Organised Religion Quotes

• One of the great benefits of organised religion is that you can be forgiven your sins, which must be a wonderful thing. I mean, I carry my sins around with me, there's nobody there to forgive them.

  Kingsley Amis

  Mean, Forgiving, Benefits

  9 Copy quote

• Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people

  Jesse Ventura

  Atheist, Numbers, People

  Jesse Ventura (2008). “Don't Start the Revolution Without Me!: From the Minnesota Governor's Mansion to the Baja Outback : Reflections and Revisionings”, Skyhorse Publishing Company Incorporated

  54 Copy quote

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• Rather than converting people from one organised religion to another organised religion, we should try to convert people from misery to happiness, from bondage to liberation and from cruelty to compassion.

  S. N. Goenka

  Compassion, People, Trying

  86 Copy quote

• Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays. From my point of view, I would ban religion completely. Organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate.

  Elton John

  Gay, Views, People

  11 Copy quote

• Admittedly, I do have several bones... whole war fields full of bones, in fact... to pick with organised religion of whatever stripe. This should be seen as a critique of purely temporal agencies who have, to my mind, erected more obstacles between whatever notion of spirituality and Godhead one subscribes to than they have opened doors. To me, the difference between Godhead and the Church is the difference between Elvis and Colonel Parker... although that conjures images of God dying on the toilet, which is not what I meant at all.

  Alan Moore

  War, Doors, Differences

  "Correspondence: From Hell". Alan Moore and Dave Sim, "Cerebus" #220 (comic book series by Dave Sim), July 1, 1997.

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• I'm an atheist .I was raised in British reform Judaism, which is not like American reform Judaism, much less any other strain of organised religion. So: no cults here.

  Charles Stross

  Atheist, Reform, British

  4 Copy quote

• Philip is being very vocal about it. For me, I don't think the story isn't at all anti-religious in any way. I think what's it more against is the control and the misuse of power that any organised religion, or any political organisation exercises over the people they're supposed to represent. I think that, for me, is what's important in the movie.

  Daniel Craig

  Religious, Exercise, Thinking

  "Daniel Craig Is Lord Asriel in The Golden Compass". Interview with Julian Roman, movieweb.com. December 4, 2007.

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• The spectacle of what is called religion, or at any rate organised religion, in India and elsewhere, has filled me with horror and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Almost always it seemed to stand for blind belief and reaction, dogma and bigotry, superstition, exploitation and the preservation of vested interests.

  Jawaharlal Nehru

  Blind Belief, Atheism, India

  Jawaharlal Nehru (1989). “Jawaharlal Nehru: An Autobiography : with Musings on Recent Events in India”, Vintage

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• I'm a little vague on the details but aren't doughnuts just the most marvellous thing to ever come out of organised religion?

  Catherine Webb

  Details, Littles, Doughnut

  5 Copy quote

• I am against conversion (to Buddhism). In my speech at UN, the first thing I said was that I am for conversion, but not from one organised religion to another, but from misery to happiness, from bondage to liberation.

  S. N. Goenka

  Buddhism, Speech, Vipassana

  26 Copy quote

• Organised religion tries to control, so therefore must be lying.

  L. Ron Hubbard

  Lying, Trying, Organised

  6 Copy quote

• But I don't believe in organised politics, organised religion, organised music, organised anything.

  Link Wray

  Music, Believe, Don't Believe

  4 Copy quote

• One step closer to the end of the world. The one-two combo of corporate greed and organised religion apparently proved to be too much for reason, sanity and compassion.

  Trent Reznor

  Compassion, Two, Greed

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• In Europe, where climate change absolutism is at its strongest, the quasi-religion of greenery in general and the climate change issue in particular have filled the vacuum of organised religion, with reasoned questioning of its mantras regarded as a form of blasphemy.

  Nigel Lawson

  Europe, Issues, Climate

  8 Copy quote

• I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it, which I loved in Sunday school and I collected all the little stickers and put them in my book. But the reality is that organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate.

  Elton John

  Beautiful, Jesus, Book

  "When Elton met Jake". Interview with Jake Shears, www.theguardian.com. August 21, 2006.

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• My interest in gospel music and liturgical art and Biblically-inspired literature has nothing to do with organised religion and everything to do with human beings trying to figure out their place on this planet.

  Moby

  Art, Trying, Literature

  "'The Humility That Comes From Being Hated': Moby Interviewed". Interview with Stephen Dalton, thequietus.com. May 9, 2011.

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