Organized Religion Quotes - Page 2

• Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Religious, Money, Atheist

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• How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.

  Carl Sagan

  God, Science, Religion

  "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space". Book by Carl Sagan, 1994.

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• I'm not into organized religion. I'm into believing in a higher source of creation, realizing we're all just part of nature.

  Neil Young

  Nature, Believe, Realizing

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• There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Life And Love, Fear, Religion

  Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898) vol. 2, preface

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• A cult is a religion with no political power.

  Tom Wolfe

  Religious, Philosophy, Power

  In Our Time ch. 2 (1980) See Feibleman 1

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• Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Wall

  Reply to Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, and Stephen S. Nelson (committee of the Danbury, Conn., Baptist Association), 1 Jan. 1802

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• For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain.

  Gene Roddenberry

  People, Brain, Chaplains

  "In His Name". Book by E. Christopher Reyes, p. 39, 2010.

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• A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later such a religion will emerge.

  Carl Sagan

  Science, Religion, Stressed

  Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.71, Ballantine Books

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• Religion is still useful among the herd - that it helps their orderly conduct as nothing else could. The crude human animal is in-eradicably superstitious, and there is every biological reason why they should be. Take away his Christian god and saints, and he will worship something else.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Christian, Animal, Saint

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• I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.

  John Lennon

  Inspirational, God, Spiritual

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• Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

  Karl Marx

  Religious, Atheist, Heart

  Karl Marx, Joseph O'Malley (1977). “Critique of Hegel's 'Philosophy Of Right'”, p.131, CUP Archive

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• In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Atheist, Fear, Reality

  "The Antichrist". Book by Friedrich Nietzsche, Sec. 16, 1888.

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• The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Government

  Notes on the State of Virginia, query 17 (1781 - 1785)

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• We need to stop giving people excuses not to believe in God.

  Francis Chan

  Believe, People, Giving

  Francis Chan, Preston Sprinkle (2014). “The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply”, p.14, David C Cook

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• Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Christian, Religious, Jesus

  "Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson". Book by Thomas Jefferson, 1821.

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• Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

  James Madison

  Exercise, Secular Society, Law

  Virginia. General Assembly. House of Delegates, J. W. Randolph, James Madison (1850). “The Virginia Report of 1799-1800: Touching the Alien and Sedition Laws; Together with the Virginia Resolutions of December 21, 1798, Including the Debate and Proceedings Thereon in the House of Delegates of Virginia and Other Documents Illustrative of the Report and Resolutions”, p.136

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• Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.

  Lenny Bruce

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  The Essential Lenny Bruce, ed. John Cohen (1967)

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• The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Jesus, Atheist

  Thomas Jefferson (1984). “Jefferson: Writings”, p.1970, Library of America

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• Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Love, Faith, Religious

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• In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Religious, Atheist

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, Volume 7: 28 November 1813 to 30 September 1814”, p.248, Princeton University Press

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• Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.

  Richard Dawkins

  Business, Believe, Power

  "The Root of All Evil?". Documentary, January 2006.

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• Organized religion preaches Order and Love but spawns Chaos and Fury. Why?

  Kerry Thornley

  Order, Religion, And Love

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• If organized religion is the opium of the masses, then disorganized religion is the marijuana of the lunatic fringe.

  Kerry Thornley

  Weed, Marijuana, Religion

  The Introduction to the 5th Edition of "Principia Discordia" by Kerry Thornley, 1963.

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• Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest.

  Emile Zola

  Atheist, Fall, Civilization

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• I don't know how you feel, but I'm pretty sick of church people. You know what they ought to do with churches? Tax them. If holy people are so interested in politics, government, and public policy, let them pay the price of admission like everybody else. The Catholic Church alone could wipe out the national debt if all you did was tax their real estate.

  George Carlin

  Funny, Sarcastic, Witty

  George Carlin (2002). “Napalm & Silly Putty”, Hyperion

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