Religion

The mistake the contemporary secularist makes is to think these humane, tolerant and liberal insights can easily be separated from their religious foundations. The folly of this idea can be seen both in the catastrophe of communism and in the progressive fantasies of secular liberalism. The point is that it is religion - if only in the very broad sense of an awareness of one's closeness to the unknown and the unknowable - that keeps one humble, modest and innoculated against utopian excesses - Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times, 25/03/06

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd - Bertrand Russell

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one - George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

The essence of heaven is the manner in which you lead your life - Roy Harper

The complexity of the present world is shattering expectations in every arena, most especially, in the geography of the soul. Lost as we all are, we can understand why some retreat into fundamentalisms that provide archaic certainties, holding houses of containment before the onrush of new realities. Others wander in a spiritual void, overwhelmed by the loss of all pattern, looking to material accomplishments to replace the loss of essence. Still others flee into "replacement strategies"-- psychotherapy, drugs, sex, growth seminars, travel - Jean Houston http://www.dailygrail.com/Religion-and-Spirituality/2010/3/The-Future-G…

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...The champions of militant Islam are, of course, misogynists, woman-haters; they are also misologists - haters of reason. Their armed doctrine is little more than a chaotic penal code underscored by impotent dreams of genocide. And, like all religions, it is a massive agglutination of stock response, of clich

'Terror', as we have now come to know it, is the child of fundamentalist religion, the notion that 'we are right and you will obey'. It's the rebirth of The Inquisition. Perhaps it sees itself as the only viable answer to globalised industrial materialism, but it wouldn't ever be an answer for me. As an idea. as a lifestyle.. as a way of life.. and as a potential form of government, it's a complete anathema to me. I passionately hate all of it, and in this my passion has no bounds. I would willingly die in an instant if I could bring that kind of thought process down - Roy Harper http://www.royharper.co.uk/shop/display_page.php?page=diary/entry18

Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum (So much wrong could religion induce) - Lucretius, 94-55BC

t takes maturity to grasp that there are no gods & yet still behave as if there were - Deng Ming-Dao

Suppose we discovered that God "lived" in a particular part of the brain, and that religion was a biological function which had evolved to help us through difficult times - Nancy Rothwell http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1409019,00.html