Theist Quotes

“Let us remind ourselves of the terminology. A theist believes in a supernatural intelligence who, in addition to his main work of creating the universe in the first place, is still around to oversee and influence the subsequent fate of his initial creation. In many theistic belief systems, the deity is intimately involved in human affairs. He answers prayers; forgives or punishes sins; intervenes in the world by performing miracles; frets about good and bad deeds, and knows when we do them (or even think about doing them). A deist, too, believes in a supernatural intelligence, but one whose activities were confined to setting up the laws that govern the universe in the first place. The deist God never intervenes thereafter, and certainly has no specific interest in human affairs. Pantheists don't believe in a supernatural God at all, but use the word God as a non-supernatural synonym for Nature, or for the Universe, or for the lawfulness that governs its workings. Deists differ from theists in that their God does not answer prayers, is not interested in sins or confessions, does not read our thoughts and does not intervene with capricious miracles. Deists differ from pantheists in that the deist God is some kind of cosmic intelligence, rather than the pantheist's metaphoric or poetic synonym for the laws of the universe. Pantheism is sexed-up atheism. Deism is watered-down theism.”
― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

“Therefore, when a person refuses to come to Christ it is never just because of a lack of evidence or because of intellectual difficulties: at root, he refuses to come because he willingly ignores and rejects the drawing of God's Spirit on his heart. No one in the final analysis fails to become a Christian because of a lack of arguments; he fails to become a Christian because he loves darkness rather than light and wants nothing to do with god.”
― William Lane Craig

“God is an hypothesis, and, as such, stands in need of proof: the onus probandi rests on the theist.”
― Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism and Other Essays

“The theist and the scientist are rival interpreters of nature, the one retreats as the other advances.”
― Joseph McCabe, The Existence Of God

“Atheism is the opium of the mathematicians. Atheism is the religion of Mathematics.”
― Bill Gaede

“Most theists are deists most of the time, in practice if not in theory. They practice the absence of God instead of the presence of God.”
― Peter Kreeft, Jesus-Shock

“The seriousness of throwing over hell whilst still clinging to the Atonement is obvious. If there is no punishment for sin there can be no self-forgiveness for it. If Christ paid our score, and if there is no hell and therefore no chance of our getting into trouble by forgetting the obligation, then we can be as wicked as we like with impunity inside the secular law, even from self-reproach, which becomes mere ingratitude to the Savior. On the other hand, if Christ did not pay our score, it still stands against us; and such debts make us extremely uncomfortable. The drive of evolution, which we call conscience and honor, seizes on such slips, and shames us to the dust for being so low in the scale as to be capable of them. The 'saved' thief experiences an ecstatic happiness which can never come to the honest atheist: he is tempted to steal again to repeat the glorious sensation. But if the atheist steals he has no such happiness. He is a thief and knows that he is a thief. Nothing can rub that off him. He may try to sooth his shame by some sort of restitution or equivalent act of benevolence; but that does not alter the fact that he did steal; and his conscience will not be easy until he has conquered his will to steal and changed himself into an honest man...

Now though the state of the believers in the atonement may thus be the happier, it is most certainly not more desirable from the point of view of the community. The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality of happiness, and by no means a necessity of life. Whether Socrates got as much happiness out of life as Wesley is an unanswerable question; but a nation of Socrateses would be much safer and happier than a nation of Wesleys; and its individuals would be higher in the evolutionary scale. At all events it is in the Socratic man and not in the Wesleyan that our hope lies now.

Consequently, even if it were mentally possible for all of us to believe in the Atonement, we should have to cry off it, as we evidently have a right to do. Every man to whom salvation is offered has an inalienable natural right to say 'No, thank you: I prefer to retain my full moral responsibility: it is not good for me to be able to load a scapegoat with my sins: I should be less careful how I committed them if I knew they would cost me nothing.'”
― George Bernard Shaw, Androcles and the Lion

“Even those who want to go to heaven would rather kill than be killed.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“People debate over whether or not there is a literal Hell, in the literal sense often described as fire and eternal torture, which, to many, seems to be too harsh a punishment. If men really want to fear something, they should be fearing separation from God, the supposedly more comforting alternative to a literal Hell. For separation from the authorship of love, mercy, and goodness is the ultimate torture. If you think a literal Hell sounds too bad, you are very much underestimating the pain of being absolutely, wholly separated from the goodness while exposed to the reality of the holiness of God.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“Theist and atheist: The fight between them is as to whether God shall be called God or shall have some other name.”
― Samuel Butler

“Spirituality can exist only in a pure heart.”
― Sangita Pareek

“Spirituality can exists only in a pure heart.”
― Sangita Pareek

“If God really valued loyalty, He would have blessed every single believer before He even considered blessing a single nonbeliever.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“If you invoke faith as justification for your belief, you must accept the same from others. And every person who retreats to faith bears a measure of responsibility for every act of hate and violence justified by it.”
― Nate Phelps

“The atheists ask- “If God has created everything, then who has created God?” I politely tell them- the question is illogical and much unscientific because there is no creator of God! Let me explain- for example, if the atheists tell that ‘Z’ has created God, then another question appears- “Who has created ‘Z’?” Then, the atheists may answer ‘Y’. Later, a question will arise- “Who has created ‘Y’?” There will be such infinite illogical questions! So, it is proved that there is no creator of God!”
― Md. Ziaul Haque

“An aware theist understands that believing in God does not equal the fact of knowing that God exists.”
― Joseph Rain, The Unfinished Book About Who We Are

“If you read many books, you may or may not become an atheist, but if you read 'nature', you will surely become a theist!”
― Md. Ziaul Haque

“আপনি যদি অনেক বই পড়েন, তবে আপনি হয়তো অধার্মিক লোকে পরিণত হতে বা নাও হতে পারেন, কিন্তু আপনি যদি প্রকৃতিকে পড়েন, তবে নিশ্চয়ই আপনি একজন ধার্মিক লোকে পরিণত হবেন!”
― Md. Ziaul Haque

“If the atheist is right the theist has lost nothing but if the theist is right the atheist has lost everything including his life. You cannot separate from the source of life and still have life.”
― Vincent Okay Nwachukwu

“If the atheist is right the theist has lost nothing; he is accountable to no one, but if the theist is right the atheist has lost everything including his life; he is accountable to the one whose existence he has denied. You cannot separate from the source of life and still have life. Option of least risk is the best course.”
― Vincent Okay Nwachukwu

“Doesn't matter if you're a theist or atheist, if you force your beliefs on me, I'm not gonna like you. As simple as that.”
― Nitya Prakash

“Atheists see the spiritual as little more than quacks peddling shame. Theists see physics as trite parlor games.”
― Debra Gavant