“Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell, spirituality is for those who’ve been there.”

— David Bowie

Last update April 5, 2024. History

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David Bowie 105

British musician, actor, record producer and arranger 1947–2016

Vine Deloria Jr. (1933–2005) American writer

Commonly attributed to Deloria on the internet, or sometimes to a few others, but without legitimate sourcing, the earliest variant of this yet located is a single quotation in Awakened India Vo. 99 (1994) p. 327, ascribed to Fr. Patrick Collins, University of Notre Dame, USA:
Religion is for those who are afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who know they have been there — perhaps through involvement with religion.
The next variant located is ascribed to an anonymous member of Alcoholics Anonymous in Illuminating the Heart: Steps Toward a More Spiritual Marriage (1996) by Barbara G. Markway, p. 28:
Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell; spirituality is for those who have been there.
A variant also occurs in The Higher Power of the Twelve-Step Program: For Believers & Non-Believers (2001), by Glenn F. Chesnut, Ch. 1 : Discovering a Higher Power:
Religion is for people who're afraid of going to hell; twelvestep spirituality is for those who've been there.
Misattributed

“Religion is for those who don't want to go to hell, and spirituality is for those who have already been there.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

“Religion is for people who fear hell, spirituality is for people who have been there.”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

“The people on the edge of Hell were most afraid of the devil; for those already in hell the devil was only another and no one in particular.”

Joanne Greenberg book I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Source: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

“God sends good people to Hell. Not only do religions like Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism—not only do they lead people away from from God, they lead people to an eternity of separation from God in Hell. You know Jesus was very clear: Hell is not only going to be populated by murderers, and drug dealers, and child dealers; Hell is going to be filled with good religious people who have rejected the truth of Christ.”

Robert Jeffress (1955) Pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas

"Politically Incorrect", First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, , quoted in * 2011-10-11
Perry Endorser Calls Judaism, Catholicism Path to Hell
Tim
Murphy
Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/10/watch-perry-endorser-jeffress-calls-judaism-catholicism-path-hell

“The people who’ve done well within the [Hollywood] system are the people whose instincts, whose desires [are in natural alignement with those of the producers] — who want to make the kind of movies that producers want to produce. People who don’t succeed — people who’ve had long, bad times; like [Jean] Renoir, for example, who I think was the best director, ever — are the people who didn’t want to make the kind of pictures that producers want to make. Producers didn’t want to make a Renoir picture, even if it was a success.”

Orson Welles (1915–1985) American actor, director, writer and producer

Quoted in The Orson Welles Story.

“Those who injure me are really impelled by my actions.
For this they will go to the realms of hell.
Surely it is they who are harmed by me?”

Šantidéva (685–763) 8th-century Indian Buddhist monk and scholar

Bodhicaryavatara

“Islamic terrorism is the handiwork of people who’ve heeded, not hijacked, Islam.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

"Wafa Wows the West (But Not Muslims and Media)," http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_view.php?editid1=149 WorldNetDaily.com, March 17, 2006.
2000s, 2006

“The yoke of religion has not always been easy, nor its burden light—a result arising, in part from the ignorance of the world at large, but more especially from the mistakes of those who had the charge and guidance of a great spiritual force, and who guided it blindly.”

John Tyndall (1820–1893) British scientist

p, 125
New Fragments (1892)

“Now there's no *beeping* way in hell I'm gonna go over because I'm a little afraid of animals.”

Ben Kowalewicz (1975) musician

From "The Diary of Billy Talent":

“Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell, spirituality is for those who’ve been there.”

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