Deep disappointment is our fate.

he thought of religion as ethics in disguise—a system of perfectly reasonable moral teachings hidden behind an accumulation of absurd superstitions and nonsensical practices that serve no rational purpose at all.

They acknowledge that the meaning of what they do in their lives rests on the implicit assumption that the world is relatively more lasting than they are—those parts of it, at least, to which they give their time, energy, and love.

Eternity therefore has two meanings. One (endless time) is defined in temporal terms. The other (timelessness) is characterized by the irrelevance of all terms of this kind.

For a scientist, it is never enough merely to know that something is the case. She wants to know why it is the case. Her answers only lead to further questions. The process is endless.

Goals of this sort are abstractions. We can conceive but never “see” them. Their meaning becomes clearer as we go, but the goals themselves cannot be captured in an imaginative portrait even of the blurriest kind,

In the broadest sense, the idea of God, in all its variant forms, is the idea of eternity—of someone or something exempt from the whirlwind of time.

Our finite powers limit us to observing the “outward” relations among events. Their real “inner” cause remains forever inaccessible.

They believe that to be meaningful in an ultimate sense, their hopes and dreams, and lives as a whole, must be anchored in a reality that is not merely more durable than themselves, but absolutely immune to the vicissitudes of time. Only this can quiet what is for them the supremely discouraging thought that if everyone and everything to which they