Vine Deloria Jr. (1933–2005) American writer
Source: God Is Red (1973), p. 204
Interview to the newspaper "O Globo" (at the time of the release of his latest book, Cain), in 2009.
Vine Deloria Jr. (1933–2005) American writer
Source: God Is Red (1973), p. 204
John Shelby Spong (1931) American bishop
"Q&A on The Parliament of the World's Religions," weekly mailing, 2007-SEP-05, as reported on Religious Tolerance.org http://www.religioustolerance.org/reltrue.htm
Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher
" The Ecclesiastical Ministry http://history.hanover.edu/texts/voltaire/voleccle.html" <br class="br">Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)
John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States
(26 July 1796).
1750s, Diaries (1750s-1790s)
Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…
“Religion: Benito a Christian?” Time magazine (August 25, 1924)
1920s
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship
Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910) American abolitionist, social activist, and poet
What is Religion? (1893)
Context: I think nothing is religion which puts one individual absolutely above others, and surely nothing is religion which puts one sex above another. Religion is primarily our relation to the Supreme, to God himself. It is for him to judge; it is for him to say where we belong, who is highest and who is not; of that we know nothing. And any religion which will sacrifice a certain set of human beings for the enjoyment or aggrandizement or advantage of another is no religion. It is a thing which may be allowed, but it is against true religion. Any religion which sacrifices women to the brutality of men is no religion.
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.