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"But, strictly speaking, this mythology was no essential part of ancient religion, for it had no sacred sanction and no binding force on the worshippers."
Religion
"That the God-man died for his people, and that His death is their life, is an idea which was in some degree foreshadowed by the older mystical sacrifices."
Death
"In all the antique religions, mythology takes the place of dogma; that is, the sacred lore of priests and people... and these stories afford the only explanation that is offered of the precepts of religion and the prescribed rules of ritual."
Religion
"The myths connected with individual sanctuaries and ceremonies were merely part of the apparatus of the worship; they served to excite the fancy and sustain the interest of the worshipper... no one cared what he believed about its origin."
Fancy
"The god, it would appear, was frequently thought of as the physical progenitor or first father of his people."
God
"Even the highest forms of sacrificial worship present much that is repulsive to modern ideas, and in particular it requires an effort to reconcile our imagination to the bloody ritual which is prominent in almost every religion which has a strong sense of sin."
Imagination
"Thus a man was born into a fixed relation to certain gods as surely as he was born into a relation to his fellow-men; and his religion... was simply one side of the general scheme of conduct prescribed for him by his position as a member of society."
Society
"But if it not be true, the myth itself requires to be explained, and every principle of philosophy and common sense demand that the explanation be sought, not in arbitrary allegorical categories, but in the actual facts of ritual or religious custom to which the myth attaches."
Common sense
"This, it may be said, is no more than a hypothesis... only of that force of precedent which in all times has been so strong to keep alive religious forms of which the original meaning is lost."
Force
"The god can no more exist without his people than the nation without its god."
God
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"God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Religions do a useful thing: they narrow God to the limits of man. Philosophy replies by doing a necessary thing: it elevates man to the plane of God."
Author Name
Personal Development
"I know nothing of God or the Devil. I have never seen a vision nor learned a secret that would damn or save my soul."
Author Name
Personal Development
"There's too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will."
Author Name
Personal Development
"It is very lonely sometimes, trying to play God."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Conscience is God present in man."
Author Name
Personal Development
"God has given you one face, and you make yourself another."
Author Name
Personal Development
"I gave in, and admitted that God was God."
Author Name
Personal Development
"It is quite true, as some poets said, that the God who created man must have had a sinister sense of humor, creating him a reasonable being, yet forcing him to take this ridiculous posture, and driving him with blind craving for this ridiculous performance."
Author Name
Personal Development
"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him."
Author Name
Personal Development
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