Interesting quotes:

On topics from: Resistance to Theology

(No pun or disrespect are intended.
It just turned out this way......honest)

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Included are quotes on: Resistance to unjust government actions,
salvation, Satan, science, separation of church and state, sex,
slavery, stress, theft, and theology.

Resistance to unjust government actions:

	John Calvin, from Commentary on Daniel, Lecture XXX Daniel 6:22: "For earthly princes lay aside their power when they rise up against God, and are unworthy to be reckoned among the number of mankind. We ought, rather, to spit upon their heads than to obey them."
	John Calvin, from The Institution of the Christian Religion: "If government authorities "command anything against Him (God), let it go unesteemed. And here let us not be concerned about all the dignity which the magistrates possess."
	John Knox: "If their princes exceed their bounds, Madam, it is no doubt that they may be resisted even by power."

Revelation -- open or closed:

	Robert Green Ingersoll: "Every sect is a certificate that God has not plainly revealed his will to man. To each reader the Bible conveys a different meaning."
	Gracie Allen: "Never place a period where God has placed a comma." From a note to her husband, George Burns, that he allegedly found after her death. 7
	Anon: "Never place a question mark where God has put a period." From an old Christian tract implying that God has a well defined will and that everyone knew it. 8
	Pat Robertson: "Never place a comma where God has placed a period. God has spoken!" 9
	David Herndon: "Who among us can claim certainty? Therefore, we need to be open to the experiences and truths of others."  10
	Ralph Waldo Emerson: "It is the office of a true teacher to show us that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake." 11
	Samuel Longfellow: "Revelation is not sealed."

Salvation:

	Hints about Salvation from the Bible: Salvation is by faith only: Romans 3:28: "... man is justified by faith without the [necessity of] deeds of the law." Salvation is by works and faith: James 2:24: "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." Salvation is by works only: Matthew 25:34-45: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me...Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels..." Salvation by faith motivated by love: Galatians 5:6: "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." No non-Christians will be saved: Rev 20:15: "And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire."
	Statements about salvation from creeds, church leaders, and others: Salvation is pre-determined; we cannot influence our own salvation: John Calvin: "God preordained...a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation." Salvation is by baptism: Nicene Creed: "We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins." Salvation by special case: The Westminster Confession of Faith: "Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated, and saved by Christ, through the Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how He pleaseth: so also are all other elect persons who are uncapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word." [The document provides salvation for selected infants who die, and for persons who are sufficiently mentally challenged to not be able to understand the Gospel.] 3 All will be saved: "The idea that Jesus is the only way to God or that only those who have been washed in the blood of Christ are ever to be listed among the saved, has become anathema and even dangerous in our shrinking world." Episcopal Bishop John S. Spong. 4 Original Sin: "Each and every one has this contamination according to the Christians....He [God]¸blames you for something that you didn`t do and he blesses you for what someone else did." [That is, God blames everyone for the sins of Adam and Eve, and blesses believers for the sacrifice of Jesus] Ahamed Deedat. 5
	Salvation for non-Catholics "There is no salvation for those outside the [Roman Catholic] Church." Mel Gibson, director of "The Passion" movie. 1  "There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside of which no one at all can be saved." Pope Innocent III (circa 1160 - 1216 CE) "For those who are not formally and visibly members of the [Roman Catholic] Church, 'salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church, but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation'." Dominus Iesus, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. 2
	Other comments: "As to the Christian God who brings mischief into this world and who sends people to eternal damnation just because they can't see their way to follow John 3:16, that God is easily dismissed as a demonic projection of the malevolent side of human nature." Dennis Littrell 14 "The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance called 'faith'." Robert G. Ingersoll "Forget Jesus. The stars died so you could be born." Lawrence M. Krauss [This is a reference to the fact that heavy elements, required for humans to live, are generated in supernovae. Humans are, in effect, stardust.]

Satan:

Anon: "Satan wants you to use your God-given mind because Christianity falls apart if you do so." From a posting to an Amazon.com forum.

