David Brainerd Quotes

The habit of religion is oppressive, an easy way out of thought.

I think you can be cynical about religion on occasion, and certainly skeptical about the degree to which some people use religion to manipulate other people.

Religion is the idol of the mob; it adores everything it does not understand.

Every religion there's something foul going on.

It's not so much religion per se, it's false certainty that worries me, and religion just has more than its fair share of false certainty or dogmatism. I'm really concerned when I see people pretending to know things they clearly cannot know.

If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them, and that custom, respect and tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve its own interests.

What happens when we put belief in front of reason? When we even put belief above human life?

One of the things that is wrong with religion is that it teaches us to be satisfied with answers which are not really answers at all.

Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.

There's a gullible side to the American people. They can be easily misled. Religion is the best device used to mislead them.

To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy.

People here argue about religion interminably, but it appears that they are competing at the same time to see who can be the least devout.

Science stands for rational thought, faith for superstition and unreason.

The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.

Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers.

The pride of life hath corrupted the judgment of others, and perverted them in the way of religion.

Religion is an irrational construct.

There is not enough religion in the world even to destroy religion.

Ultimately, blind faith is the only kind.

Morals, principles and laws are when faith is reduced to standards and those standards basically just bind us, and we become prejudicial, racist, self-serving when we're guided by these laws... When a developed country uses Christianity in its policies, in government, in maintaining corporate wealth, that's a bastardized rendering of a faith.

If organized religion is the opium of the masses, then disorganized religion is the marijuana of the lunatic fringe.

The major obstacle to a religious renewal is the intellectual classes, who are highly influential and tend to view religion as primitive superstition. They believe that science has left atheism as the only respectable intellectual stance.

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.

In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all.

Among politicians the esteem of religion is profitable; the principles of it are troublesome.