Madalyn Murray O'Hair Quotes

I was about 12 or 13 years old. I picked up the Bible and read it from cover to cover one weekend ,just as if it were a novel, very rapidly, and I've never gotten over the shock of it. The miracles, the inconsistencies, the improbabilities, the impossibilities, the wretched history, the sordid sex, the sadism in it - the whole thing shocked me profoundly.

Few intelligent Christians can still hold to the idea that the Bible is an infallible Book, that it contains no linguistic errors, no historical discrepancies, no antiquated scientific assumptions, not even bad ethical standards. Historical investigation and literary criticism have taken the magic out of the Bible and have made it a composite human book, written by many hands in different ages.

We must never forget that both good and evil flow from the Bible. It is therefore not above criticism.

The Bible contains some of the most sublime passages in English literature, but is also full of contradictions, inconsistencies, and absurdities.

How can a rabbi not live with doubt? The Bible itself is a book of doubt.

The Old Testament is my favourite science fantasy reading.

I take my Bible with me, sometimes two of them, when I travel.

The Bible is not a history book.

The Bible is such a gargantuan collection of conflicting values that anyone can prove anything from it.

This is the Book. I have read the Bible through many times, and now make it a practice to read it through once every year. It is a book of all others for lawyers, as well as divines; and I pity the man who cannot find in it a rich supply of thought and of rules for conduct. It fits man for life--it prepares him for death.

The human qualities of the raw materials show through. Naivety, error, contradiction, even (as in the cursing Psalms) wickedness are not removed. The total result is not "the Word of God" in the sense that every passage in itself, gives impeccable science or history. It carries the Word of God.

It (the Bible) has never bowed its head before the discoveries of science.

The Bible writers didn't care that they were bunching together sequences some of which were historical, some preposterous, and some downright manipulative. Faithful recording was not their business; faith was.

Give me a used Bible and I will, I think, be able to tell you about a man by the places that are edged with the dirt of seeking fingers.

The Bible and studying the Bible has been an important part of my life.

The Bible-banned, burned, beloved-is more widely read and more frequently attacked than any other book in history.

We have used the Bible as if it was a mere special constable's handbook — an opium-dose for keeping beasts of burden patient while they were being overloaded — a mere book to keep the poor in order.

It's fair to say that the Bible contains equal amounts of fact, history, and pizza.

It is very pious to say and prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth -- whenever its true meaning is understood. But I believe nobody will deny that it is often very abstruse, and may say things which are quite different from wha.

Let the Bible be the Bible. It's not about science. It's not accurate history. It is a grab bag of religious fantasies written by many authors. Some of its myths, like the Star of Bethlehem, are very beautiful. Others are dull and ugly. Some express lofty ideals, such as the parables of Jesus. Others are morally disgusting.

I don't read the Bible. Not because I don't want to, I just haven't got around to It yet. One day perhaps I'll pick it up and look at It.

It is impossible to look into the Bible with the most ordinary attention without feeling that we have got into a moral atmosphere quite different from that which we breathe in the world, and in the world's literature.

Remove Christ from the Scriptures and there is nothing left.

I've taken up the Bible again, somewhat in the spirit of W.C. Fields - looking for loopholes.

Down through the years, I turned to the Bible and found in it all that I needed