Religion is nothing more than bad concepts held in place of good ones for all time. It is the denial-at once full of hope and full of fear-of the vastitude of human ignorance.[2]
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Religion replaces good concepts with bad ones and denies the vastness of human ignorance through hope and fear.
- In plain terms
- Religion keeps bad ideas instead of good ones and ignores how much we do not know.
- What can you take from it?
- Religion masks ignorance with false hope.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How does religion address ignorance?
- What role does fear play in belief?
Another view
It assumes religion is solely about concepts rather than community or comfort.
More from Sam Harris
Because most religions offer no valid mechanism by which their core beliefs can be tested and revised, each new generation of believers is condemned to inherit…
Permalink to quote #25 The idea that any one of our religions represents the infallible word of the One True God requires an encyclopedic ignorance of history, mythology, and art eve…
Permalink to quote #22 The Bible, it seems certain, was the work of sand-strewn men and women who thought the earth was flat and for whom a wheelbarrow would have been a breathtaking…
Permalink to quote #26
Related quotes
It was good of Friedrich Nietzsche to declare God dead - I declare that he has never been born. It is a created fiction, an invention, not a discovery. Do you …
OshoOsho quote #1 While utterly discarding all creeds, and denying the truth of all religions, there is neither in my heart nor upon my lips a sneer for the hopeful, loving and …
Robert G. IngersollRobert G. Ingersoll quote #3 I was raised on the good book Jesus Till I read between the lines Now I don't believe I ever wanna see the morning
Laura NyroLaura Nyro quote #4