{"quotes":[{"text":"At present, a good many men engaged in scientific pursuits, and who have signally failed in gaining recognition among their fellows, are endeavoring to make reputations among the churches by delivering weak and vapid lectures upon the 'harmony of Genesis and Geology.' Like all hypocrites, these men overstate the case to such a degree, and so turn and pervert facts and words that they succeed only in gaining the applause of other hypocrites like themselves. Among the great scientists they are regarded as generals regard sutlers who trade with both armies.Surely the time must come when the wealth of the world will not be wasted in the propagation of ignorant creeds and miraculous mistakes. The time must come when churches and cathedrals will be dedicated to the use of man; when minister and priest will deem the discoveries of the living of more importance than the errors of the dead; when the truths of Nature will outrank the 'sacred' falsehoods of the past, and when a single fact will outweigh all the miracles of Holy Writ.Who can over estimate the progress of the world if all the money wasted in superstition could be used to enlighten, elevate and civilize mankind?When every church becomes a school, every cathedral a university, every clergyman a teacher, and all their hearers brave and honest thinkers, then, and not until then, will the dream of poet, patriot, philanthropist and philosopher, become a real and blessed truth.","author":"Robert G. Ingersoll","tags":["applause","blessed","brave","cathedrals","church","churches","civilize","clergyman","creeds","dead","discoveries","elevate","enlighten","errors","fact","facts","failed","falsehoods","generals","genesis","geology","great","harmony","holy-writ","honest","hypocrites","ignorant","lectures","living","mankind","minister","miracles","miraculous","mistakes","money","nature","past","patriot","peers","perfert","philanthropist","philosopher","poet","priest","progress","pursuit","real","recognition","reputation","sacred","school","science","scientific","stlers","superstition","teacher","think","truth","university","use","vapid","waste","weak","wealth"],"id":14144,"author_id":"Robert+G.+Ingersoll"},{"text":"Atheism rises above creeds and puts Humanity upon one plane.There can be no 'chosen people' in the Atheist philosophy.There are no bended knees in Atheism;No supplications, no prayers;No sacrificial redemptions;No 'divine' revelations;No washing in the blood of the lamb;No crusades, no massacres, no holy wars;No heaven, no hell, no purgatory;No silly rewards and no vindictive punishments;No christs, and no saviors;No devils, no ghosts and no gods.","author":"Joseph Lewis","tags":["atheism","creeds","crusades","devils","divine","gods","heaven","hell","holy-wars","humanity","massacres","philosophy","prayer","purgatory","redemption","revelation","savior"],"id":107491,"author_id":"Joseph+Lewis"},{"text":"As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect.","author":"Ralph Waldo Emerson","tags":["creed","creeds","disease","freethought","intellect","prayer","religion","will"],"id":122505,"author_id":"Ralph+Waldo+Emerson"},{"text":"Holiness must have a philosophical and theological foundation, namely, Divine truth; otherwise it is sentimentality and emotionalism. Many would say later on, 'We want religion, but no creeds.' This is like saying we want healing, but no science of medicine; music, but no rules of music; history, but no documents. Religion is indeed a life, but it grows out of truth, not away from it. It has been said it makes no difference what you believe, it all depends on how you act. This is psychological nonsense, for a man acts out of his beliefs. Our Lord placed truth or belief in Him first; then came sanctification and good deeds. But here truth was not a vague ideal, but a Person. Truth was now lovable, because only a Person is lovable. Sanctity becomes the response the heart makes to Divine truth and its unlimited mercy to humanity.","author":"Fulton J. Sheen","tags":["creeds","holiness","jesus","religion","sanctification","truth"],"id":152921,"author_id":"Fulton+J.+Sheen"},{"text":"...The Presidential election has given me less anxiety than I myself could have imagined. The next administration will be a troublesome one, to whomsoever it falls, and our John has been too much worn to contend much longer with conflicting factions. I call him our John, because, when you were at the Cul de sac at Paris, he appeared to me to be almost as much your boy as.","author":"John Adams","tags":["agnosticism","belief","blasphemy","confessions-of-faith","creeds","episcopal","europeans","flourens","golden-rule","herschel","isaac-newton","jean-pierre-flourens","jefferson","jews","judaism","liberal-science","matter-and-spirit","newton","presbyterian","science","thomas-jefferson","university-of-virginia","virginia","william-herschel"],"id":192799,"author_id":"John+Adams"},{"text":"God's Word teaches a very hard, disturbing truth. Those who neglect the poor and the oppressed are really not God's people at all—no matter how frequently they practice their religious rituals nor how orthodox are their creeds and confessions.","author":"Ronald J. Sider","tags":["bible","confession","creeds","god-s-word","neglect","oppression","orthodox","poor","poverty","religion","rituals","truth","wealth"],"id":216273,"author_id":"Ronald+J.+Sider"},{"text":"...But the Mahommedan religion increases, instead of lessening, the fury of intolerance. It was originally propagated by the sword, and ever since, its votaries have been subject, above the people of all other creeds, to this form of madness. In a moment the fruits of patient toil, the prospects of material prosperity, the fear of death itself, are flung aside. The more emotional Pathans are powerless to resist. All rational considerations are forgotten. Seizing their weapons, they become Ghazis—as dangerous and as sensible as mad dogs: fit only to be treated as such. While the more generous spirits among the tribesmen become convulsed in an ecstasy of religious bloodthirstiness, poorer and more material souls derive additional impulses from the influence of others, the hopes of plunder and the joy of fighting. Thus whole nations are roused to arms. Thus the Turks repel their enemies, the Arabs of the Soudan break the British squares, and the rising on the Indian frontier spreads far and wide. In each case civilisation is confronted with militant Mahommedanism. The forces of progress clash with those of reaction. The religion of blood and war is face to face with that of peace.","author":"Winston S. Churchill","tags":["arabs","british","civilization","creeds","death","ecstasy","emotional","fear","fear-of-death","fighting","force","fury","generous","hope","indian","influence","intolerance","islam","joy","mad-dogs","madness","militant","mohammedan","muslim","peace","plunder","progress","prosperity","religious-bloodthirstiness","religious-violence","soudan","turks","weapons"],"id":241338,"author_id":"Winston+S.+Churchill"},{"text":"[We need reforms] to make the Negro church a place where colored men and women of education and energy can work for the best things regardless of their belief or disbelief in unimportant dogmas and ancient and outworn creeds.","author":"W.E.B. Du Bois","tags":["ancient","creed","creeds","disbelief","dogma","education","humanist","religion","skeptic","superstition"],"id":252528,"author_id":"W.E.B.+Du+Bois"},{"text":"As time goes on, new and remoter aspects of truth are discovered which can seldom be fitted into creeds that are changeless.","author":"Clarence Day Jr.","tags":["change","creeds","discovery","dogma","religion","truth"],"id":314297,"author_id":"Clarence+Day+Jr."},{"text":"Truth doesn't pay homage to creeds. Creeds must adjust themselves to be compatible with the truth.","author":"Abhijit Naskar","tags":["creeds","dogmatism","free-thinking","free-thinking","inspirational","inspiring","society","society-thinking","thinking","truth","truth-of-life","truth"],"id":348492,"author_id":"Abhijit+Naskar"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":14,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}