Science and religion:

	Anon: Some cynical comments: "Next crusade: Intelligent Demonic Possession vs. The Germ Theory." "A mystic is someone who wants to understand the universe, but is too lazy to study physics." "Ignorance on your part about natural processes does not imply intervention on God's part."
	Sir William Bragg: "Religion and science are opposed . . . but only in the same sense as that in which my thumb and forefinger are opposed - and between the two, one can grasp everything."
	Charles Darwin: "Freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds which follows from the advance of science." "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."
	Richard Dawkins: "I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world."
	Albert Einstein: "One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science measured against reality is primitive and childlike and yet it is the most precious thing we have."
	Howard Garcia -- concerning science: "Generally it sees no obligation to accommodate itself to religion or any other belief system not founded on empirical evidence." 3
	Dalai Lama: "When there is a conflict between science and religion, religion should change it's opinion."
	John Stuart Mill: "To say that secular means irreligious implies that all the arts and sciences are irreligious, and is very like saying that all professions except that of the law are illegal."
	David Milne posted a comment on the Religion Dispatches web site: "Science deals in evidence and uncertainty. Religion deals in certainty without evidence." 15
	Bill Moyers: "The delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit at the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress." An apparent reference to President George W Bush's rejection of climate change. Moyers said it while accepting the Global Environmental Citizen Award.
	Pope John Paul II: "Let science tell us what and how. Let religion tell us who and why."
	Carl Sagan: "A religion that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by traditional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge."
	George Santayana: "Science is nothing but developed perception and interpreted intent -- common sense rounded out and minutely articulated."
	Neil DeGrasse Tyson: "Revelation replaced investigation." He was discussing the downfall of science and mathematics within Islam.
	Ahmad Mahmud Soliman: "Religion and science are like a two-branched river. They have the same source and flow into the same sea."
	E.O. Wilson: "I believe that traditional religious belief and scientific knowledge depict the universe in radically different ways. At the bedrock they are incompatible and mutually exclusive."

Separation of church and state:

	C.K. Chesterton: "A coziness between church and state is good for the state and bad for the church."
	Charles Henderson: "The founders got it right. Religious passions are important; they are powerful; they are potentially dangerous."
	Attributed to Patrick Henry: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!" (This very popular quote appears in about 1,000 locations on the Internet. However, it appears to be a forgery.)
	John Jay, 1st Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty...of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
	Thomas Jefferson: "...our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry." "Believing that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their Legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." (This is the source of the term "wall of separation between church and state.")
	James Madison: "Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
	Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11: "The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." (Signed by President Adams)
	George Washington: "While just government protects all in their religious rights, true religion affords to government its surest support."
	Attributed to George Washington: "It is impossible to rightly govern...without God and the Bible." This also appears to be a forgery.

Sex:

	Richard Dawkins: "Who will say with confidence that sexual abuse is more permanently damaging to children then threatening them with the eternal and unquenchable fires of Hell?
	Alfred Kinsey: "The only unnatural sexual act is that which you cannot perform."
	Daniel C. Maguire, Theologian: "[The Vatican’s] 'better-dead-than-condomed' position has not been blessed by any of the world’s religions or by common sense. It is flat-earth embarrassing."
	Pat Robertson: On the 700 Club, 1991-APR-9: "[Planned Parenthood] ... is teaching kids to fornicate, teaching people to have adultery, every kind of bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism-everything that the Bible condemns. "

Father Felice Ruffini, Vatican aide on pastoral care: "Psychological terrorism." (He was responding to groups who hold the church is partly responsible for the spread of AIDS because of its stance on the use of condoms.)

Sin:

	Mohandas K. Gandhi: "There are seven deadly sins in the world: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without faith, and politics without principle."
	Marlene Winell: "How many times have you heard that Christ died for you for your sins? This is a heavy responsibility, especially for children. The guilty induction can vary in intensity, depending how the message is presented, but the bottom line is that the Son of God had to come to Earth and die a horrible death because of our failings." 13

Slavery:

We have so many quotes that we transferred them to a separate list.

Spanking:

	Anon: "Spankings do for a child's development what fistfights between spouses do for a marriage."
	The Bible, Proverbs 23:14. The authorship is traditionally attributed to King Solomon: "Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."
	Sharon "I have heard terrible stories of children becoming spoiled, drug using, atheists if they aren't spanked."
	Dr. Ralph Welsh: "...it is now apparent that the recidivist male delinquent who was never struck with a belt, board, extension cord, fist, or an equivalent is virtually nonexistent."
	More quotes on corporal punishment.

