Jostein Gaarder Quotes

Christians are rare people on earth.

In every religion there is an element of the supernatural, varying with the influence of pure reason over its devotees.

I don't want to give advice to people about their religious beliefs, but I do think that it's not smart to bet against the power of science to figure out the natural world. It used to be, a thousand years ago, that if you wanted to explain why the moon moved through the sky, you needed to invoke God.

The undevout astronomer must be mad.

I don’t want to offend anyone of faith, but I think that science has some more compelling explanation than a divine creator

I don't have any superstitions, because I am a Christian.

I'm still very much a Christian and have a great relationship with God. I love Him, but one of my flaws is that I cuss.

I think I could make the case for any kind of organized religion, but I'm not an expert in those, so let me narrow my focus to talk about Christianity.

She was a good Christian woman with a large respect for religion, though she did not, of course, believe any of it was true.

Atheism is a crutch for those who cannot bear the reality of God.

Christian - One who is willing to serve three Gods, but draws the line at one wife.

No Christian and, indeed, no historian could accept the epigram which defines religion as 'what a man does with his solitude.'

You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? Because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God.

Faith is not the opposite of reason.

I don't mind most religious people, I talk to them. I listen to them, you know, banging on. "I prayed very hard and then the fairy came." "Did he? Good. Have a biscuit." I only get annoyed when they try and make me see the fairy. "You have to let the fairy into your heart." Look, I wouldn't let him into my garden, okay? I'd shoot him on sight, if he existed, which he doesn't. Now have another biccie and be quiet, will you please?

Religion makes intelligent people say and do wacky things, believe and affirm crazy things.

Atheists don't hate fairies, leprechauns, or unicorns because they don't exist. It is impossible to hate something that doesn't exist. Atheists - like the painting experts hated the painter - hate God because He does exist.

Miracles happen to those who believe in them. Otherwise why does not the Virgin Mary appear to Lamaists, Mohammedans, or Hindus who have never heard of her.

Just about everybody in America likes Jesus, but few like him for who he truly is.

On the bookshelf of life, God is a useful work of reference, always at hand but seldom consulted.

If man is man and God is God, to live without prayer is not merely an awful thing: it is an infinitely foolish thing.

The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God.

I'm a Christian now. The things that drove me crazy growing up was how everyone works at fault-finding with different religions. The people I don't understand are atheists. I go surfing and snow boarding and I'm always around nature. I look at everything and think, 'Who couldn't believe there's a God? Is all this a mistake?' It just blows me away.

I should not be a Christian but for the miracles.

There are two Gods, there is the God that people generally believe in - a God who has to serve them. This God does not exist. But the God whom people forget - the God whom we all have to serve - exists, and is the prime cause of our existence and of all that we perceive.