Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

religion and morality are a much better whip to keep people in submission than even the club and the gun.

God gave these ten laws for our good. He wants us to be our very best and to get the most that is possible our of life.

I call religion a natural authority, but it has usually been conceived as a supernatural authority.

Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business.

What the ten commandments set forth is a strategy. This strategy is a strategy for dominion.

To arrive at the truth in all things, we ought always to be ready to believe that what seems to us white is black if the hierarchical Church so defines it.

If God had been a Liberal there wouldn't have been Ten Commandments, there would have been Ten Suggestions.

It is often said by religious people that without its framework, there is no sense of right or wrong. My view is that religion comes after ethics.

Nothing is a sin when you obey the orders of a priest

I am thankful that the church exists, thankful that it has done such great things, giving us laws, for instance - 'thou shalt' and 'thou shalt not', and established Goodness and Evil. That's what all religions do, and as soon as we try to replace them, worldly religions like fascism and communism take over.

What is Scripture? The Hebrew word is torah. Torah means teaching, learning.

Most people believe you have to have some moral absolutes if you want to hold back chaos.

There are ten commandments, right? Well, it's like an exam. You get eight out of ten, you're just about top of the class.

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

The state dictates and coerces; religion teaches and persuades. The state enacts laws; religion gives commandments. The state is armed with physical force and makes use of it if need be; the force of religion is love and benevolence.

Another question a biblically literate reporter might have asked is, "Why are you proclaiming the Ten Commandments when you believe no one can live up to all of them?"

Shouldn't the commandments be re-written? No, they should be re-read!

Believe me, religions are on the wrong track the moment they moralize and fulminate commandments. God is not needed to create guilt or to punish. Our fellow men suffice, aided by ourselves.

I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law.

In the past, the respect people had for religion meant that ethical practice was maintained through a majority following one religion or another. But this is no longer the case. We must therefore find some other way of establishing basic ethical principles.

The thing with Catholicism, the same as all religions, is that it teaches what should be, which seems rather incorrect. This is what should be. Now, if you're taught to live up to a what should be that never existed - only an occult superstition, no proof of this should be - then you can sit on a jury and indict easily, you can cast the first stone, you can burn Adolf Eichmann, like that!

I once heard someone say morality was method. Do you hold with that? I suppose you wouldn't. You would say that morality was vested in the aim, I expect. Difficult to know what one's aims are, that's the trouble, specially if you're British.

The word "religion" beautifully defines itself, of course. It translates "to bind" from the Latin--"re" means back and "ligare" means to tie up. All religions are straightjackets, jackets for the straight.

Official morality has always been oppressive and negative: it has said "thou shalt not," and has not troubled to investigate the effect of activities not forbidden by the code.