Quotes on Religion

God may thunder His commands from Mount Sinai and men may fear, yet remain at heart exactly as they were before. But let a man once see his God down in the arena as a Man--suffering, tempted, sweating, and agonized, finally dying a criminal's death--and he is a hard man indeed who is untouched.  - J.B. Phillips, "Your God Is Too Small"
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Religions stinks – all of them. The difference between religion and a living, vibrant relationship with the Father of all living souls through Jesus Christ, the Son of God is the difference between death (religion) and life (being born of God’s spirit through Jesus Christ). Jesus didn’t come to start a new religion or reform an old one, He came to give us LIFE, and more abundantly in this lifetime and beyond. Gary Amirault
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“To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Bible
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“Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.” Buddha - Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta
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“If the bible is universally diffused in Hindustan, what must be the astonishment of the natives to find that we are forbidden to rob, murder and steal; we who in fifty years, have extended our empire over the whole peninsula and exemplified in our public conduct every crime of which human nature is capable. What matchless impudence to follow up such practice with such precepts! If we have common prudence, let us keep the gospel at home, and tell them that Machiavelli is our prophet, and the god of the Manicheans our god.” The Reverend Sydney Smith (1771-1845)
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“A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.” Thomas Jefferson
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“I’m often amazed at the way politicians, who spend hours poring over opinion poll results in a desperate attempt to discover what the public thinks, are certain they know precisely what God’s views are on everything.” Simon Hoggart
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“Going to church no more makes you a Christian than sleeping in your garage makes you a car.” Garrison Keiler
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“Past the seeker as he prayed came the crippled and the beggar and the beaten. And seeing them, he cried, ‘Great God, how is it that a loving creator can see such things and yet do nothing about them?’ …God said, ‘I did do something. I made you.’” Sufi Teaching
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“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” Blaise Pascal
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“In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.” Baba Dioum
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“It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.” Robert A. Heinlein
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“Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.” J.R.R. Tolkien
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“I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.” Thomas Jefferson
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“I wonder whether there is any one in this generation who accepts reproof, for if one says to him: Remove the mote from between your eyes, he would answer: Remove the beam from between your eyes!” Talmud, Baraitha, Rashi (1050-1115 AD), quoting Rabbi Tarfon
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“Believers, let not a group of you mock another. Perhaps they are better than you. Let not one of you find faults in another nor let anyone of you defame another.” Holy Quran, Chapter 49:11 (Al-Hujarat)
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“I would like to thank Providence and the Almighty for choosing me of all people to be allowed to wage this battle for Germany.” Hitler, Berlin, March 1936 (It is amazing how many tyrants, modern and old, utilize religion to make themselves as gods.)
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“God is not on the side of any nation, yet we know He is on the side of justice. Our finest moments [as a nation] have come when we faithfully served the cause of justice for our own citizens, and for the people of other lands.” George W. Bush, the hypocrite
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“If we pursue this way, if we are decent, industrious, and honest, if we so loyally and truly fulfill our duty, then it is my conviction that in the future as in the past the Lord God will always help us.” Adolf Hitler, at the Harvest Thanksgiving Festival on the Buckeburg held on 3 Oct. 1937
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“Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.” George W. Bush, the hypocrite
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“The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” Thomas Paine
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“I’ve heard the call. I believe God wants me to run for president.” George W. Bush, the hypocrite
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“And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Isaiah 2:4
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“We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Irish author and foremost prose satirist
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“He is not strong and powerful who throweth people down; but he is strong who witholdeth himself from anger.” Muhammad
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“Do not say, that if the people do good to us, we will do good to them; and if the people oppress us, we will oppress them; but determine that if people do you good, you will do good to them; and if they oppress you, you will not oppress them.” Muhammad
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"Among politicians the esteem of religion is profitable; the principles of it are troublesome." Benjamin Whichcote
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Religion Quotes:
"If we do go to war, psychological operations are going to be absolutely a critical, critical part of any campaign that we must get involved in." General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
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American preachers have a task more difficult, perhaps, than those faced by us under South Africa's apartheid, or Christians under Communism.

We had obvious evils to engage; you have to unwrap your culture from years of red, white and blue myth. You have to expose, and confront, the great disconnect between the kindness, compassion and caring of most American people, and the ruthless way American power is experienced, directly and indirectly, by the poor of the earth.

You have to help good people see how they have let their institutions do their sinning for them. This is not easy among people who really believe that their country does nothing but good, but it is necessary, not only for their future, but for us all.

--Peter Storey, former president of the Methodist Church of South Africa
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"A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.” -Robert A. Heinlein
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“Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.” -Thomas Jefferson
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I implore you to recognize the Church as a lady and in the name of the Pope take the King as lord of this land and obey his mandates. If you do not do it, I tell you that with the help of God I will enter powerfully against you all. I will make war everywhere and every way that I can. I will take your women and children and make them slaves....The deaths and injuries you will receive from here on will be your own fault and not that of his majesty nor of the gentlemen that accompany me. -"The Requirement", read by Spaniards to native tribes they encountered in the New World
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"The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean; I know this by my own experience, and to this day I cherish an unappeasable bitterness against the unfaithful guardians of my young life, who not only permitted but compelled me to read an unexpurgated Bible through before I was 15 years old. None can do that and ever draw a clean sweet breath again this side of the grave." Mark Twain
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Don't Do Religion
Jacques Ellul
Christians have always tended to transform the Christian Revelation into a Christian religion. Christianity is said to be a religion like any other or, conversely, some Christians try to show that it is a better religion than the others. People attempt to take possession of God. Theology claims to explain everything, including the being of God. People tend to transform Christianity into a religion because the Christian faith obviously places people in an extremely uncomfortable position: ­ that of freedom guided only by love and all in the context of God's radical demand that we be holy. taken from Jacques Ellul - Perspectives on Our Age

“The tendency to turn human judgments into divine commands makes religion one of the most dangerous forces in the world.” - Georgia Harkness
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Why is it that “compassionate” conservative, gun toting, patriotic, politically right wing Christians usually behave and speak more like Jewish Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers and scribes than Jesus Christ? Gary Amirault
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"...when men ignite in their hearts a religious fury, they inflict at the same time a blindness on their eyes."James A. Michener, The Source
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Religion is nothing more than a meticulously planned, carefully orchestrated funeral procession. Gary Amirault
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"If we'd been born where they were born and taught what they were taught, we would believe what they believe."-- A sign inside a church in Northern Ireland, explaining the origin of intolerance and hate.

To many Jews Truth is anti-semitic, to many Christians Truth is anti-Christ and to many Moslems, Truth is inflammatory. Gary Amirault

"People who think of God as a warrior may become warriors themselves, whether in a Christian crusade, a Muslim jihad, or an apocalyptically oriented militia. People who think of God as righteous are likely to emphasize righteousness themselves, just as those who think of God as compassionate are likely to emphasize compassion. People who think God is angry at the world are likely to be angry at the world themselves." Marcus Borg, The God We Never Knew

"The curses of the ungodly are more pleasing to God's ears than the hallelujahs of the pious" Martin Luther
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Letting go of religious doctrine can be as difficult as overcoming drugs or alcohol or an uhealthy relationship. Gary Amirault
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Iconoclast definition: One bent on blasting bastions of bull. Gary Amirault
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Why Christianity will fail.

Teach some or most of mankind will be lost for eternity and churches will accept you. Teach Jesus saves all and they will reject you. Little wonder then, that Jesus is leading His disciples OUT OF CHURCHES and bringing them unto Himself. Gary Amirault, Tentmaker Ministries