Young people have been told God is nonsense, their country is essentially evil, their past is deplorable, their future is bleak, and marriage and children are not important. Why are some many young people depressed, unhappy, and angry? It's not capitalism or income inequality or patriarchy, or even global warming. It's having no religion, no God, and no country to believe in. And what does that leave them with? No meaning. But, there is always Instagram.
Thus, constraints and limitations can be remarkable blessings, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
We must give adequate attention to the doctrines of happiness—real happiness, infinite and eternal. They should be the objective of everything we teach in the Church and of everything we do.
The Great quest of life is not to discover our own truth it is to embrace Divine truth.
I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research.
All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.
I see a clock, but I cannot envision the clockmaker. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one?
I do not believe in a God who maliciously or arbitrarily interferes in the personal affairs of mankind.
My religion consists of a humble admiration for the vast power which manifests itself in that small part of the universe which our poor, weak minds can grasp!
The longing for guidance, for love and succor, provides the stimulus for the growth of a social or moral conception of God.
He is the comforter in unhappiness and in unsatisfied longing, the protector of the souls of the dead. This is the social or moral idea of God.
An important advance in the life of a people is the transformation of the religion of fear into the moral religion. But one must avoid the prejudice that regards the religions of primitive peoples as pure fear religions and those of the civilized races as pure moral religions. All are mixed forms, though the moral element predominates in the higher levels of social life.
Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic character of the idea of God. Only exceptionally gifted individuals or especially noble communities rise essentially above this level; in these there is found a third level of religious experience, even if it is seldom found in a pure form. I will call it the cosmic religious sense. This is hard to make clear to those who do not experience it, since it does not involve an anthropomorphic idea of God; the individual feels the vanity of human desires and aims, and the nobility and marvelous order which are revealed in nature and in the world of thought.
The religious geniuses of all times have been distinguished by this cosmic religious sense, which recognizes neither dogmas nor God made in man's image.
Consequently there cannot be a church whose chief doctrines are based on the cosmic religious experience. It comes about, therefore, that we find precisely among the heretics of all ages men who were inspired by this highest religious experience; often they appeared to their contemporaries as atheists, but sometimes also as saints. Viewed from this angle, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are near to one another.
Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another.
How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it.
Science, in consequence, has been accused of undermining morals—but wrongly. The ethical behavior of man is better based on sympathy, education and social relationships, and requires no support from religion. Man's plight would, indeed, be sad if he had to be kept in order through fear of punishment and hope of rewards after death.
It is, therefore, quite natural that the churches have always fought against science and have persecuted its supporters. But, on the other hand, I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research.
We have placed too much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life.
The centralized atheism before whose armed might the whole world trembles still hates and fears this unarmed faith as much today as it did 60 years ago. Yes! All the savage persecutions loosed upon our people by a murderous state atheism, coupled with the corroding effect of its lies, and an avalanche of stultifying propaganda — all of these together have proven weaker than the thousand-year-old faith of our nation. This faith has not been destroyed; it remains the most sublime, the most cherished gift to which our lives and consciousness can attain.
But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”
It is here that we see the dawn of hope: for no matter how formidably Communism bristles with tanks and rockets, no matter what successes it attains in seizing the planet, it is doomed never to vanquish Christianity.
Judging by the continuing landslide of concessions made before the eyes of our very own generation, the West is ineluctably slipping toward the abyss. Western societies are losing more and more of their religious essence as they thoughtlessly yield up their younger generation to atheism.
Of course, one cannot declare that only my faith is correct and all other faiths are not. Of course God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God.
Calvinism says that nothing depends on man, that faith is already predetermined. Also in its sharp protest against Catholicism, Protestantism rushed to discard together with ritual all the mysterious, the mythical and mystical aspects of the Faith. In that sense it has impoverished religion.
A return to the forms of religion which perhaps existed a couple of centuries ago is absolutely impossible. On the contrary, in order to combat modern materialistic mores, as religion must, to fight nihilism and egotism, religion must also develop, must be flexible in its forms, and it must have a correlation with the cultural forms of the epoch.
