Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

I'd been raised Mormon, but there comes a time where you are not following what you've been taught, but discovering for yourself if it's true.

I have moved from certainty to doubt, from devotion to rebellion.

I went to a Catholic school, and I just rebelled.

The Clergy is the greatest hindrance to faith.

I'm not religious. I was as a child, and like lots of people, I suppose, rapidly became very disillusioned with the whole thing. I also feel that organised religion has caused far more problems than it has solved.

I grew up very religious, and I don't have a great relationship with religion.

My father's a Southern Baptist minister. I wasn't lighting cars on fire; I just wasn't.

In fact, I thought that Christianity was very a good and a very valuable thing for us. But after a while, I began to feel that the story that I was told about this religion wasn't perhaps completely whole, that something was left out.

If there's any place where you would express your deepest doubts, it would be church.

I'm agnostic because I went through the usual process of parents insisting you go to church, and yet they didn't. So there's me, sitting in the chairs, thinking, 'Jeez, why am I here? I'd rather be playing tennis, seriously.'

Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.

Religion is run by thought police. 'Obey. Listen. This is what you do. Don't ask questions. Go die for your country.' The spirituality says, 'Okay, you can die for your country, but know what you're doing while you're doing it.'

I was raised Catholic, and then I kind of wandered away somewhere in high-school. I never got confirmed, which is a big deal.

Hey, I was raised in the church. I was an altar boy and a choir member. I almost became a priest - until common sense grabbed hold of me.

I was brought up Roman Catholic. I'm not even baptized.

I was raised Catholic in Rockford, Illinois. But I'm not a practicing Catholic anymore. Oh God, no.

My dear child, you must believe in God despite what the clergy tells you.

He, however, who begins with Metaphysics, will not only become confused in matters of religion, but will fall into complete infidelity.

You believe in God, then you don't believe anymore and when you have a big problem, you pray anyway.

Churches can become places of cynicism, resistance, and pessimism.

There would never have been an infidel had there never been a priest.

Faith feels itself secure neither with universal consent, nor with tradition, nor with authority. It seeks support of its enemy, reason.

I had this moment in church, which I think really turned me off. I was 7 or 8 years old and I was sitting at church, and we happened to be playing with the sunlight that was coming down from the stained glass window, and the monsignor came down to the pew and grabbed us by our neck collars and said, 'I'll deal with you.'

I was born into a very religious family where everything was about setting the right example for the community and having to obey orders blindly. I felt that everyone was growing up in the world, except me. This is probably one of the reasons why I had such a rebellious attitude towards any form of authority.

I questioned the blind faith demanded by my religion, which was Islam.