Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [401-420] of 495 Religion quotesReligion QuotesReligion Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes This assumption about religion being necessary for morality is recognized and used as a justification for religion. When atheists provide arguments showing that religious beliefs are incorrect and illogical, a frequent response is that religion is still good because it's needed for morality. The question of truth is dismissed as less important than the question of usefulness. If morality is a good thing, then atheist arguments fall on deaf ears. And more, the act of willfully ignoring evidence or argument is performed with a sense of moral pride. This position rests on the myth that morality requires religion, and that you have to accept religion despite any flaws or abandon morality. This justification of religion is just one more consequence of the myth.~ Joseph Rowlands The only foundation for... a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.~ Dr. Benjamin Rush In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.~ Bertrand Russell The practical objection to Puritanism, as to every form of fanaticism, is that it singles out certain evils as so much worse than others that they must be suppressed at all costs. The fanatic fails to recognise that the suppression of a real evil, if carried out too drastically, produces other evils which are even greater.~ Bertrand Russell There is a lurking fear that some things are not meant “to be known,” that some inquiries are too dangerous for human beings to make.~ Carl Sagan Freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of people by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorships.~ Andrei Sakharov Without doubt the greatest injury of all was done by basing morals on myth. For, sooner or later, myth is recognized for what it is, and disappears. Then morality loses the foundation on which it has been built.~ Lord Herbert Louis Samuel Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.~ George Santayana In Torcaso v. Watkins, (1961), we did indeed refer to ‘secular humanism’ as a ‘religion.'~ Justice Antonin Scalia The more I truly learn, I realize the less I truly know.~ Eric Schaub The truth is more important than its teller.~ Eric Schaub Those who are convinced they have a monopoly on The Truth always feel that they are only saving the world when they slaughter the heretics.~ Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The religious quality of Marxism also explains a characteristic attitude of the orthodox Marxist toward opponents. To him, as to any believer in a faith, the opponent is not merely in error but in sin. Dissent is unapproved of not only intellectually but also morally.~ Joseph A. Schumpeter With devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar o'er the devil himself.~ William Shakespeare Loud speech, profusion of words, and possessing skillfulness in expounding scriptures are merely for the enjoyment of the learned. They do not lead to liberation.~ Adi Shankaracharya The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essense of inhumanity.~ George Bernard Shaw When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.~ George Bernard Shaw Whether you think Jesus was God or not, you must admit he was a first-rate political economist.~ George Bernard Shaw Heretics were often most bitterly persecuted for their least deviation from accepted belief. It was precisely their obstinacy about trifles that irritated the righteous to madness. Why can they not yield on so trifling a matter?~ Leo Shestov Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying “No” to any authority -- literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social and even political.~ Ignazio Silone Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print