Matthew Henry (1662–1714) Theologician from Wales
Source: Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible
Quotes about religion page 8
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist
Source: god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
“That's the funny thing about religion: it doesn't matter what you say, you're going to upset.”
Lewis Black (1948) American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor
Source: Me of Little Faith
“To me, religion is about our dignity, not our depravity.”
Yann Martel (1963) Canadian author best known for the book Life of Pi
Variant: To me religion is about our dignity not our depravity
“Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.”
Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner
“The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host
"Credo" (1991); also in Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! : Collected Essays, 1934-1998 (1999), p. 360
1990s
Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
“Religion has what is EASILY the greatest bullshit story of all time.”
George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian
You Are All Diseased (1999)
Context: In the bullshit department, a businessman can't hold a candle to a clergyman. 'Cause I got to tell you the truth, folks: when it comes to bullshit - big-time, major-league bullshit - you have to stand in awe, in AWE of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest! Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it: religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time... But He loves you! He loves you, and He needs MONEY! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise - somehow, just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story... Holy Shit!
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
Letter to Elbridge Gerry http://www.constitution.org/tj/jeff10.txt (26 January 1799); published in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition <!-- (ME) (Lipscomb and Bergh, editors) --> 20 Vols., Washington, D.C., 1903-04, Volume 10, p. 78 <br class="br">1790s <br class="br">Context: I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvres to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another, for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.
Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist
TIME magazine Vol. 149, No. 2 (13 January 1997) http://web.archive.org/web/20000619135050/http://www.time.com/time/gates/gates7.html <br class="br">1990s
“Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?”
John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States
1820s <br class="br">Source: Letter to Thomas Jefferson (19 May 1821), published in Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0807842303&id=SzSWYPOz6M8C&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&ots=kTAZL3ImRq&dq=%22Adams-Jefferson+letters%22&sig=tVGzBe0XVhXaF2p0FQLGy4GK6bk#PRA2-PR17,M1 (UNC Press, 1988), p. 573
“I began to see that for some, religion was just a form of politics you couldn’t criticize.”
Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist
Source: My Life on the Road
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist
Twentieth Century Faith : Hope and Survival (1972), p. 61
1970s
“To be young is the only religion.”
Charles Bukowski book Notes of a Dirty Old Man
Source: Notes of a Dirty Old Man
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Misattributed <br class="br">Variant: The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism.<br>These two statements are very similar, widely quoted, and seem to paraphrase some ideas in the essay "Religion and Science" (see below), but neither of the two specific quotes above been properly sourced. Notable Einstein scholars such as John Stachel and Thomas J. McFarlane (author of Buddha and Einstein: The Parallel Sayings) know of this statement but have not found any source for it. Any information on any definite original sources for these is welcome.<br>This quote does not actually appear in Albert Einstein: The Human Side as is sometimes claimed.<br>Only two sources from before 1970 can be found on Google Books. The first is The Theosophist: Volume 86 which seems to cover the years 1964 http://books.google.com/books?id=7pLjAAAAMAAJ&q=1964#search_anchor and 1965 http://books.google.com/books?id=7pLjAAAAMAAJ&q=1965#search_anchor. The quote appears attributed to Einstein on p. 255 http://books.google.com/books?id=7pLjAAAAMAAJ&q=%22natural+and+spiritual%22#search_anchor, with the wording given as "The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description." An identical quote appears on p. 284 http://books.google.com/books?id=YpsfAQAAIAAJ&q=%22dogmas+and+theology%22#search_anchor of The Maha Bodhi: Volume 72 published by the Maha Bodhi Society of India, which seems to contain issues from throughout 1964 http://books.google.com/books?id=YpsfAQAAIAAJ&q=%22volume+72%22#search_anchor.<br>A number of phrases in the quote are similar to phrases in Einstein's "Religion and Science". Comparing the version of the quote in The Theosophist to the version of "Religion and Science" published in 1930, "a cosmic religion" in the first resembles "the cosmic religious sense" in the second; "transcend a personal God" resembles "does not involve an anthropomorphic idea of God"; "covering both the natural and the spiritual" resembles "revealed in nature and in the world of thought"; "the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity" resembles "experience the totality of existence as a unity full of significance"; and "Buddhism answers this description" resembles "The cosmic element is much stronger in Buddhism". These phrases appear in the same order in both cases, and the ones from "Religion and Science" are all from a single paragraph of the essay. <br class="br">Context: Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.
“Religion is not merely the opium of the masses, it's the cyanide.”
Tom Robbins Skinny Legs and All
Skinny Legs and All (1990)
Carl Sagan book The Demon-Haunted World
Source: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
“Closing your mind to religion is no different than the close-mindedness that
religions can cause.”
Carlton Mellick III (1977) American writer
Source: Satan Burger
“It is easier to change a man's religion than to change his diet.”
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist
“Religion is just mind control.”
