Harriet Martineau Quotes
I certainly had no idea how little faith Christians have in their own faith till I saw how ill their courage and temper can stand any attack on it.
Harriet Martineau, 1802-1876, British Economist & Reformer, Autobiography
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Religious zeal as a motive for terrorism has a long history.
Bigots in Judeo Christian societies have always justified their bigotry with Biblical passages which they take our of context or interpret as supporting—sometimes commanding—their views. Just as the overwhelming majority of clerics in the world condemned slavery just before the Civil War, a few Southern ministers could be found who claimed that slavery was God’s will and cited Biblical passages in support of their inhuman viewpoints.
Scientists themselves contain religious believers as well as atheists and agnostics, While there are a number of scientists who argue against religion, there are many who do not and are believers. Albert Einstein, for example, was a believer in a universal God. See {631763}.
Harriet Martineau was an English social theorist and Whig writer often seen as the first female sociologist. She wrote many books and essays from a sociological, holistic, religious, domestic and feminine perspective, translated works by Auguste Comte, and earned enough to support herself by writing, a rare feat for a woman of her period. The young Princess Victoria enjoyed reading her and invited her to her coronation in 1838. Martineau said of her approach, "One must focus on all [society's] aspects, including key political, religious, and social institutions." She believed thorough analysis was needed to understand women's status under men. The novelist Margaret Oliphant said "as a born lecturer and politician... less distinctively affected by her sex than perhaps any other, male or female, of her generation."
