Great Throughts Treasury

"Judaism teaches that those who commit terrible deeds are not monsters. They are human beings who have done monstrous things. If they truly were beasts, they would be blameless. They are human and responsible because they have betrayed their humanness."

"Prayer is not a monologue. It speaks to God and to the community. In the last analysis, religion is not what goes on inside a soul. It is what goes on in the world, between people, between us and God. To trap faith in a monologue, and pretend that it resides solely inside the self, undermines the true interchange of all belief."

"There is a marvelous story of a man who once stood before God, his heart breaking from the pain and injustice in the world. "Dear God." he cried out, "look at all the suffering, the anguish and distress in your world. Why don't you send help?" God responded,"I did send help. I sent you." When we tell our children that story, we must tell them that each one of them was sent to help repair the broken world-and that it is not the task of an instant or of a year, but of a lifetime."

"The only whole heart is a broken one because it lets the light in."

"God's greatest gift is to endow human beings with the capacity to perceive - and the create - holiness."

"We bring light into this world not as a source but as a prism – it comes through us. As electricity requires a conduit, so spirit moves through human beings to touch others in crucial moments."

"Religion begins in wonder, flourishes in relationship, and is realized through living with an awareness of holiness."

"Prayer is less about changing the world than it is about changing ourselves."

"Atheists genuinely resent the evil that religion has done. No one can seriously deny that religion has been guilty of wickedness in this world and has provided cover for wickedness. I refer not only to abusers who hide under the cloak of clergy, but religious persecutions, the stifling of speech and dissent, the mistreatment of women -- the crimes are legion. While as a believer I think there is much more to be said about this topic, it is certainly reasonable for people to be angry at religion for its abuses, particularly people who have themselves been victims. They are convinced that religion is a fairy tale made up of whole cloth that impedes science/progress/rational thought. No avalanche of counterexamples, from noted scientists who are believers to the way in which the scientific method has flourished in the monotheistic west (as opposed to say, the non-monotheistic eastern societies) will serve to dissuade. That which is understood to have happened to Galileo is all, apparently, one needs to know. Here is where I make my bid for more obloquy to be visited on my head. There is an arrogant unwillingness to engage with religion's serious thinkers. Too many atheists assume that a couple of insults will substitute for argument. They suffer from the incredulity of those who cannot believe anyone would disagree. It reminds me of the most self-assured of the faithful, who suffer the same intellectual imperialism. "I am right," a statement we all identify with from time to time, becomes "therefore you are stupid for disagreeing." A disagreeable sentiment, to say the least. And a narrow, thoughtless one, to boot. Finally, I will go so far as to say that there is sometimes in the atheist a want of wonder. In a world in which so much is still not understood, in which multiple universes are possible, in which we have not pierced the mystery of consciousness, to discount the supernatural is to lack the openness to mystery that should be a human hallmark. There is so much we do not know. Religious people too should acknowledge this truth. Epistemological humility -- the acknowledgment that we are at the very first baby steps of understanding -- is far wiser than arrogance on either side. After all, we comprehend with our brains, and who knows how limited are our only organs of understanding? So please, feel free to vituperate, argue and belittle. But understand that the religious dialogue is not advanced by shaken fists and snide asides. To quote the prophet, "Come let us reason together (Isaiah 1:18)." All of us ought to be astonished by our miraculous ability to talk, think, dream and disagree. Our first response to life should be gratitude and wonder that we share this remarkable world so far beyond our poor power to grasp. Now, let the derision begin!"

"Attacks against religion are replete with phrases about the ignorance, pettiness and 'mania' of religious people. Belief is derided as a psychological symptom. Such taunting makes good copy but it is counterproductive in achieving a fulfilled life. Cynicism is a good sword but a poor shield."

"Faith does not ask "Which medicine will cure this disease?" but "How can I use the experience of illness to help others?""

"Atheism, wrote the Preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick, is the theoretical formulation of a discouraged life. That is too often true. God must not exist because things have not gone as I expected them to go. There is suffering and pain and anguish and death. Yet there is a reason why people who are part of religious communities give more to charity, are healthier and happier - as demonstrated in study after study. Faith is not the child of hope but its parent. Faith gives one the courage to find purpose even in dark times. Far from self-deception set to music, it is the subtle harmony that the blare of self-regard too often obscures or obliterates. Human beings are unsettled and often cruel. Religion does not make them perfect, but serves to make them better. Having survived both a brain tumor and lymphoma, being engaged in daily counseling people of trouble and in grief, I know there is music to life that I did not create but I can hear. The proper response to it is gratitude, goodness and praise."

"Faith is not the knowledge of what the mystery of the universe is, but the conviction that there is a mystery, and that it is greater than us."

"One of the things that makes God different from people is that God is always available to listen."