Mark Haddon Quotes

'Why are we here?' 'What is our purpose? 'Is there an afterlife?' 'Is there a God?' 'Is it all about science?' Those are big questions, and usually, TV is a little scared to go there.

Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we're atheist. Our existence is beyond our understanding. No one has an answer.

We need God, not in order to understand the why, but in order to feel and sustain the ultimate wherefore, to give a meaning to the universe.

I am not particularly religious. But I think we do face the question of where God is, why we are created and where does life go, why we exist. That sort of thing. And it is very hard to talk about it these days, because it cannot be proven. It is hard to discuss it rationally.

Religion is all bunk.

It's hard to say, 'I don't believe in God.' I would love to know if God exists. But it's a very difficult thing for me to believe.

I wouldn't say I'm a religious person, but I am definitely inclined toward asking the big questions.

I knew at a very young age that I didn't really buy the whole God gamut.

For most of my life I didn't believe in God. Who had time?

One of the things that doesn't come up as much as it should, especially in literary fiction, is this idea of faith and God... I feel like those are things that should be wrestled with... because they are such an integral part of our community on every level.

I'm constantly reading books on God or the absence of God and atheism.

And one of my other friends could not believe in God if he came down and tapped her on the shoulder. She's a biologist - a student at UCLA - and I don't judge her either, because I really believe that God is a personal opinion, and only that.

I don't claim to know what it means to say that we are made in the image of God, but I profoundly and instinctively believe it and all that it implies.

A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.

I was obsessed with religious questions, the basics: Why are we here? Why is the world so beautiful?

My grandfather was a practising Quaker. My father was a nihilist. But nihilism, if you like, is the beginning of faith anyway.

I suppose I'm a lapsed Catholic. You would consider me an atheist or agnostic.

Philosophy is an attempt by man to find cause and effect. Religion has the same goal.

I'd be perfectly happy with a mathematically precise description of how time began. I see science and religion as being two completely different things. I don't see science as relevant to the question of whether or not there's a God.

Science is very good at answering the 'how' questions. 'How did the universe evolve to the form that we see?' But it is woefully inadequate in addressing the 'why' questions. 'Why is there a universe at all?' These are the meaning questions, which many people think religion is particularly good at dealing with.

I've always been interested in apologetics, the topic of different world views and, 'Why are we here?' and 'Where are we going?' I grew up in the church, and sometimes kids who grew up in a church can be sheltered and can't engage with people with different world views.

I wasn't looking for religion; I was looking for a world view.

Without philosophy man cannot know what he makes; without religion he cannot know why.

I don't practise any religion but I am deeply interested in the answers that mankind has come up with to explain the human situation.

I'm a very hard-line, angry atheist. Yet I am fascinated by the concept of devotion.