“The capacity for the accomplishment of religious virtuosos the "intellectual sacrifice" is the decisive characteristic of the positively religious man. That this is so is shown by the fact that in spite of (or rather in consequence) of theology (which unveils it) the tension between the value-spheres of "science" and the sphere of "the holy" is unbridgeable.” MenFactsValuesReligiousSacrificeHolyIntellectualConsequenceCapacityTheologyAccomplishmentTensionCharacteristicsSpiteSpheresPositively Book:From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology Source: From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology
“The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.” HumansWellsMaySelfReasonFightingBeliefReligiousHuman BeingsAnimalResultsViewsAwarenessBehaviorImportanceIndependenceAssumingSpeciesGuidesKingdomsCharacteristicsDestructiveDelusionNo ReasonConformityTerritoryTraitsWarfareStubbornExtinctionSelf DestructiveConformistAnimal Kingdom Book:The Lost World Source: The Lost World
“In America, religious dissent is as vital as it is elusive. Like the secretions of the pituitary, the juices of dissent are essential to ongoing life even if we do not always know precisely how, when or where they perform their tasks, and the not knowing - the flimsy, filmy elusiveness - is supremely characteristic of America's expressions of religious dissent. For in the United States no stalwart orthodoxy stands ever ready to parry the sharp thrust or clever feints of dissent.” IfsKnowsStatesAmericaReligiousUnitedUnited StatesKnowingAtheismReadyExpressionEssentialsTasksCleverCharacteristicsNot KnowingJuiceOngoingDissentThrustOrthodoxyElusiveStalwartElusiveness Author:Edwin Gaustad
“There is not one text reference to characteristic Protestant religious life in these books... The dominant theme is the denial of religion as an actual part of American life.” BookChristianReligiousDenialCharacteristicsThemeDominantProtestantsAmerican LifeReligious Life Author:Paul Vitz
“All thinking of the religious man is etymological, a reduction of all concepts to the original intuition, to the characteristic.” ThinkingMenReligionReligiousConceptsOriginalsIntuitionCharacteristicsReduction Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
“The misfortunes which God is represented in the book of Job as allowing Satan to inflict on Job, merely to test his faith, are indications, if not of positive malevolence, at least of a suspicious and ruthless insecurity, which is characteristic more of a tyrant than of a wholly powerful and benevolent deity.” IfsBookGodJobsReligiousPowerfulTestsSatanCharacteristicsInsecurityAllowingMisfortunesTyrantsDeitiesSuspiciousRuthlessIndicationBenevolentMalevolence Author:A.J. Ayer