The work of building up Zion is in every sense a practical work; it is not a mere theory. A theoretical religion amounts to very little real good or advantage to any person.
If you love the truth you can remember it.
Any attempt to reduce that fuller sense of religious freedom, which has been part of our history in this country for more than two centuries, to a private reality of worship and individual conscience so long as you don't make anyone else unhappy, is not in our tradition...It was the tradition of the Soviet Union.
Any faith that admires truth, that strives to know God, must be brave enough to accommodate the universe. I mean the real universe. All those light-years. All those worlds. I think of the scope of the universe, the opportunities it affords the Creator, and it takes my breath away.
Why should God manifest himself in such subtle and debatable ways when he can make his presence completely unambiguous?
Wherever a discrepancy seems to exist, either a scientist or a theologian - maybe both - hasn't been doing his job.
It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense, and can't see things as they are. Anything that anybody talks about, and says there's a good deal in it, extends indefinitely like a vista in a nightmare. And a dog is an omen and a cat is a mystery and a pig is a mascot, and a beetle is a scarab, calling up all the menagerie of polytheism from Egypt and old India; Dog Anubis and the great green-eyed Pasht and all the howling bulls of Bashan; reeling back to the bestial gods of the beginning, escaping into elephants and snakes and crocodiles; and all because you are frightened of four words: "He was made Man." ~ Father Brown
The safest road to hell is the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
Our leisure, even our play, is a matter of serious concern. [That is because] there is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.
“Dark matter” and “dark energy” cannot be seen but only indirectly detected, and we don’t really know what they are. None of this proves that God exists, obviously, but it surely encourages humility.
I agree with whoever first said, “In order to keep Sunday holy, we must keep Saturday hopping.” It’s wonderful to greet the Sabbath with clothing clean and pressed, hair shampooed, church clothes laid out, and food for dinner prepared in advance.
As a person of faith, I’m a big believer in prayer. The Bible is very clear that God does not financially bless the lazy, or the incompetent. Praying for your corn to grow while failing to plant any is not a biblical principle nor one of successful people.
The problem is, living off approval and applause, and deriving your sense of self-worth from the praise of others, may feel great, but it also produces great problems. When it comes to being worshipped, human beings just don't make very good gods, something the Good Book warns about repeatedly. Worship is meant for God alone. But when humans are idolized and worshipped – and when they lower themselves to accept that homage and bask in its glory – major conflict mysteriously appears within the idolized star.
To repent just means you simply look honestly in the mirror and see your own flaws and weaknesses and don't make excuses for them, don't deny them, blame someone else for them or justify them.
Everyone on the left and right cares about the environment. But caring about the environment is not the same as environmentalism. Environmentalism, for most of its adherents, is a secular religion. These people, many of whom refer to, and truly regard, the Earth as a goddess (Gaia, the name of the ancient Greek Earth goddess) worship the environment.
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat described the 2009 James Cameron blockbuster film, “Avatar,” as “Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism, a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world.” That equation of God with nature was a major reason for the film’s popularity.
Douthat, one of the only religious (as in believing in and practicing a religion) columnists at The New York Times, added, “The threat of global warming, meanwhile, has lent the cult of Nature qualities that every successful religion needs: a crusading spirit, a rigorous set of ‘thou shalt nots,’ and a piping-hot apocalypse.”
When you ask atheists, as I have for decades, what they believe in, the most common answer is “science.” There was a young man, an atheist, at the gym where I work out, who responded, “Science!” (in place of “God bless you”) whenever someone sneezed. There is nothing higher than science for an atheist because the natural world is all there is. So, worship of the Earth, the environment or nature is almost inevitable in a secular world.
From the point of view of the secular, Gaia-worshipping world, Genesis gets even worse when, 27 verses later, God tells human beings to, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” Both instructions infuriate Earth-worshippers. Regarding being fruitful, they oppose people having more than one child, and many advocate having no children so as to have minimal human impact on Mother Earth. But the second part — ruling over nature — is what really angers them.
