# Quotes about theology - Quotes: 11 - Authors: 6 - Broader topic: [Quotes about religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.json ## Quotes > Somebody ought to make a historical study of the relations between theology and corporal punishment in childhood. I have a theory that, wherever little boys and girls are systematically flagellated, the victims grow up to think of God as - 'Wholly Other'... A people's theology reflects the state of its children's bottoms. Look at the Hebrews - enthusiastic child-beaters. And so were all good Christians in the Age of Faith. Hence Jehovah, hence Original Sin and the infinitely offended Father of Roman and Protestant orthodoxy. Whereas among Buddhists and Hindus education has always been nonviolent. No laceration of little buttocks - therefore Tat tvam asi, thou art That, mind from Mind is not divided.... Major premise: God is Wholly Other. Minor premise: man is totally depraved. Conclusion: Do to your children's bottoms what was done to yours, what your Heavenly Father has been doing to the collective bottom of humanity ever since the Fall: whip, whip, whip! [Aldous Huxley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley.md) · [Island](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/island.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/island/somebody-ought-to-make.md) Topics: [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md) > 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. Oh, my church, too—but at least mine is honestly pantheistic. Anyone who can worship a trinity and insist that his religion is a monotheism can believe anything—just give him time to rationalize it. Forgive me for being blunt. [Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Job: A Comedy of Justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/job-a-comedy-of-justice.md) · p. 283 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/job-a-comedy-of-justice/theology-is-never.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md) > The logical reconciliation of Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnibenevolence is the thorniest problem in theology, one causing even Jesuits to break their teeth. [Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Job: A Comedy of Justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/job-a-comedy-of-justice.md) · p. 139 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/job-a-comedy-of-justice/the-logical-reconciliation.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md) > A general problem with much of Western theology... is that the God portrayed is too small. It is a god of a tiny world and not a god of a galaxy, much less a universe. [Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [The Varieties of Scientific Experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience/a-general-problem.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md) > If the whole of natural theology, as some people seem to maintain, resolves itself into one simple, though somewhat ambiguous, at least undefined proposition, that the cause or causes of order in the universe probably bear some remote analogy to human intelligence: If this proposition be not capable of extension, variation, or more particular explication: If it affords no inference that affects human life, or can be the source of any action or forbearance: And if the analogy, imperfect as it is, can be carried no farther than to the human intelligence, and cannot be transferred, with any appearance of probability, to the other qualities of the mind; if this really be the case, what can the most inquisitive, contemplative, and religious man do more than give a plain, philosophical assent to the proposition, as often as it occurs, and believe that the arguments on which it is established exceed the objections which lie against it? [David Hume](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume.md) · [Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume/dialogues-concerning-natural-religion.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume/dialogues-concerning-natural-religion/if-the-whole.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md) > In a word, CLEANTHES, a man who follows your hypothesis is able perhaps to assert, or conjecture, that the universe, sometime, arose from something like design: but beyond that position he cannot ascertain one single circumstance; and is left afterwards to fix every point of his theology by the utmost license of fancy and hypothesis. This world, for aught he knows, is very faulty and imperfect, compared to a superior standard; and was only the first rude essay of some infant deity, who afterwards abandoned it, ashamed of his lame performance: it is the work only of some dependent, inferior deity; and is the object of derision to his superiors: it is the production of old age and dotage in some superannuated deity; and ever since his death, has run on at adventures, from the first impulse and active force which it received from him. You justly give signs of horror, DEMEA, at these strange suppositions; but these, and a thousand more of the same kind, are CLEANTHES's suppositions, not mine. From the moment the attributes of the Deity are supposed finite, all these have place. And I cannot, for my part, think that so wild and unsettled a system of theology is, in any respect, preferable to none at all. [David Hume](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume.md) · [Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume/dialogues-concerning-natural-religion.md) · p. 111 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume/dialogues-concerning-natural-religion/in-a-word.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md) > When we run over libraries, persuaded of these principles, what havoc must we make? If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: For it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion. [David Hume](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume.md) · [An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume/an-enquiry-concerning-human-understanding.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume/an-enquiry-concerning-human-understanding/when-we-run.md) Topics: [philosophy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/philosophy.md), [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md) > For do our Theologians pretend to make a monopoly of the word, action, and may not the atheists likewise take possession of it, and affirm that plants, animals, men, &c. are nothing but particular actions of one simple universal substance, which exerts itself from a blind and absolute necessity? [David Hume](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume.md) · [A Treatise of Human Nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume/a-treatise-of-human-nature.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-hume/a-treatise-of-human-nature/for-do-our.md) Topics: [atheism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/atheism.md), [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md) > Whether a virgin became the mother of her Creator, whether she gave birth to God, or merely to a man into whom God has entered, whether the Father and the Son are of the same substance or of like substance only, whether the Spirit proceeded from one or both of these who are but one, or from both together, however important these questions may seem, I cannot see that it is any more necessary for the human race to come to a decision with regard to them than to know what day to keep Easter, or whether we should tell our beads, fast, and refuse to eat meat, speak Latin or French in church, adorn the walls with statues, hear or say mass, and have no wife of our own. Let each think as he pleases; I cannot see that it matters to any one but himself; for my own part it is no concern of mine. But what does concern my fellow-creatures and myself alike is to know that there is indeed a judge of human fate, that we are all His children, that He bids us all be just, He bids us love one another, He bids us be kindly and merciful, He bids us keep our word with all men, even with our own enemies and His; we must know that the apparent happiness of this world is naught; that there is another life to come, in which this Supreme Being will be the rewarder of the just and the judge of the unjust. Children need to be taught these doctrines and others like them and all citizens require to be persuaded of their truth. Whoever sets his face against these doctrines is indeed guilty; he is the disturber of the peace, the enemy of society. Whoever goes beyond these doctrines and seeks to make us the slaves of his private opinions, reaches the same goal by another way; to establish his own kind of order he disturbs the peace; in his rash pride he makes himself the interpreter of the Divine, and in His name demands the homage and the reverence of mankind; so far as may be, he sets himself in God's place; he should receive the punishment of sacrilege if he is not punished for his intolerance. [Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/whether-a-virgin.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [tolerance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tolerance.md), [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md) > And yet this might not necessarily involve the conversion of the Trinity into a Quaternity. If... in Greek, spirit, instead of being neuter had been feminine, who can say that the Virgin Mary might not already have become an incarnation or humanization of the Holy Spirit? ...And thus a dogmatic evolution would have been effected parallel to that of the divinization of Jesus, the Son, and his identification with the Word. [Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/and-yet-this.md) Topics: [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md) > The Catholic solution of our problem, of our unique vital problem, the problem of the immortality and eternal salvation of the soul, satisfies the will, and therefore satisfies life; but the attempt to rationalize it by means of a dogmatic theology fails to satisfy the reason. And reason has its exigencies as imperious as those of life. It is no use seeking to force ourselves to consider as super-rational what clearly appears to us to be contra-rational... Infallibility, a notion of Hellenic origin, is in its essence a rationalistic category. [Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/the-catholic-solution.md) Topics: [reason](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason.md), [the church](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-church.md), [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md)