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.

If one age believes too much it is natural that another believes too little.

If one age believes too much it is natural that another believes too little.

to be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me everybody else means, read more

to be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me everybody else means, to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.

Pray as if everything depended on God, and work as if everything depended upon man.

Pray as if everything depended on God, and work as if everything depended upon man.

In isolated societies creeds can be preserved. It is where people of different traditions, outlook and creeds mingle freely and read more

In isolated societies creeds can be preserved. It is where people of different traditions, outlook and creeds mingle freely and exchange ideas that religious beliefs begin to be eroded. No one changes his beliefs without some instigation, some novel experience, some modification of the customary course of things, and in a closed society people believe what all their fellows obviously believe. Only when they are brought into contact with persons whom they respect holding different views do they begin to look at their inherited beliefs critically.

Even a band of angels can turn ugly and start looting if enough angels are unemployed and hanging around the read more

Even a band of angels can turn ugly and start looting if enough angels are unemployed and hanging around the Pearly Gates convinced that all the succubi own all the liquor stores in Heaven.

Sermons are like pie-crust, the shorter the better.

Sermons are like pie-crust, the shorter the better.

Various kinds of ideas can be classified by their relationship to the authentication process. There are ideas systematically prepared for read more

Various kinds of ideas can be classified by their relationship to the authentication process. There are ideas systematically prepared for authentication ("theories"), ideas not derived from any systematic process ("visions"), ideas which could not survive any reasonable authentication process ("illusions"), ideas which exempt themselves from any authentication process ("myths"), ideas which have already passed authentication processes ("facts"), as well as ideas known to have failed- or certain to fail- such processes ("falsehoods" - both mistakes and lies).

Eskimo: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" Priest: "No, not if you read more

Eskimo: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" Priest: "No, not if you did not know." Eskimo: "Then why did you tell me?".