Maybe the coronavirus will awaken young people, who have been taught by nature-worshipping teachers and raised by nature-worshipping parents, to the idiocy of worshipping nature rather than subduing it. Nature, it turns out, is not our friend, let alone a god. If it were up to nature, we’d all be dead: Animals would eat us; weather would freeze us to death; disease would wipe out the rest of us. If we don’t subdue nature, nature will subdue us. It’s that simple.
Nature is beautiful and awe-inspiring. It’s also brutal and merciless. “Nature, red in tooth and claw,” as Alfred Tennyson aptly describes it. Nature follows no moral rules and shows no compassion. The basic law of all biological life is “survival of the fittest,” while the basic law of Judaism and Christianity is the opposite: the survival of the weakest with the help of the fittest. Nature wants the weakest eaten by the strongest. Hospitals are as anti-natural an entity as exists.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Humanity is ...deeply, inevitably religious, and because it is religious, it makes war on the Papacy. ~ Giuseppe Mazzini
Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
I believe there’s some explanation for this universe, which you might call God.
Religion and science have sometimes appeared in conflict. Yet, the conflict can only be apparent, not real, for science seeks truth, and true religion is truth. There can never be conflict between revealed religion and true science. Truth is truth, whether labeled science or religion. All truth is consistent.
My life is my message.
We may say, the works of God and the word of God both constitute the avenues of human information, and that whoever ignores the one deprives himself of much of the benefits which flow from accepting the other; that there are two doors which open to the temple of truth, and they are both indispensably necessary to engage man’s full capacity and to endow him with the principles of knowledge, and with the purposes of his being here upon the earth, together with his origin and final destiny.
The leaders of this Church are the most practical men in it...Our theory is that a man who cannot sustain himself and also teach others how to sustain themselves is unfit for a leading position...
“When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything.”
Perhaps discussions of religion would be more fruitful if we could rid ourselves of the assumption, common among Christians and practically universal among non-Christians, that God (if God exists) is simpleminded. We readily grant that a great writer such as Joyce or Proust is infinitely subtle and resourceful in fashioning a novel; but we assume that in fashioning human history God will be heavy handed and obvious. Accordingly, some believers conclude that they know exactly what God has in mind and, vested with high office, could provide him with some much needed help… In a parallel way unbelievers conclude that they know what God would do if he existed, and that since those things are not being done, he does not exist...
If ministers are effective, they're good at asking questions to get you to think. I don't think they're supposed to have the answers. Not necessarily. ~ Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of the West
"Evil exists... and its name is Boredom, and ministers are the guiltiest crew of all." ~ Galinda (The Good Witch)
God has given each of one of us a task, which we can perform better than anyone else. We must find out what that task is, and how to do it in the best way possible.
It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only spend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.
When we presume to impose our wisdom on God’s doings, we are likely to look quite foolish.
If we gather, honor, and cherish our sacred experiences, their power will be magnified. They will be a light and a guide in our wilderness.
We must learn not to take traditional morals too seriously. And it is just because even the least dogmatic of religions tends to associate itself with some kind of unalterable moral tradition, that there can be no truce between science and religion.
The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country.
I don't think you can know God unless you're passionate about him so you're either screaming at him, enraptured with the idea of being around him or feeling him in your life.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
“The self-called liberal [in the Church] is usually one who has broken with the fundamental principles or guiding philosophy of the group to which he belongs. … He claims membership in an organization but does not believe in its basic concepts; and sets out to reform it by changing its foundations. … “It is folly to speak of a liberal religion, if that religion claims that it rests upon unchanging truth.” And then Dr. Widtsoe concludes his statement with this: “It is well to beware of people who go about proclaiming that they are or their churches are liberal. The probabilities are that the structure of their faith is built on sand and will not withstand the storms of truth.”
Papists are not to enjoy the benefit of toleration, because, where they have power, they think themselves bound to deny it to others.
This life affords no solid satisfaction, but in the consciousness of having done well, and the hopes of another life.
