“I don't think we should discriminate against an organization or congregation because they're religious, if they're doing good work. But government can't subsidize proselytizing or worship or religious activity. It can't.” IfsThinkingShouldGovernmentReligiousActivityWorshipOrganizationGood WorkDoing GoodCongregationProselytizing Author:Jim Wallis
“Science may have come a long way, but as far as religion is concerned, we are first cousins to the !Kung tribesmen of the Kalahari Desert. Except for the garments, their deep religious trances might just as well be happening at a revival meeting or in the congregation of a fundamentalist TV preacher.... As we move further from the life of ignorance and superstition in which religion has its roots, we seem to need it more and more.... Why has religion become a force just when we'd have thought it would be losing ground to secularism?” WayNeedsFirstsWellsMayLongSeemsMightWould BeMovingForceReligiousAtheismIgnoranceTvsLosingHappeningsConcernedRootsMeetingsPositive AtheismDesertSuperstitionsPreacherCousinLong WayRevivalSecularismGarmentsFundamentalistCongregationTrance Author:Phil Donahue
“How on earth can religious people believe in so much arbitrary, clearly invented balderdash?....The acceptance of a creed, any creed, entitles the acceptor to membership in the sort of artificial extended family we call a congregation. It is a way to fight loneliness. Any time I see a person fleeing from reason and into religion, I think to myself, There goes a person who simply cannot stand being so goddamned lonely anymore.” PeopleThinkingWayBelievePersonsReasonEarthReligionFightingReligiousLonelinessAcceptanceLonelyArtificialCreedsArbitraryCongregationMembershipFleeingExtended Family Book:Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage Source: Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage
“The spiritual differs from the religious in being able to endure isolation. The rank of a spiritual person is proportionate to his strength for enduring isolation, whereas we religious people are constantly in need of 'the others,' the herd. We religious folks die, or despair, if we are not reassured by being in the assembly, of the same opinion as the congregation, and so on. But the Christianity of the New Testament is precisely related to the isolation of the spiritual man.” PeopleIfsMenNeedsPersonsAbleSpiritualDiesReligiousChristianityOpinionDespairEndureFolksRelatedIsolationTestamentNew TestamentAssemblyHerdsCongregation Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“I consider myself more spiritual than religious.” SpiritualReligiousCongregationMy Cousin Author:Leonard Nimoy
“This new large-scale spiritual awakening is occurring primarily not within the confines of the established religions, but outside of those structures. Some of it, however, is also happening within the existing churches and religious institutions wherever the members of those congregations do not identify with rigid and exclusive belief systems whose unconscious purpose is to foster a sense of separation on which the egoic mind structures depend for their survival.” MindSpiritualPurposeBeliefChurchReligiousDependsMembersSurvivalHappeningsInstitutionsStructureAwakeningSeparationScalesUnconsciousExclusiveSpiritual AwakeningBelief SystemsCongregationLarge Scale Author:Eckhart Tolle