Religious Dogma Quotes

• The conflict between religion and science is inherent and (very nearly) zero-sum. The success of science often comes at the expense of religious dogma; the maintenance of religious dogma always comes at the expense of science.

  Sam Harris

  Religious, Zero, Maintenance

  "Science Must Destroy Religion" by Sam Harris, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 2, 2006.

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• 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 blind-folded fear.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Fear

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.90, Rowman & Littlefield

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• The Bible is not my book and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian dogma.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Bible, Christian, Book

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• On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarrelling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Fighting, Faith Religion

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.42, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Christian, Spiritual, Atheist

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• When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.

  Anais Nin

  Truth, Reality, Political

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• I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

  Bertrand Russell

  Death, Christian, Atheist

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

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• Question with boldness even the existence of a god.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Faith Religion

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.90, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma.

  Sam Harris

  Religious, Atheist, People

  "There is No God (And You Know It)" by Sam Harris, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 6, 2005.

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• Enlightened leadership is spiritual if we understand spirituality not as some kind of religious dogma or ideology but as the domain of awareness where we experience values like truth, goodness, beauty, love and compassion, and also intuition, creativity, insight and focused attention.

  Deepak Chopra

  Leadership, Spiritual, Religious

  "Deepak Chopra On Enlightened Leadership". Interview with Forbes, www.forbes.com. January 12, 2011.

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• To achieve world government, it is necessary to remove from the minds of men, their individualism, loyalty to family traditions, national patriotism and religious dogmas.

  Brock Chisholm

  Family, Loyalty, Religious

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• The more intense has been the religion of any period and the more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has been the cruelty and the worse has been the state of affairs.

  Bertrand Russell

  Profound, Religion, Belief

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.20, Simon and Schuster

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• The Roman Catholic Church and its rituals were so much part of life that, although my parents would often question a small matter of dogma and none of us seemed more religious than anyone else, no one ever questioned the rituals or the basic tenets of belief.

  Colm Toibin

  Religious, Parent, Catholic

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• You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principle enemy of moral progress in the world.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, War, Race

  Bertrand Russell, Robert Edward Egner (1961). “The basic writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”

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• What I am teaching is religiousness, a quality. Religion is a dead dogma, fixed principles, frozen fossils. What I am teaching to you is a living, flowing religiousness - an experience like love.

  Rajneesh

  Teaching, Like Love, Quality

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• Am I a criminal? The world knows I'm not a criminal. What are they trying to put me in jail for? You've lost common sense in this society because of religious fanaticism and dogma.

  Jack Kevorkian

  Religious, Jail, Common Sense

  "Jail: An Inmates Survival Guide". Panama Publishing Inc. Book, p. 24, 2007.

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• ...there are still truths in the Bible and many other ancient texts despite what religions have done to destroy and debase them. Religious dogma and myth have been used very successfully either to suppress understanding or to twist the truth sufficiently to turn something positive into something negative.

  David Icke

  Religious, Understanding, Twists

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• Half the Christian churches of New York are trying to ruin the free public schools in order to replace them by religious dogma.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Christian, Religious, New York

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• I tend to believe that religious dogma is a consequence of evolution.

  E. O. Wilson

  Religious, Believe, Dogma

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• I'm not religious in the sense that I do not subscribe to any particular set of religious dogma. I don't go to church. I don't read the Bible. But I believe that the word "Spirit" with a capital S points to an ultimate reality which I give my heart to.

  Frederick Buechner

  Religious, Believe, Heart

  Interview with Bob Abernethy, www.pbs.org. April 5, 2006.

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• In the course of evolution nature has gone to endless trouble to see that every individual is unlike every other individual....Physically and mentally, each one of us is unique. Any culture which, in the interests of efficiency or in the name of some political or religious dogma, seeks to standardize the human individual, commits an outrage against man's biological nature.

  Aldous Huxley

  Religious, Men, Unique

  "Brave New World Revisited". Book by Aldous Huxley, Chapter 3 (p. 21), 1958.

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• I leave pansies, the symbolic flower of freethought, in memory of the Great Agnostic, Robert Ingersoll, who stood for equality, education, progress, free ideas and free lives, against the superstition and bigotry of religious dogma. We need men like him today more than ever. His writing still inspires us and challenges the 'better angels' of our nature, when people open their hearts and minds to his simple, honest humanity. Thank goodness he was here.

  Bruce Springsteen

  Religious, Memories, Flower

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• Trouble arises when either science or religion claims universal jurisdiction, when either religious dogma or scientific dogma claims to be infallible. Religious creationists and scientific materialists are equally dogmatic and insensitive. By their arrogance they bring both science and religion into disrepute.

  Freeman Dyson

  Religious, Arrogance, Dogma

  Freeman J Dyson (2015). “Birds and Frogs: Selected Papers of Freeman Dyson, 1990–2014”, p.192, World Scientific Publishing Company

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• Deep down, all of us are probably aware that some kind of mystical evolution is our true task. Yet we suppress the notion with considerable force because to admit it is to admit that most of our political gyrations, religious dogmas, social ambitions, and financial ploys are not merely counter-productive but trivial.

  Tom Robbins

  Religious, Truth, Ambition

  Tom Robbins (2006). “Wild Ducks Flying Backward”, p.210, Bantam

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• The equality that we are all entitled to, as citizens of this democracy, can't be avoided by some religious dogma of a President who's is supposed to believe in the notion of separation of church and state. And he frankly doesn't.

  Rosie O'Donnell

  Religious, Believe, Equality

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