I was flattered to think it might be of some use in the world; especially to those, who thought either that there was no need of revelation at all, or that the revelation of our Saviour required the belief of such articles for salvation, which the settled notions, and their way of reasoning in some, and want of understanding in others, made impossible to them. Upon these two topics the objections seemed to turn, which were with most assurance made by deists, against Christianity; but against Christianity misunderstood. It seemed to me, that there needed no more to show them the weakness of their exceptions, but to lay plainly before them the doctrine of our Saviour and his apostles, as delivered in the scriptures, and not as taught by the several sects of Christians.
He [Jesus] not only forbids actual uncleanness, but all irregular desires, upon pain of hell-fire; causeless divorces; swearing in conversation, as well as forswearing in judgment; revenge; retaliation; ostentation of charity, of devotion, and of fasting; repetitions in prayer, covetousness, worldly care, censoriousness: and on the other side commands loving our enemies, doing good to those that hate us, blessing those that curse us, praying for those that despitefully use us; patience and meekness under injuries, forgiveness, liberality, compassion: and closes all; his particular injunctions, with this general golden rule, Matt. VII. 12...
I am sure, zeal or love for truth can never permit falsehood to be used in the defence of it.
As men, we have God for our King, and are under the law of reason: as Christians, we have Jesus the Messiah for our King, and are under the law revealed by him in the gospel. And though every Christian, both as a deist and a Christian, be obliged to study both the law of nature and the revealed law, that in them he may know the will of God, and of Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent; yet, in neither of these laws, is there to be found a select set of fundamentals, distinct from the rest, which are to make him a deist, or a Christian.
Suppose schools were operated on that philosophy, with each discipline a separate path leading to the same diploma. No matter whether you study or not, pass the tests or not, all would be given the same diploma — the one of their choice. Without qualifying, one could choose the diploma of an attorney, an engineer, a medical doctor. Surely you would not submit yourself to surgery under the hands of a graduate of that kind of school! But it does not work that way. It cannot work that way — not in education, not in spiritual matters. There are essential ordinances just as there are required courses. There are prescribed standards of worthiness. If we resist them, avoid them, or fail them, we will not enter in with those who complete the course.
“Do you realize that the notion that all churches are equal presupposes that the true church of Jesus Christ actually does not exist anywhere?”
Would the people who claim all churches (save ours) to be true be willing when sick to take any randomly selected combination of drugs to cure what ails them or administer the same to their children? Would they substitute sand for flour when baking bread arguing that as long as they were sincere, it could not possibly make any difference? Would they fill their gas tank with water, arguing that it too was a true liquid and was also a creation of God and that God loved all liquids the same?
You can say what you want by way of criticism about the Book of Mormon. Give it whatever grade you think it deserves, but what you cannot say is that it lacks for plainness or that you cannot quite figure out where it stands relative to Christ and his gospel. On such matters it is plain, clear, and bold; its writers had no intention of being misunderstood. It is a theological Everest; you can try to cover it with flowers but you are not going to be able to hide it. Simply stated, it is a public relations nightmare.
As to why the Lord made it this way we may not know — but this much we do know, it is philosophically impossible to reject truth without accepting error, to shut out the light without being immersed in darkness, to reject true teachers without cleaving to false ones, to reject the true Christ and his prophets without giving allegiance to those who follow another Master.
The Restoration began with Joseph Smith on his knees in the Sacred Grove and that is where the testimony of every Latter-day Saint must begin, on their knees in a sacred moment asking of God. Everything that we believe as Latter-day Saints rests on the reality of what God said that spring morning to Joseph Smith and the great irony of it all is that the harder the saying, the more offensive it seems to the world, the more peace it brings, it is the very light that chases away the darkness of contention with all that are honest in heart.
That such texts will give offense to some is true. Truth, however, is more important than harmony. Were that not the case, there would have been no war in heaven, no gospel of Jesus Christ, and no reason for the Father and the Son to appear to Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove. If we are to be a Christ-like people, we must value truth above life itself.
If the gospel message is true, it must by its very nature have things in it that require faith to accept. If we are going to get serious about it we can hardly expect to find gospel truths getting along compatibly with worldly fashions, nor can we expect them to get an approving nod from those who worship at the shrine of their own intellect.
