Horace Mann Quotes

Science attempts to analyze how things and people and animals behave; it has no concern whether this behavior is good or bad, is purposeful or not. But religion is precisely the quest for such answers: whether an act is right or wrong, good or bad, and why.

A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen

Science is the natural ally of religion.

The Antichrist, Section 7

Intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance.

The life of West, Nietzsche said, is based on Christianity. The values of the West are based on Christianity. Some of these values seem to have taken a life of their own, and this gives us the illusion that we can get rid of Christianity and keep the values. This, Nietzsche says, is an illusion...Remove the Christian foundation, and the values must go too.

I feel that segregation is totally unchristian, and that it is against everything the Christian religion stands for.

There are some great values in Christianity, but I think the values are located more deeply in our humanity than they are in our religion. There are certainly some survival values.

He who has art and science also has religion, but those who do not have them better have religion.

The Gay Science, section 108

If I had to label myself now, I'd call myself a Taoist-Christian-agnostic quantum mechanic.

Philosophy has no end in view save truth; faith looks for nothing but obedience and piety.

Religion is just coded spirituality.

Is cruelty a moral judgment if it is fundamental to forms of life? Who is man to say that the workings of nature, and therefore of the divine plan of which he himself is part, are cruel?

Whatever efforts one may make, one must revert to the realization that religion is the real basis of morality; religion is the real and perceptible purpose within us, which alone, can turn aside our attention from things. ... The science of morality can no more teach human beings to be honest, in all the magnificence of this word, than geometry can teach one how to draw.

The church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think that we probably are better off leaving science to the scientists and focusing on what we do - what we're really good at, which is - which is theology and morality.

Buddha says: "Do not flatter your benefactor!". Let one repeat this saying in a Christian church : it immediately purifies the air of everything Christian.

Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man.

A strange fanaticism fills our time: the fanatical hatred of morality, especially of Christian morality.

Christ could not create a codified 'Christian ethics'; such a thing would be a contradiction in terms.

Morality comes from humanism and is stolen by religion for its own purposes.

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?

It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere... Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

Jesus didn't teach people to kill.

I don't know whether you have any rights before you're born. All I know is that being born again doesn't entitle you to twice as many.