Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't read more

Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.

The Bible looks like it started out as a game of Mad Libs.

The Bible looks like it started out as a game of Mad Libs.

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.

Preaching is heady wine. It is pleasant to tell people where they get off.

Preaching is heady wine. It is pleasant to tell people where they get off.

It was a hug that said you're not alone. It was a hug that, just when I thought all my read more

It was a hug that said you're not alone. It was a hug that, just when I thought all my strength was used up, and I couldn't go on, renewed me.

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the read more

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; which proceed sciences which may read more

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; which proceed sciences which may be called "sciences as one would." For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. Therefore he rejects difficult things from impatience of research; sober things, because they narrow hope; the deeper things of nature, from superstition; the light of experience, from arrogance and pride; things not commonly believed, out of deference to the opinion of the vulgar. Numberless in short are the ways, and sometimes imperceptible, in which the affections color and infect the understanding.

And some to Meccah turn to pray, and I toward thy bed, Yasmin.

And some to Meccah turn to pray, and I toward thy bed, Yasmin.

But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner read more

But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?