The plain fact of the matter is that you cannot build strong testimonies out of weak doctrine. As there is no courage without a struggle, so there can be no spiritual strength without a challenge. We have claim to neither peace nor safety save we build on a strong foundation.
Any time we declare something to be true, we have picked a fight with that which is untrue. We cannot, as Marion G. Romney assured us, do the Lord’s work without offending the devil. [12] It is as certain as the night following the day that we will never be able to declare our message without opposition or without giving offense to some.
A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation".
Sometimes new opportunity means new opposition. Not everything God asks us to do will be comfortable.
If you’re not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if you’re not electing Christians then in essence you are going to legislate sin.
If people aren’t involved in helping godly men in getting elected, then we’re going to have a nation of secular laws. That’s not what our Founding Fathers intended and that certainly isn’t what God intended....
...but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can’t pray a lie—I found that out.
Somehow, when we do what God asks us to do, the best we can, keeping first things first, out time seems to come back to us, added upon and multiplied. It's a miracle.
In 1978 and already foreseeing these times, Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “We are now entering a period of incredible ironies. Let us cite but one of these ironies which is yet in its subtle stages: we shall see in our time a maximum if indirect effort made to establish irreligion as the state religion. It is actually a new form of paganism that uses the carefully preserved and cultivated freedoms of Western civilization to shrink freedom even as it rejects the value essence of our rich Judeo-Christian heritage…
“Your discipleship may see the time come when religious convictions are heavily discounted…This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain of people’s opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions. Resistance to abortion will soon be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened.
“In its mildest form, irreligion will merely be condescending toward those who hold to traditional Judeo-Christian values. In its more harsh forms, as is always the case with those whose dogmatism is blinding, the secular church will do what it can to reduce the influence of those who still worry over standards such as those in the Ten Commandments. It is always such an easy step from dogmatism to unfair play—especially so when the dogmatists believe themselves to be dealing with primitive people who do not know what is best for them. It is the secular bureaucrat’s burden, you see.
You were not an accident. You weren't mass produced. You aren't an assembly line product. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on the Earth by the Master Craftsman.
Want to discuss the sanctity of life? Nope, that’s political. Want to discuss the doctrine that gender is an essential characteristic of premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose? Not allowed, that’s political. Want to discuss the doctrine of marriage as ordained of God between a man and a woman? Can’t do that, way too political to talk about. Even, want to discuss the roles of fathers and mothers? No way, that is a touchy subject.
I could never stop drugs, I could never stop drinking, until I received my spiritual awakening.
I'm here to serve God and be of service. I'm nothing; everything out here is a lot bigger than me.
...religious tyranny is the worst form of tyranny.
Prayer must never be answered: if it is, it ceases to be prayer and becomes correspondence.
There is a serene Providence which rules the fate of nations...It makes its own instruments, creates the man for the time, trains him in poverty, inspires his genius, and arms him for his task.
There are only two surefire ways to get people to do what you want them to do. You either put on an iron glove and make them do it. Or you tell them God wants them to do it. ~ Keenan Drucker
Studies have shown that convincing religious agents had to have just the right level of outlandishness. Also, the manifestation needed to have an emotional resonance in order for belief to set in. Religions use elaborate rituals to stir up people's emotions....
