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About this quote

What does it mean?
Allen claims faith is impossible for an all-knowing God and instead stems from ignorance and hope.
In plain terms
Faith exists only because we don't know everything.
What can you take from it?
Faith thrives on uncertainty.

Where it applies

  • religious discussion
  • philosophy

Putting it to work

  • define faith terms
  • examine belief origins

Questions to consider

  • Is faith the opposite of knowledge?
  • What makes belief necessary?

Another view

Believers may define faith differently than certainty.

More from Steve Allen

  1. No actual tyrant known to history has ever been guilty of one-hundredth of the crimes, massacres, and other atrocities attributed to the Deity in the Bible.

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  2. As I argued in Beloved Son, a book about my son Brian and the subject of religious communes and cults, one result of proper early instruction in the methods of…

    Permalink to quote #13
  3. Ideas have consequences, and totally erroneous ideas are likely to have destructive consequences.

    Permalink to quote #10

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