Decline of religion

Explore 17 quotes about Decline of religion

God is dead: but as the human race is constituted, there will perhaps be caves for millenniums yet, in which people will show his shadow.

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Gay Science

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Topic

Existence of God God Decline of religion Atheism Human nature

Author

Friedrich Nietzsche

Source

The Gay Science

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1882 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Die frohliche Wissenschaft [The Gay Science]. Chemnitz: Ernst Schmeitzner, 1882, bk. 3, no. 108.

Current Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Joyous Science, translated by R. Kevin Hill. Penguin Classics, 2019, bk. 3, no. 108.

"Where is God gone?" he called out. "I mean to tell you! We have killed him,—you and I! We are all his murderers!

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Gay Science

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Topic

Death of God Existence of God God Decline of religion

Author

Friedrich Nietzsche

Source

The Parable of the Madman The Gay Science

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1882 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Die frohliche Wissenschaft [The Gay Science]. Chemnitz: Ernst Schmeitzner, 1882, bk. 3, no. 125.

Current Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Joyous Science, translated by R. Kevin Hill. Penguin Classics, 2019, bk. 3, no. 125.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world…it is the opium of the people.

Karl Marx

Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right

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Topic

Decline of religion Religion

Author

Karl Marx

Source

Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1883 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl. Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtspilosophie [On the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law]. Frankfurt, 1927.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl. A Critique of Hegel's "Philosophy of Right". Cambridge University Press, 2009.

But what will become of men then? I asked him, without God and immortal life?

Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov

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Topic

Decline of religion Death of God Existence of God God

Author

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Source

The Brothers Karamazov

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Question

Language

Russian

Time

1880 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. "Братья Карамазовы [The Brothers Karamazov]." The Russian Messenger, Jan. 1879 - Nov. 1880. Serial.

Current Citation

Dostoevsky, Feodor. The Brothers Karamazov, translated by David McDuff. Penguin Classics, 2003.

Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse.

Christopher Hitchens

God Is Not Great

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Topic

Religion in the modern world Decline of religion Religion

Author

Christopher Hitchens

Source

God Is Not Great

Genre

Religious literature

Language

English

Time

2007 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hitchens, Christopher. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Twelve/Hachette Book Group, 2007, ch. 5.

The sea of faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd;
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Matthew Arnold

Dover Beach

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Topic

Decline of religion Disenchanted world Modern life

Author

Matthew Arnold

Source

Dover Beach

Language

English

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." New Poems. London: Macmillan and Co., 1867, st. 3, 4.

Current Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." Dover Beach and Other Poems. Dover Publications, 2012, st. 3, 4.

We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.

Pope Benedict XVI

More information about this quote

Topic

Decline of religion Moral relativism

Speaker

Pope Benedict XVI

Medium

Sermon

Language

Italian

Time

2005 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Cardinal Ratzinger, Joseph (later Pope Benedict XVI). "Homily of His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger." Conclave of cardinals, Mass. 18 Apr. 2005, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome, Italy.

You can take away a man's gods, but only to give him others in return.

Carl Jung

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Topic

God and man Decline of religion God Human nature

Author

Carl Jung

Source

The Undiscovered Self

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

German

Time

1958 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jung, Carl. Gegenwart und Zukunft [The Undiscovered Self], translated by R. F. C. Hull. Routledge & Kegen Paul, 1958.

God has been replaced, as he has all over the West, with respectability and air conditioning.

Amiri Baraka

More information about this quote

Topic

Decline of religion Death of God God Disenchanted world

Author

Amiri Baraka

Source

What Does Nonviolence Mean?

Medium

Essay

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Baraka, Amiri (aka Imamu Amiri Baraka). "What Does Non-Violence Mean?" Midstream. Dec. 1963, vol. IX, no. 4.

Museums have today become the new churches.

Christian Boltanski

More information about this quote

Topic

Art and religion Museums Decline of religion The Church Art

Speaker

Christian Boltanski

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1997 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Boltanski, Christian. Interview with Tamar Garb. Christian Boltanski. Phaidon Press, 1997, p. 11.

Little do they know that they meet under an empty sky from which the gods have departed.

Hans Morgenthau

More information about this quote

Topic

Disenchanted world Decline of religion Realpolitik Religion and politics International politics

Author

Hans Morgenthau

Source

Politics Among Nations

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1948 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Morgenthau, Hans. Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace. Alfred A. Knopf, 1948.

In the middle ages people were tourists because of their religion, whereas now they are tourists because tourism is their religion.

Robert Runcie

More information about this quote

Topic

Decline of religion Modern life The Middle Ages

Speaker

Robert Runcie

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Runcie, Robert. Speech in London. 6 Dec. 1988, London, England, UK.

You have riches and freedom here but I feel no sense of faith or direction. You have so many computers, why don't you use them in the search for love?

Lech Walesa

Quoted in The Daily Telegraph

More information about this quote

Topic

Decline of religion Modern life

Speaker

Lech Walesa

Source

The Daily Telegraph

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Walesa, Lech. Quoted in Daily Telegraph. 14 Dec. 1988.

Not even the Church is so powerfully equipped to serve the public psychologically as is the motion-picture company.

William Moulton Marston

More information about this quote

Topic

Entertainment Hollywood Decline of religion The Church

Author

William Moulton Marston

Source

New York University Daily News

Language

English

Time

1929 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Marston, William Moulton. Quoted in "Professor to Cure Scenarios with Wrong Emotional Content: Dabbled in Movies While at Harvard; Now Sought by Hollywood with Offer of Favorable Contract" written by Henry W. Levy. New York University News, 8 Jan. 1929.

If God has died in the blare of the twentieth century and in houses too new and cheap to be haunted, one must seek him in the old quiet places, where he might still live on in retirement.

Wilfrid Sheed

More information about this quote

Topic

20th century Death of God Decline of religion

Author

Wilfrid Sheed

Source

The Good Word & Other Words

Medium

Essay

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1978 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sheed, Wilfrid. The Good Word & Other Words. E. P. Dutton, 1978, pt. 1, ch. 12.

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losin' my religion.

R.E.M.

Losing My Religion

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Topic

Decline of religion

Speaker

R.E.M.

Source

Losing My Religion Out of Time

Medium

Song

Genre

Alternative rock Rock music

Language

English

Time

1991 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

R.E.M. "Losing My Religion." Out of Time. Warner Records, 1991.

God is dead! Heaven is empty-Weep, children,
You no longer have a father.

Gerard de Nerval

More information about this quote

Topic

Decline of religion

Author

Gerard de Nerval

Source

Le Christ aux Oliviers Les Chimeres

Medium

Poem

Language

French

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

De Nerval, Gerard. "Le Christ aux Oliviers." L'Artiste, 31 Mar. 1844.

Current Citation

De Nerval, Gerard. "Le Christ aux Oliviers." De Nerval: Selected Writings, translated by Richard Sieburth. Penguin Classics, 1999.