All Quotes By Tag: Theism

“Theism is a conclusion, so is atheism – none of these two conclusions is the product of serious investigation – one is born from the human’s primitive urge to believe, and the other is born from the human’s comparatively modern arrogance of radical reasoning. Neither of them truly wants to understand – rather both of them want to conclude on a matter that requires infinite patience, perseverance and naivety.”

“An aware theist understands that believing in God does not equal the fact of knowing that God exists.”

“Doubt is a question mark; faith is an exclamation point. The most compelling, believable, realistic stories have included them both.”

“When even the brightest mind in our world has been trained up from childhood in a superstition of any kind, it will never be possible for that mind, in its maturity, to examine sincerely, dispassionately, and conscientiously any evidence or any circumstance which shall seem to cast a doubt upon the validity of that superstition. I doubt if I could do it myself.”

“I think I have a very good idea why it is that anti-Semitism is so tenacious and so protean and so enduring. Christianity and Islam, theistic though they may claim to be, are both based on the fetishizing of human primates: Jesus in one case and Mohammed in the other. Neither of these figures can be called exactly historical but both have one thing in common even in their quasi-mythical dimension. Both of them were first encountered by the Jews. And the Jews, ravenous as they were for any sign of the long-sought Messiah, were not taken in by either of these two pretenders, or not in large numbers or not for long.If you meet a devout Christian or a believing Muslim, you are meeting someone who would give everything he owned for a personal, face-to-face meeting with the blessed founder or prophet. But in the visage of the Jew, such ardent believers encounter the very figure who did have such a precious moment, and who spurned the opportunity and turned shrugging aside. Do you imagine for a microsecond that such a vile, churlish transgression will ever be forgiven? I myself certainly hope that it will not. The Jews have seen through Jesus and Mohammed. In retrospect, many of them have also seen through the mythical, primitive, and cruel figures of Abraham and Moses. Nearer to our own time, in the bitter combats over the work of Marx and Freud and Einstein, Jewish participants and protagonists have not been the least noticeable. May this always be the case, whenever any human primate sets up, or is set up by others, as a Messiah.”

“There seem to be only two kinds of people: Those who think that metaphors are facts, and those who know that they are not facts. Those who know they are not facts are what we call “atheists,” and those who think they are facts are “religious.” Which group really gets the message?”

“Atheists are often asked to prove the nonexistence of a nonexistent thing, but religious hierarchies do far better: they abuse you with impunity, and profit from selling you many imaginary benefits of a panoply of nonexistent things.”

“God vs. no God: much ado about nothing.”

“স্রষ্টার উপস্থিতি উপলব্ধি করার বিষয়। এটা বীজগণিতের কোনও সুত্র নয় যে অংক করতে বসলাম আর প্রমাণ করে ফেললাম! মানুষ, জীবজন্তু, প্রকৃতি ইত্যাদির প্রতি গভীর পর্যবেক্ষণ থাকলে অবশ্যই স্রষ্টার অস্তিত্ব অনুভব করা যায়। যেমন, আমার এক ফেইসবুক পোস্টে আমি উল্লেখ করেছিলাম যে মানুষের হাতের ৪টি আঙুল পাশাপাশি অবস্থান করছে ঠিকই কিন্তু একটি আঙুল মানে বৃদ্ধাঙ্গুল ঐ ৪টি আঙুল থেকে অনেকটা দূরে, আকৃতিগতভাবে ছোট এবং অন্য আঙুলগুলোর চেয়ে অনেকটাই আলাদা। এখন এটা বলা নির্বুদ্ধিতাই হবে যে বৃদ্ধাঙ্গুলের অবস্থান কাকতালীয়ভাবেই এমন। সৃষ্টিকর্তা ভালো করেই জানেন এবং বোঝেন যে হাতের সব আঙুল একই আকৃতির ও গঠনের হলে আমাদের কোনও কিছু ধরতে বা কোনও কাজ করতে অনেক কঠিন বা রীতিমত অসম্ভব হবে! তাই তিনি আমাদের হাতের বৃদ্ধাঙ্গুলটিকে অন্য ৪টি আঙুল থেকে একটু দূরে রেখেছেন! একটু অন্যভাবে ব্যাখ্যা দিলে বিষয়টি আরও পরিস্কার হবে। শিশুর জন্মের পর পিতামাতা যেমন তার সুস্থতার প্রতি ভীষণভাবে মনোযোগী হন, সে যাতে তার খাওয়া-দাওয়া, হাঁটাচলা, কথা বলা ইত্যাদি কোনোরকম ঝামেলা ছাড়াই স্বতঃস্ফূর্তভাবে করতে পারে সে ব্যাপারে সচেষ্ট হন, স্রষ্টাও তেমনি মানুষ তথা সমগ্র প্রাণীকুলের সার্বিক সুস্থতা, সুবিধা এবং স্বাভাবিকতার কথা ভেবেই তাদেরকে নির্দিষ্ট আকার, আকৃতি ও গঠন প্রদান করেছেন!”

“কবি চণ্ডীদাসের ‘সবার উপরে মানুষ সত্য তাহার উপরে নাই’ বাণীটি ত্রুটিপূর্ণ। এক অর্থে এটি মানবতার কথা বলে, অন্য অর্থে নাস্তিকতাও বোঝায়! ‘মানুষের উপরে কিছু নাই’ বললে স্রষ্টাকে অগ্রাহ্য ও অপমানিত করা হয়!”

“God’s relationship with man does not work in a way in which man stumbles and then God has to drop what he is doing in order to lift him up; rather, man stumbles so that God can lift him up. Hence it is utterly impossible to truly diminish his glory.”

“There was a time when skepticism was an act of rebellion. Since to a degree I both believe in evolution and have faith, I can only conclude that, as prophesied, to have faith will someday be an act of rebellion.”

“Man has 2 common problems with God: the one is that there is evil in the world; the other is that free will is limited. The one, he is charging that the world is too evil; the other is that it is not evil enough.”

“I’m always talking to God about whether or not he exists – that’s how I know I’m a theist.”

“The typical atheist rebels against God as a teenager rebels against his parents. When his own desires or standards are not fulfilled in the way that he sees fit, he, in revolt, storms out of the house in denial of the Word of God and in scrutiny of a great deal of those who stand by the Word of God. The epithet ‘Heavenly Father’ is a grand reflection, a relation to that of human nature.”