In isolated societies creeds can be preserved. It is where people of different traditions, outlook and creeds mingle freely and read more

In isolated societies creeds can be preserved. It is where people of different traditions, outlook and creeds mingle freely and exchange ideas that religious beliefs begin to be eroded. No one changes his beliefs without some instigation, some novel experience, some modification of the customary course of things, and in a closed society people believe what all their fellows obviously believe. Only when they are brought into contact with persons whom they respect holding different views do they begin to look at their inherited beliefs critically.

Oh the depth of both the wisdom and riches of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways beyond read more

Oh the depth of both the wisdom and riches of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways beyond understanding.

Man's most valuable trait Is a judicious sense of what not to believe.

Man's most valuable trait Is a judicious sense of what not to believe.

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would read more

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.

It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.

It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the read more

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.

And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to read more

And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. [Deuteronomy 10:12].

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; which proceed sciences which may read more

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; which proceed sciences which may be called "sciences as one would." For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. Therefore he rejects difficult things from impatience of research; sober things, because they narrow hope; the deeper things of nature, from superstition; the light of experience, from arrogance and pride; things not commonly believed, out of deference to the opinion of the vulgar. Numberless in short are the ways, and sometimes imperceptible, in which the affections color and infect the understanding.

Agnosticism is the philosophical, ethical and religious dry-rot of the modern world.

Agnosticism is the philosophical, ethical and religious dry-rot of the modern world.