Definitions of Religion
  • "That form of government based on the opinion that fear of imaginary beings is desirable in the masses and that the resulting misery and criminality can be handled by promises of 'pie in the sky when you die.'"
  • "A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable"
    --Ambrose Bierce

    1. Boundless conceit concealed as utmost modesty.
    2. Justification for regulating one's own behavior and coercing others to regulate theirs.
    3. An inexhaustible mine of meaning for the mentally lazy."
    --Thomas Szasz

  • "...conclusions for which the facts of nature supply no major premises."
    --Ambrose Bierce

  • "...a fraud, but it must be maintained for the masses."
    --Frederick the Great

  • "...a form of "holy" terrorism...wherever there is devout belief--there is also the inseparable feeling of fear."
    --Emanuel Haldeman-Julius

  • "...a human invention, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."
    --Thomas Paine

  • "...the first refuge of the desperate; a convenient means of avoiding such unpleasantries as independent thought and reality; a means of feeling superior to others; a cult which has achieved sufficient longevity, membership, and economic clout to merit social acceptance."
    --Robert Tefton

    Return to: America's Founding Fathers and Christianity