muhammad was a messenger direct from God Himself, and my faith in what I now see to be a pseudo-religious philosophy that he preaches.... I shall never rest until I have undone the harm I did to so many well-meaning, innocent Negroes who through my own evangelistic zeal now believe in him even more fanatically and more blindly than I did.
The Church says the Earth is flat. But I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow on the Moon. And I have more faith in a shadow than in the Church.
An Inuit hunter asked the local missionary priest: If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell? No, said the priest, not if you did not know. Then why, asked the Inuit earnestly, did you tell me?
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.
I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my father, brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.
Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it; doubt all, but do not doubt yourself.
A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.
Believe nothing,_x000D_ _x000D_ No matter where you read it,_x000D_ _x000D_ Or who has said it,_x000D_ _x000D_ Not even if I have said it,_x000D_ _x000D_ Unless it agrees with your own reason_x000D_ _x000D_ And your own common sense.
Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.
Question with boldness even the existence of a god.
If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion - several of them.
Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.
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