Alan Lightman Quotes

Religion and philosophy, philosophy and religion - they're two words which are both... different. In spelling.

Religion deals in certainties and philosophy deals more in un-answered questions.

There is real confusion about what it means to be right and wrong - the difference between what spiritual beliefs are and what science is.

Without philosophy man cannot know what he makes; without religion he cannot know why.

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

I do not value religion chiefly for its morality.

Good people do good things. Bad people do bad things. But it takes religion to make good people do bad things.

Human science and religion have kept company together and greatly assisted each other's progress in the world. I do not say that intellectual and moral qualities are in the same proportion in particular persons; but they have a great and friendly influence upon one another in societies and larger bodies.

It is not clear to anyone, least of all the practitioners, how science and technology in their headlong course do or should influence ethics and law, education and government, art and social philosophy, religion and the life of the affections. Yet science is an all-pervasive energy, for it is at once a mode of thought, a source of strong emotion, and a faith as fanatical as any in history.

Religions are, for the most part, bad. But religion is not.

Christ could not create a codified 'Christian ethics'; such a thing would be a contradiction in terms.

Science is true, whether you believe it or not.

Do not believe just because you want to believe.

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

I would argue that religion comes from a desire to get to the questions of, 'Where do we come from?' and 'How shall we live?' And I would say I don't need religion to answer those questions.

If you take a look at history, you will find that the understanding of what is good and evil has always existed before the individual religions. The religions were only invented by people afterwards, in order to express this idea.

Clinicians, academicians, and politicians are often put to a test of faith. In pursuit of their goals, will their religion show or will it be hidden? Are they tied back to God or to man?

I see religion as a storehouse of lots of really good ideas that a secular world should look at, raid, and learn from.

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

Peter Stanford is a writer on religious and ethical matters. He was for four years editor of the 'Catholic Herald.'

I cannot live on myths; somehow, science convinces me more easily. I am prone to lean towards science, ethics, and philosophy rather than myth, religion, and rituals.

I wouldn't say I'm a religious person, but I am definitely inclined toward asking the big questions.

I got into astronomy through an interest in religion.

My Catholic faith is the foundation of my worldview, and my judicial duty is governed, from beginning to end, by the law.

Humanity is the child of religion.