Ray William Johnson Quotes

When we stop believing in the gods we can start believing in their stories.

To begin with, I want to tell a good story, a story that people will listen to and that they'll think this is true, even if it is a story that might be defined as - as myth or legend or even fanciful.

A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.

I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge; this, I take it, is the reason why Christians are distinguished from the rest of the world, not by faith, nor by charity, nor by the other fruits of the Holy Spirit, but solely by their opinions, inasmuch as they defend their cause, like everyone else, by miracles, that is by ignorance, which is the source of all malice; thus they turn a faith, which may be true, into superstition.

As long as there's one person to believe it, there's no story that can't be true.

All systems require myths for their longevity.

Even when the facts are available, most people seem to prefer the legend, and refuse to believe the truth when it in any way dislodges the myth.

I don't differentiate much, except in degree, between people who believe in religion from those who believe in astrology, magic or the supernatural.

Superstition! that horrid incubus which dwelt in darkness, shunning the light, with all its racks, and poison chalices, and foul sleeping draughts, is passing away without return. Religion cannot pass away. The burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky; but the stars are there and will reappear.

All the truth in the world is held in stories.

When we stop believing in gods we can start believing in their stories, I retort. There are of course no such things as miracles, but if there were and so tomorrow we woke up to find no more believers on earth, no more devout Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, why then, sure the beauty of the stories would be a thing we could focus on because they wouldn't be dangerous any more, they would become capable of compelling the only belief that leads to truth, that is, the willing, disbelieving of the reader in a well-told tale.

Mythology may, in a real sense, be defined as other people's religion. And religion may, in a sense, be understood as popular misunderstanding of mythology. (8)

Fiction is Truth's elder sister. Obviously. No one in the world knew what truth was till some one had told a story.

You don't have to believe that there was a King Arthur to get the significance of those stories, but Christians say we have to believe there was a Christ, or the miracles don't make sense.

If both Church and fairy-tale belong to humanity, they may occasionally cross circles, without injury to either.

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.

As a child, I was fortunate enough to be close to family members who were - and still are - great storytellers. I was a gullible country boy from Rocky Mount, Virginia, and I believed every folktale they told me, no matter how fantastic.

Science and religion are both the same thing. They're there; they're life. If it's not science, it's not a fact.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.

That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject.

I think that we need mythology. We need a bedrock of story and legend in order to live our lives coherently.

To us, basing stories on christianity is the same as basing stories on Roman mythology, Native American folklore, or unsubstantiated government conspiracies.

I do not believe in God because I do not believe in Mother Goose.

Combine two words, Myth and History. What do you get? Mystery.