The only reason – the only need – to believe in God is to try and explain where this all came from. . . .Where we come from. Where we’re headed. But it doesn’t work. If there was a creator, a designer who created all this, well then there had to be a creator to create the creator, right? And one to create him. And so on. ~ Grace Logan
Religion and science shouldn’t be in competition. The problem is with your (US) preachers – and your scientists. They’re stepping on each other’s toes. With big, heavy boots. They don’t understand that religion and science are there to serve different purposes. We need science to understand how everything on this planet and beyond works. . . .But we also need religion. Not for ridiculous counter-theories about things science can prove. We need it for something else, to fill a different kind of need. The need for meaning. It’s a basic need we have as humans. And it’s a need that’s beyond the realm of science. Your (US) scientists don’t understand that it’s a need they can’t fulfill no matter how man Hadron colliders and Hubble telescopes they build – and your (US) preachers don’t understand that their job is to help you discover a personal, inner sense of meaning and not behave like a bunch of zealots intent on converting the rest of the planet to their rigid, literalist view of how everyone should live their lives. In your (US) country and in the Muslim countries, religion has become a political movement, not a spiritual one. ~ Father Jerome
Religion in (the US) is so focused on fighting science and these compelling atheist voices that your preachers have lost track of what religion is really about. In . . . - the Eastern Church – and in Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, religion isn’t there to offer theories or explanation. We accept that the divine is unknowable. . . .for a lot of rational people . . ., it’s become a choice. Fact or faith. Science or religion. . . .You shouldn’t have to choose. ~ Father Jerome
Yelling “God is on our side” is very effective at rallying the masses. And at winning elections. . . . ~ Father Jerome
You can’t reconcile religion with modern life, with all the knowledge we have, with science. . . . ~ Grace Logan
We’ll elect any bumbling fool, any champion of mediocrity to the highest office in the land as long as they have God as their running mate. ~ Keenan Drucker
History’s shown us time and again, that mixing religion and politics only brings destruction. ~ Larry Rydell
You don’t need anyone to tell you what to believe or who to worship. . . .You don’t need to follow any set of rituals. You don’t need to worry about an angry God not allowing you into heaven. You don’t need to march into these great temples or intolerance and be told what is God’s inerrant and infallible word, because the simple truth is that nobody really knows that. . . .All I know is that you’re not slaves and you’re not part of any grand master plan. . . .you are all God’s children. . . .You create your own destiny. And you need to accept that responsibility and put aside your egocentricity and stop looking for excuses in tired old myths. You make your own fate every single day. You need to look after each other. You need to look after the land that feeds you and gives you the air you breathe. You need to assume your duty toward all of God’s creation. And you need to accept the credit for the good and take the blame for the bad. ~ Father Jerome
Shortcomings in secular and unmarried life may be revealed during the coronavirus pandemic, estimated Prager. “I think that people will realize that there’s been a certain foolishness in thinking that a godless and religionless life is is rich,” said Prager. “It isn’t, and it’s crises that make that clear.” Secular people lack a “built-in community” relative to the faithful, added Prager. Understanding the value of companionship in a loving marriage becomes more widespread in difficult times, Prager remarked. “The other thing that I think is going to come out of this is I think that all these young people in America who have a cavalier attitude toward marriage … may realize that being alone with my CEO status or my Yale PhD isn’t quite as good as being with somebody that I might love and who loves me,” Prager determined.
“Has the absence of faith left us more vulnerable at this moment? Because I can’t help but feel that it has.” An “absence of faith” leaves people less prepared to confront suffering
“Of course we’re better prepared,” replied Prager, describing religious practice as preparation to deal with suffering. “Who’s better prepared if a ship sinks — people who have been practicing swimming their whole life or people who don’t know how to swim? The religious know how to swim when there’s bad stuff.”
Prager described part of his mission as helping people “understand why God is important.” He said, “I never try to convince people about God’s existence. I only try to convince people of God’s necessity. That’s far more important to me.”
Prager continued, “I am absolutely convinced that a subtext here is that secular people fear death more. And we don’t want to die any more than anyone. I love life. I love my family and friends. I love everything I do. I’m crazy about life, but I don’t fear death. I believe there’s an afterlife. I don’t think this is all there is. Clearly, if you think this is all there is then you will fear losing it more than the guy who thinks this isn’t all there is.”
Prager went on, “God does not abandon us. Just because God doesn’t save us doesn’t mean he’s abandoned us. If God saved everyone in hardship, then belief would be idiocy. It would be nonsense. Of course people would believe. It’s like a celestial butler, ‘God, I have a trouble here, okay?’”
The men of God are like fishes in the ocean; they pop up into view on the surface here and there and everywhere, as they please.
God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.
The idol of your self is the mother of all idols.
That which God said to the rose, and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty, He said to my heart, and made it a hundred times more beautiful.
Many have been led astray by the Qur'an: by clinging to that rope many have fallen into the well. There is no fault in the rope, O perverse man, for it was you who had no desire to reach the top.
