“The secular university is scandalized by the claims of revelation. Those who have, for whatever historical reasons, become seekers-on-principle, cannot tolerate the allegation that truth is a gift. To have to receive offends those who have determined to take.” ReasonChristianityPrinciplesTruth IsClaimsHistoricalUniversityDeterminedRevelationsTolerateSecularSeekersAllegations Author:Louis Mackey
“To plead the organic causation of a religious state of mind, then, in refutation of its claim to possess superior spiritual value, is quite illogical and arbitrary, unless one have already worked out in advance some psycho-physical theory connecting spiritual values in general with determinate sorts of physiological change. Otherwise none of our thoughts and feelings, not even our scientific doctrines, not even our dis -beliefs, could retain any value as revelations of the truth, for every one of them without exception flows from the state of their possessor's body at the time.” MindStatesFeelingsBodySpiritualValuesBeliefReligiousTheoryFlowClaimsDoctrineSuperiorsRevelationsExceptionState Of MindOur ThoughtsConnectingArbitraryPsychoThoughts And FeelingsIllogicalPhysiologicalCausationSpiritual ValuesRefutation Book:The Varieties of Religious Experience Source: The Varieties of Religious Experience
“Nature seems to exult in abounding radicality, extremism, anarchy. If we were to judge nature by its common sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed. In nature, improbabilities are the one stock in trade. The whole creation is one lunatic fringe. ... No claims of any and all revelations could be so far-fetched as a single giraffe.” IfsWorldBelieveWholeSeemsNatureCommonCreationJudgingClaimsTradeCommon SenseRevelationsAnarchyFringeExtremismLunaticLikelihoodGiraffeImprobability Author:Annie Dillard
“Miracles have no claim whatever to the character of historical facts and are wholly invalid as evidence of any revelation.” CharacterFactsAtheismEvidenceMiracleClaimsHistoricalPositive AtheismRevelationsHistorical Facts Book:Three Essays on Religion Source: Three Essays on Religion
“The true contrast between science and religion is that science unites the world and makes it possible for people of widely differing backgrounds to work together and to cooperate. Religion, on the other hand, by its very claim to know “The Truth” through “revelation,” is inherently divisive and a creator of separatism and hostility.” PeopleKnowsWorldHandsTogetherReligionHuman NatureClaimsCreatorBackgroundsRevelationsWorking TogetherCooperationContrastScience And ReligionHostility Author:Hermann Bondi
“I believe in revelation, but not in revelation which each religion claims to possess, but in the living revelation which surrounds us on every side - mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible, clear, distinct, universal as is the being from whom it proceeds, in that revelation which speaks to us and penetrates us from the moment we are born until we die.” BelieveMomentsDiesSpeakI BelieveSidesBornClearEternalUniversalClaimsI Believe InRevelationsSurroundPenetrate Author:Jose Rizal
“In overlooking, denying, evading this complexity--which is nothing more than the disquieting complexity of ourselves--we are diminished and we perish; only within this web of ambiguity, paradox, this hunger, danger, darkness, can we find at once ourselves and the power that will free us from ourselves. It is this power of revelation that is the business of the novelist, this journey toward a more vast reality which must take precedence over other claims.” RealityDarknessJourneyDangerClaimsHungerNovelistsComplexityRevelationsParadoxAmbiguityPrecedenceOverlooking Author:James A. Baldwin
“Those of us who write and study history are accustomed to its approximations and ambiguities. This is why we do not take literally the tenth-hand reports of frightened and illiterate peasants who claim to have seen miracles or to have had encounters with messiahs and prophets and redeemers who were, like them, mere humans. And this is also why we will never submit to dictation from those who display a fanatical belief in certainty and revelation.” WritingHumansHandsBeliefStudyAtheismMiracleClaimsMereAtheistCertaintyProphetEncountersRevelationsReportsFrightenedDisplaySubmitAccustomedAmbiguityPeasantsMessiahIlliterateRedeemerApproximationDictation Author:Christopher Hitchens
“I feel most ministers who claim they've heard God's voice are eating too much pizza before they go to bed at night, and it's really an intestinal disorder, not a revelation.” FeelsGodNightVoiceToo MuchHeardAtheismBedEatingClaimsMinistersRevelationsDisorderPizza Author:Jerry Falwell
“Christians have always tended to transform the Christian Revelation into a Christian religion. Christianity is said to be a religion like any other or, conversely, some Christians try to show that it is a better religion than the others. People attempt to take possession of God. Theology claims to explain everything, including the being of God. People tend to transform Christianity into a religion because the Christian faith obviously places people in an extremely uncomfortable position that of freedom guided only by love and all in the context of God's radical demand that we be holy.” PeopleTryingSaidShowsChristianReligionChristianityPositionHolyDemandClaimsIncludingPossessionTheologyRadicalUncomfortableRevelationsChristian Faith Author:Jacques Ellul