David Novak Quotes

Religion may have become a codification of morality, and it may fortify it, but it's not the origin of it.

The difference between religion and morality lies simply in the classical division of things into the divine and the human, if one only interprets this correctly.

Religion is the anchor of morality for most people.

The moral systems of religion, I think, are super important.

We don't put the Ten Commandments in school anymore. We just neglect everything and people act like the Ten Commandments is something so terrible. I mean, it's a way to live. I think we all could agree on what they say.

There is no true and abiding morality that is not founded in religion.

I'm strongly into the Bible; I'm strongly into God and religion.I'm pro-life and different things.

Religion enabled society to organise itself to debate goodness, just as Greek drama had once done.

There has to be some kind of order and some moral code. I don't know how people can function without a belief in a deity.

I just believe if you don't believe in God, then where is your moral barometer? That's just me talking. You can believe what you want to believe.

I do not want to suggest that you have to be religious to be moral.

Basic religion is the reason we have morals.

I think it's more difficult to live without a religion, definitely.

Religion can be both good and bad - it is spirituality that counts.

Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

There is nothing specific we have to believe in order to have moral and spiritual lives.

Whenever morality is based on theology, whenever right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established.

Religion to me really means ethical systems.

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.

An important function of theology is to keep religion tied to reason and reason to religion. Both roles are of essential importance for humanity.

Politics moves upward into ethics, and ethics ascends to theology.

Churches come and go, but there has ever been but one religion. The only religion is conscience in action.

Morality must always precede and accompany religion, and yet religion is much more than morality.

Religion is one of the most important forces in the world. Whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew, or a Hindu, religion is a great force, and it can help one have command of one's own morality, one's own behavior, and one's own attitude.

Belief must be something different from a mixture of opinions about God and the world, and of precepts for one life or for two. Piety cannot be an instinct craving for a mess of metaphysical and ethical crumbs.