If in thirst you drink water from a cup, you see God in it. Those who are not in love with God will see only their own faces in it.
To Love is to reach God.
Didn't I tell you not to be satisfied with the veil of this world? I am the master illusionist, it is me, who is the welcoming banner at the gate of your contentment.
Didn't I tell you? I am an ocean, you are a fish; do not go to the dry land, it is me, who is your comforting body of water.
Didn't I tell you? They will accuse you of all the wrongdoings, they will call you ugly names, they will make you forget it is me, who is the source of your happiness.
It's an ironic accident of the calendar that all this religious interest in transcendental events should be mixed with the objective evidence that we're falling into a technological singularity.
Just talking about superhuman intelligence gets us into something like religion. ~ Della Lu
If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor.
A false science makes atheists, a true science prostrates men before the Deity
I always made one prayer to God, a very short one. Here it is: "O Lord, make our enemies quite ridiculous!" God granted it.
It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions.
God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
If God did not exist, he would have to be invented. But all nature cries aloud that he does exist: that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it.
The institution of religion exists only to keep mankind in order, and to make men merit the goodness of God by their virtue. Everything in a religion which does not tend towards this goal must be considered foreign or dangerous.
Under coercion there is no virtue, and without virtue there is no religion.
The Eternal has his designs from all eternity. If prayer is in accord with his immutable wishes, it is quite useless to ask of him what he has resolved to do. If one prays to him to do the contrary of what he has resolved, it is praying that he be weak, frivolous, inconstant; it is believing that he is thus, it is to mock him. Either you ask him a just thing, in which case he must do it, the thing being done without your praying to him for it, and so to entreat him is then to distrust him; or the thing is unjust, and then you insult him. You are worthy or unworthy of the grace you implore: if worthy, he knows it better than you; if unworthy, you commit another crime by requesting what is undeserved.
In a word, we only pray to God because we have made him in our image. We treat him like a pasha, like a sultan whom one may provoke or appease.
My own concept of prayer is not as a plea for special favors nor as a quick palliation for wrongs knowingly committed. A prayer, it seems to me, implies a promise as well as a request.
A prayer, it seems to me, implies a promise as well as a request.
...prayer not only is a supplication for strength and guidance, but also becomes an affirmation of life and thus a reverent praise of God.
Deeds rather than words express my concept of the part religion should play in everyday life.
To me, today, at age sixty-one, all prayer, by the humble or highly placed, has one thing in common: supplication for strength and inspiration to carry on the best human impulses which should bind us together for a better world.
I care not if God is on my side; my constant hope and prayer is that I may be found on the Lord's side.
I cannot believe that God plays dice with the cosmos!
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
The only life worth living is a life lived for others.
Pray, verb: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.
Do not stand in a place of danger trusting in miracles.
Parents can tell but never teach, unless they practice what they preach.
Think of these things, whence you came, where you are going, and to whom you must account.
Don't judge a man's wealth, or his piety by his appearance on Sunday.
If one man can conquer in one battle a thousand times a thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he (the later) is the greatest of conquerers.
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.
We come to church not to hide our problems but to heal them
Every action in our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.
A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart
It is easier to love humanity as a whole than it is to love one's neighbor.
Be sure to keep busy, so the devil may always find you occupied.
There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.
To be in hell is to drift; to be in heaven is to steer.
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.
Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven.
Help thy brother's boat across, an Lo! Thine own has reached the shore.
A bone to a dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.
The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.
For visions come not to polluted eyes.
The end of all knowledge should be virtuous action.
You should not live one way in private, another in public
What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.
What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for others.
What you do shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.
God's delays are not always God's denials.
The covetous man pines in plenty, like tantalus up to the chin in water, and yet thirsty.
The resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible.
People may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do.
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
Young people have been told God is nonsense, their country is essentially evil, their past is deplorable, their future is bleak, and marriage and children are not important. Why are some many young people depressed, unhappy, and angry? It's not capitalism or income inequality or patriarchy, or even global warming. It's having no religion, no God, and no country to believe in. And what does that leave them with? No meaning. But, there is always Instagram.
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