Spirituality:

	Albert Einstein: "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."
	M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, a Sufi prophet: "When the pond of the heart is full, then all of creation can come and partake of its clear water. If it is shallow, then all who come to drink will stir the mud and have nothing but dirty water to drink."
	Michael Shermer: "If spirituality is the sense of awe and humility in the face of the creation, what could be more awesome and humbling than the deep space discovered by Hubble and the cosmologists, and the deep time discovered by Darwin and the evolutionists."

Stress:

	E.H. Chapin: "Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls."
	President Harry S. Truman: "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen" 4

Theft:

Bishop Desmond Tutu: "When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land."

Theology:

	By anonymous children: "The seventh commandment is 'thou shalt not admit adultery.'" "Paul preached holy acrimony, which is another name for marriage." "One of the opossums was St. Matthew." "Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol." "Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption." "A Christian should have only one wife. This is called monotony." "The Jews had trouble throughout their history with the unsympathetic Genitals." "Lot's wife was a pillar of salt by day and a ball of fire by night." "Moses went to the top of Mt. Cyanide to get the 10 commandments." "Unleavened bread is bread made without ingredients." "Solomon had 300 wives and 700 porcupines." 6
	Jimmy Carter: "I would describe fundamentalism as, first of all, a movement led almost invariably by authoritarian males who consider themselves to be superior to others and who have an overwhelming commitment to subjugate women and to dominate their fellow believers." 12
	Albert Ellis: "Religious creeds encourage some of the craziest kinds of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and favor severe manifestations of neurosis, borderline personality states, and sometimes even psychosis."
	Gustavo Gutiérrez: "Theology is reflection, a critical attitude. The commitment of love, of service, comes first. Theology follows; it is the second step." 5

	Calvin & Hobbes: (cartoon characters): "It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning."
	Carl Sagan: "You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe."

Footnotes:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. "The Jesus War (New Yorker piece on Mel Gibson, "The Passion")," a posting by Greg Luzinski to FreeRepublic.com news forum, at: http://www.freerepublic.com/
2. "Dominus Iesus," at: http://www.vatican.va/
3. Howard Garcia, "Laugh or Cry." A book review of Matt Young, "No sense of obligation: Science and religion in an impersonal universe," Skeptical Inquirer, 2002-MAR/APR, Page 51 & 52.
4. There is a debate over whether a period should appear after the "S" in Truman's name. When he was born, his parents could not decide on a middle name. So they gave him a simple "S" to represent his two grandfathers: Shipp and Solomon. We follow The Chicago Manual of Style and the U.S. Government Printing Office's Style Manual which state that the period should be used.
5. From Gustavo Gutiérrez' book: "Essential Writings"
6. From The National Review, 1996-DEC-31.
7. "God is still speaking," United Church of Christ, at: http://www.stillspeaking.com/
8. Milan Chytil, "Never put a period where....," Sermon, Pilgrim Congregational Church, 2002-JUL-21.
9. Attributed to Pat Robertson, 700 Club TV show, Late 2004. Cited by Rev. Rich Smith, 2004-DEC-19, at: http://www.westmorelanducc.org/
10. David Herndon, "Unitarian Universalism for Beginners," First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh, 2005-JUN-5, at: http://www.first-unitarian-pgh.org/
11. Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Divinity School Address," in Conrad Wright, Ed., "Three Prophets of Religious Liberalism: Channing, Emerson, Parker," Beacon Press, (1961), Page 107.
12. Jimmy Carter, "Back to Fundamentals," The Christian Century, 2005-SEP-30, Pages 32 to 35. Online at: http://religion-online.org/ Quotation is from a speech by Carter at a Baptist World Alliance conference in Birmingham, England.
13. Marlene Winell, "Leaving the Fold," New Harbinger, (1993), Page 69. Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
14. From his review on Amazon.com of Todd Gates, "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer, Booklocker, (2006). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
15. Posted on: Lauri Lebo, "Just in Time for Darwin Sunday, Washington Post Misses the Point," Religion Dispatches, 2011-FEB-07, at: http://www.religiondispatches.org/

Copyright © 1996 to 2011 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.
Copyrights for the individual quotations held by their creators
Last updated: 2011-AUG-22
Compiled by: B.A. Robinson

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