J. D. Salinger on religion

Jesus knew — knew — that we’re carrying the Kingdom of Heaven around with us, inside, where we’re all too goddam stupid and sentimental and unimaginative to look? You have to be a son of God to know that kind of stuff.

I don’t know. Poets are always taking the weather so personally. They’re always sticking their emotions in things that have no emotions.

The true poet has no choice of material. The material plainly chooses him, not he it.

The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.

Abraham Lincoln1809–1865

• Anti-Religion
• Christianity

A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

Albert Einstein1879–1955Religion and Science (1930)

• Anti-Religion
• Morality

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Albert Einstein1879–1955Science and Religion (1941)

• Science