Greg Graffin Quotes

Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion.

We need leadership that can elevate religion and morality to their position of paramount importance and thus eliminate growing selfishness, immorality and materialism.

The role of the church and the government are fundamentally different. The church must always show compassion - always.

I think the greatest gift we can give our children is to show them that devotion to God's purposes - love for all beings - is the center of all right living.

Religion has convinced us that there's something else entirely other than concerns about suffering. There's concerns about what God wants, there's concerns about what's going to happen in the afterlife.

I was raised by my parents to believe that you had a moral obligation to try and help save the world.

The media seems to think only abortion and gay marriage are religious issues. Poverty is a moral issue, it's a faith issue, it's a religious issue.

The problem is, we live in a society where all that interests us is power and money. So we don't have any interest in our children, and what we leave for our children is not important.

That's a central part of philosophy, of ethics. What do I owe to strangers? What do I owe to my family? What is it to live a good life? Those are questions which we face as individuals.

I'm currently in an interesting correspondence with a nun about forgiveness.

Judaism, I would argue, does demand love for our fellow human beings, but only to an extent. 'Hate' is not always synonymous with the terribly sinful.

Religion was instituted to make us happy in this life and in the other. What must we do to be happy in the life to come? Be just.

I believe it matters how you treat people. I believe in Heaven. I don't believe that this is it, and then we're done. I have a lovely relationship with God, although when I've lost someone or I've seen a sick child, I've had conversations with Him in which I've had to ask, 'How can that be right?'

Sympathy with nature is part of a good person's religion.

Faith is part of who I am, yes. I was raised Christian Scientist. The most important thing I saw every single week on the wall at Sunday school was the Golden Rule.

Teach a child what is wise, that is morality. Teach him what is wise and beautiful, that is religion!

To be a clergyman, and all that is compassionate and virtuous, ought to be the same thing.

The law of God, and also the way to life, is written in our hearts: It lieth in no man's supposition and knowing, nor in any historical opinion, but in a good will and well-doing.

I like Jesus, I mean, I think he was a good guy.

Politics are not the task of a Christian.

No, the religion of Jesus is a social religion.

A great swindle of our time is the assumption that science has made religion obsolete. All science has damaged is the story of Adam and Eve and the story of Jonah and the Whale. Everything else holds up pretty well, particularly lessons about fairness and gentleness. People who find those lessons irrelevant in the twentieth century are simply using science as an excuse for greed and harshness. Science has nothing to do with it

After I asked him [a student] what he meant, he replied that freedom consisted of the unimpeded right to get rich, to use his ability, no matter what the cost to others, to win advancement. No decent society can tolerate that definition.

Plenty of kind, decent, caring people have no religious beliefs, and they act out of the goodness of their hearts. Conversely, plenty of people who profess to be religious, even those who worship regularly, show no particular interest in the world beyond themselves.

I sing about heaven and hell, angels and demons.