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Susan Jacoby Quotes

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Susan Jacoby is an American author renowned for her works on liberalism, history, and religion. Her writings often explore themes such as individual freedom, secularism, and feminism.

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All Religious People Thinking Believe Ifs Church States Catholic Conversion Religion Way Atheist Feels I Can Imagine Persons Rights Women Able Adults

Famous Susan Jacoby Quotes

“Religious education is only valuable intellectually, if the child is educated in a religion versus [just] about a religion. I don't believe you can have both.”

Ifs Believe Children Religion Women Religious Don't Believe Valuable Educated Versus Believe You Can I Don't Believe You Religious Education

Author:Susan Jacoby

“The biggest religious wars and persecutions in history occur when religions, each claiming their own absolute truths, come into conflict.”

War Religious Conflict Absolutes Persecution Absolute Truth Religious Wars

Author:Susan Jacoby

“I think very few people realize how much the separation of church and state has to do with the fact that Americans are not only more religious than a lot of other people in the world but that conversions are much more common here.”

People Thinking World States Facts Realizing Church Religious Common Separation Conversion Church And State Separation Of Church And State

Author:Susan Jacoby

“More than half of Americans have changed religions at least once in their adult lifetime. This is - the rate of religious conversion here is much, much higher than it is anywhere in Europe, for example.”

Religious Half Example Changed Higher Adults Europe Lifetime Rate Conversion

Author:Susan Jacoby

“If you chose a particular religion, you were siding with the government religion of whatever region you were in. That's never been true in America, but also, the United States also has so many more immigrant groups which also tends to imply more religious diversity right away.”

Ifs States Government America Religious United United States Groups Particular Diversity Regions Immigrants Religious Diversity Siding

Author:Susan Jacoby

“The Roman Empire was fairly tolerant of religious choice as long as you made a point not of thumbing your nose in public at the Roman gods.”

Long Made Choices Religious Noses Empires Roman Empire Roman Gods

Author:Susan Jacoby

“God Bless America started to become an almost ritualistic incantation at the end of political speeches really with Ronald Reagan. It appears occasionally before, but it was not that common. And of course since it was a song that wasn't written by Irving Berlin until the 20th century (laughter), none of the 19th century presidents said God Bless America at the end of speeches, either. I think that the symbolism which suggests that everybody is religious and that even presidents who believe in church and state feel obliged to do this.”

“A person can be religious and still respect secular values and not talk about Jesus all the time as though every American believed in Jesus.”

Persons Stills Values Jesus Religious Secular

Author:Susan Jacoby

“I feel Jewish in the sense of culturally Jewish, I suppose the way Bernie Sanders feels Jewish, but not Jewish in a religious sense.”

Way Feels Religious

Author:Susan Jacoby

“I can't imagine falling in love with a devoutly religious person.”

Persons I Can Fall Religious Imagine Falling In Love Religious Person

Author:Susan Jacoby

“I have received many touching letters and emails from people who live in the most religious parts of the country, in places like rural Texas, saying it is so good to see someone be able to say I am an atheist without shame.”

People Country Able Religious Letters Shame Atheist Texas Touching Email

Author:Susan Jacoby

“Whether you are religious or nonreligious, may you find solace in the knowledge that the suffering is ours, but that those we love suffer no more.”

May Suffering Religious Grieving Solace Those We Love

Author:Susan Jacoby

“Throughout the three decades preceding the Civil War, the anticlerical ethos of the radical abolitionists was used against them by religious opponents of emancipation, who . . . even described abolitionism itself as an atheist plot.”

War Used Religion Three Religious Atheist Decades Radical Opponents Civil War Plot Emancipation Ethos Abolitionist

Book:Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism

Source: Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism

“It is easy to forget, since the Catholic Church is now the only large American religious denomination whose ecclesiastical hierarchy continues to oppose birth control, that only a century ago the leaders of nearly all churches were united in their resistance to any public discussion of the subject.”

Religion Easy Church Religious Forget United Leader Subjects Century Birth Catholic Resistance Discussion Hierarchy Catholic Church Birth Control Denominations

Book:Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism

Source: Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism

About the Author

Born: June 4, 1945
Known for: Author
Quotes: 58

Books & Sources

Freethinkers: A History of American SecularismRelated source material

The Age of American UnreasonRelated source material

Inside Soviet schoolsRelated source material

Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old AgeRelated source material

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