George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian
Doin' It Again, Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics (1990)
Context: Same with religion. Religion is nothing but mind control. Religion is just trying to control your mind, control your thoughts, so they're gonna tell you some things you shouldn't say because they're... sins. And besides telling you things you shouldn't say, religion is gonna suggest some things that you ought to be saying; "Here's something you ought to say first thing when you wake up in the morning; here's something you ought to say just before you go to sleep at night; here's something we always say on the third Wednesday in April after the first full moon in spring at 4 o'clock when the bells ring." Religion is always suggesting things you ought to be saying.
“You're my religion. You're all I've got.”
Ernest Hemingway book A Farewell to Arms
Catherine, in Ch. 18
A Farewell to Arms (1929)
Variant: You’re my religion. You’re all I’ve got.
Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer
Source: Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor
Richard Dawkins book A Devil's Chaplain
"Time to Stand Up"
A Devil's Chaplain (2003)
Source: A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
“It was her religion to make the best of everything.”
Lyndall Gordon (1941) South African writer and academic
Source: Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft
“Religion, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
“Until there is peace between religions, there can be no peace in the world.”
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
Michael J. Fox (1961) Canadian-American actor
Source: Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist
Mark Rowlands (1962) British philosopher
Source: The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons from the Wild on Love, Death, and Happiness
“When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons.”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 4: 1944-1947
Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author
When asked how the world had changed following the September 11, 2001 attacks <br class="br"> Has the world changed? http://books.guardian.co.uk/writersreflections/story/0,1367,567546,00.html, The Guardian (October 11, 2001)
“The faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence.”
Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist
“Science is the only religion of mankind.”
Arthur C. Clarke book Childhood's End
Source: Childhood's End
“The end of Religion is not to teach us how to die, but how to live….”
Anne Brontë book Agnes Grey
Source: Agnes Grey
“Christianity is the only religion whose God bears the scars of evil.”
Os Guinness (1941) American writer
Karl Pilkington (1972) English television personality, social commentator, actor, author and former radio producer
Source: An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Source: 1920s, p. 157 London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson
Response to atheist Alfred Kerr in the winter of 1927, who after deriding ideas of God and religion at a dinner party in the home of the publisher Samuel Fischer, had queried him "I hear that you are supposed to be deeply religious" as quoted in The Diary of a Cosmopolitan (1971) by H. G. Kessler
Context: Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in point of fact, religious.
“Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed.”
Dan Brown book Angels & Demons
Source: Angels & Demons
Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
This is attributed to Pirsig by Richard Dawkins in the Preface to The God Delusion (2006), p. 28, but cannot be found prior to that. It is obviously a paraphrase of the following from Pirsig's Lila - An Inquiry Into Morals (1991): „An insane delusion can't be held by a group at all. A person isn't considered insane if there are a number of people who believe the same way. Insanity isn't supposed to be a communicable disease. If one other person starts to believe him, or maybe two or three, then it's a religion." ( books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=51i6WkGn6qYC&q=%22An+insane+delusion%22; books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=WZtRAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA426) <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Samuel P. Huntington (1927–2008) American political scientist
Source: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996), Ch. 2 : Civilizations in History and Today, § 10 : Relations Among Civilizations, p. 51
“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.”
David Hume book A Treatise of Human Nature
Part 4, Section 7
Source: A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), Book 1: Of the understanding
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
Quote in a letter to Theo van Gogh, from Arles, c. Saturday, 29 September 1888; as cited in An Examined Faith : Social Context and Religious Commitment (1991) by James Luther Adams and George K. Beach, p. 259
1880s, 1888
Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner
Misattributed
“In every religion, you find the same extremists.”
Marjane Satrapi (1969) Artist
Source: The Complete Persepolis
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator
Source: The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006)
“They took away our land, our language, and our religion; but they could never harness our tongues…”
Brendan Behan (1923–1964) Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright
“Religion is based on the idea that God is an imbecile.”
Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist
Randa Abdel-Fattah (1979) contemporary Australian writer of novels for young adults
Source: Does My Head Look Big In This?
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor
Nobel acceptance speech (1986)
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
“Sports, politics, and religion are the three passions of the badly educated.”
William H. Gass (1924–2017) Fiction writer, critic, philosophy professor
Source: In the Heart of the Heart of the Country and Other Stories
“Religion is like drugs, it destroys the thinking mind.”
George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian
Martin Amis (1949) Welsh novelist
"The voice of the lonely crowd" (2002)
Source: The Second Plane: 14 Responses to September 11
Context: The 20th century, with its scores of millions of supernumerary dead, has been called the age of ideology. And the age of ideology, clearly, was a mere hiatus in the age of religion, which shows no sign of expiry. Since it is no longer permissible to disparage any single faith or creed, let us start disparaging all of them. To be clear: an ideology is a belief system with an inadequate basis in reality; a religion is a belief system with no basis in reality whatever. Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful. It is straightforward — and never mind, for now, about plagues and famines: if God existed, and if He cared for humankind, He would never have given us religion.
“All religions are true but none are literal.”
Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer
“To regret religion is to regret Western civilization.”
Theodore Dalrymple (1949) English doctor and writer
“If there is any religion that could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
“Prisons are built with stones of law; brothels with bricks of religion.”
William Blake book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 21
Jon Krakauer (1954) American outdoors writer and journalist
Source: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith