Nine Essential Things I've Learned About Life

To be religious was to obey, not necessarily to understand, and certainly not to question.

Harry Emerson Fosdick. Instead of arguing with his young congregant and hoping to change his mind, he would say to him, “Tell me about this God you don’t believe in. There are a lot of gods I don’t believe in. Maybe we’ll discover that we both reject the same notion of God, and then maybe we can find an understanding of God that we can both accept.

human mind or soul, was worse than unhelpful. It was offensive, saying to us either “You must have done something to deserve this” or “In times to come, you will understand why this was the right thing to happen to you.”

absence of a belief in a God who would punish us for disobedience would go on to become cornerstones of my personal and professional life.

Israel Levinthal.