James Freeman Clarke Quotes

Why do people embrace God? In my opinion, belief in God and an afterlife is a necessary extension of man's need to feel that this life does not end with what we call death.

Religion has convinced us that there's something else entirely other than concerns about suffering. There's concerns about what God wants, there's concerns about what's going to happen in the afterlife.

The church is in the hope business. We, of all people, ought to be known most for our hope because our hope is founded on something deeper than human ability or wishful thinking.

If you are going to go to Heaven, I'm going to Heaven. But I don't believe in Heaven.

If there is no God, there is no hope.

I guess on one hand I believe it doesn't matter if there is life after death.

Religion is there to say, 'Hey, you don't have to worry - there's an afterlife.'

People have always searched for answers. That's why we have religion; people have always been seeking some relief from their own mortality.

I used to believe in God as a child. God, for me, was linked with hope.

If there is no God there is no hereafter. When, therefore, one drives God out of the universe he closes the door of hope upon himself.

You must believe in God, in spite of what the clergy say.

Christianity made us think there's one heaven.

Sometimes I have a hard time distinguishing between faith and hope.

Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.

Without faith that there's a world beyond the one we live in, I don't see how it's possible to get rid of angst.

I believe in Heaven. I don't believe that this is it, and then we're done.

One of the joys of being a Christian or being a person of faith is that you believe deep down that death isn't the worst thing, you know. Not living your life: that's the worst thing. And death is not, it's not all it's cracked up to be. It's not, it's not the end of the world.

The good news is there's no devil. The bad news is there's no heaven. There's nothing.

It is psychologically very hard to go through life without the justification, and the hope, provided by religion.

I'm more of a realist when it comes to life, and I'd much rather my mother be in a spiritual place in Heaven than in a bed, sick, fighting for her life.

God gives me hope that there is something greater than us, something better and bigger than the here and now, that can help us live.

I ask you to pray for me, for once age has overtaken us, we find consolation only in religion.

I'm an optimistic agnostic. I think the second we die, within a matter of seconds, everybody else arrives, and that's the party, and you live your hell on earth.

The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.

The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.