“When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.”

—  Umberto Eco

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Umberto Eco 120
Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic… 1932–2016

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“When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing — they believe in anything.”

G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English mystery novelist and Christian apologist

This quotation actually comes from page 211 of Émile Cammaerts' book The Laughing Prophet : The Seven Virtues and G. K. Chesterton (1937) in which he quotes Chesterton as having Father Brown say, in "The Oracle of the Dog" (1923): "It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense." Cammaerts then interposes his own analysis between further quotes from Father Brown: "'It's drowning all your old rationalism and scepticism, it's coming in like a sea; and the name of it is superstition.' The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything: 'And a dog is an omen and a cat is a mystery.'" Note that the remark about believing in anything is outside the quotation marks — it is Cammaerts. The correct attribution was reportedly first traced by Pasquale Accardo. http://www.chesterton.org/ceases-to-worship/ It was also credited to Nigel Rees (as cited in First Things, 1997). http://books.google.com/books?id=NuQnAAAAYAAJ&q=%22The+first+effect+of+not+believing+in+God+is+to+believe+in+anything%22&dq=%22The+first+effect+of+not+believing+in+God+is+to+believe+in+anything%22&hl=en&ei=PSzcTvewIefx0gHqmrj0DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ
Misattributed

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“When you stopped believing in God, did you stop believing in good and evil?”

"No. But I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are. All we can say is that this is a good deed, because it helps someone, or that's an evil one, because it hurts them. People are too complicated to have simple labels."
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His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000)

“Do you believe in God?
I, I believe in nothing but God!”

Frederick Franck (1909–2006) Dutch painter

Source: Echoes from the Bottomless Well (1985), p. 65

“Faith is not believing in my own unshakable belief. Faith is believing an unshakable God when everything in me trembles and quakes.”

Beth Moore (1957) American evangelist

Source: Praying God's Word: Breaking Free From Spiritual Strongholds

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“When I believe in nothing, I do not want to meet you when you believe in nothing.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Cuando no creo en nada, no quisiera encontrarme contigo, cuando no crees en nada.
Voces (1943)

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“When you believe in God, you've got to believe in the all-powerful God.”

Alice Cooper (1948) American rock singer, songwriter and musician

Interview with Donald L. Hughes (22 April 2006).
Context: When you believe in God, you've got to believe in the all-powerful God. He's not just God, He's the all-powerful God and He has total control over everyone's life. The Devil, on the other hand, is a real character that's trying his hardest to tear your life apart. If you believe that this is just mythology, you're a prime target because you know that's exactly what Satan wants: To be a myth. But he's not a myth, of this I'm totally convinced. More than anything in the world, I'm convinced of that.

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“And when I saw him[my father] lying dead in a pool of his own blood, I knew then that I hadn't stopped believing in God. I'd just stopped believing God cared. There might be a God, Clary, and there might be not. Either way, we're on our own.”

Variant: I knew then that I hadn't stopped believing in God. I'd just stopped believing God cared. There might be a God, Clary, and there might not, but I don't think it matters. Either way we're on our own.
Source: City of Bones

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