It's very difficult to talk about religion in Iran because religion has gotten so mixed up with politics.
People don't talk about religion a lot in Hollywood because it's not an incredibly safe place to do it.
My theory is if you have a religion it's a good one. Because some people don't have any at all.
And religion causes most of the problems war and economics of course and study your history or you're going to repeat it and if you're burning a Harry Potter book you need some serious counseling you don't get it you're missing the whole point.
Religion is interesting because it brings out the best and the worst in humanity. It can be a source of good deeds whether it's people from different spiritual backgrounds coming together to help other people in need after a crisis. But it's also a cause for war and bloodshed.
I travel around the world experiencing every language every religion... some places where there's just no reason to smile because their lives are so difficult.
I could never say that one religion is wrong. I could never say that this person's God is wrong I could never say that someone is wrong because they don't believe in God.
Oh there's going to be debate because you're dealing with the Bible and religion is supposed to be separate from state and that to me is already a conflict before it even hits the gay issue.
Religion may be defined thus: a belief in and homage rendered to existences unseen and causes unknown.
Religion works on some people but not on everyone because it says 'Stop thinking and accept what I tell you.' That's not valid for people who want to think and reflect.
And these two elements are at odds with one another because Freud is utterly adversary to almost all the ways of structuring the human experience found in Western religions. No Western religion can countenance Freud's view of man.
There was a time when someone would get on a plane and request to move their seat just because the person sitting next to them was of a different ethnicity or religion or nationality. But I don't think my generation wants that. That's how it used to be.
First of all my persuasion is what really breeds violence is political differences. But because religion serves as the soul of community it gets drawn into the fracas and turns up the heat.
Philosophy is an attempt by man to find cause and effect. Religion has the same goal.
First of all the Jewish religion has a great deal in common with the Christian religion because as Rabbi Gillman points out in the show Christianity is based on Judaism. Christ was Jewish.
I never close a door on any other religion. Most of the time some part of it makes sense to me. I don't believe everyone has to chant just because I chant. I believe all religion is about touching something inside of yourself.
I did not want to reject religion as nonsense because life seemed to have no ultimate purpose without it and most of the good people I knew were Christians.
Anyone with sincere religious beliefs cannot say that all religions are true. That is so illogical it is pathetic. All religion cannot be true because some of them are so diametrically opposed to each other.
My political ideas and things like that even my religion I try to keep close to me because it's a personal thing and I don't shove it down people's throats. I don't condemn any artist that wants to do that like the Baldwins. That's their choice. But in my world I'm just an entertainer.
When asked if I consider myself Buddhist the answer is Not really. But it's more my religion than any other because I was brought up with it in an intellectual and spiritual environment. I don't practice or preach it however.
Zionism was originally a rebellion against religious Judaism and the PLO Charter was essentially secularist. But because the conflict was allowed to fester without a resolution religion got sucked into the escalating cycle of violence and became part of the problem.
I'm just confused as to where we lost that in America because it is everyone's God-given right to think the way they think and that's fine. That's why our ancestors came here to America to believe what they want pray how they want and follow a religion with whoever they want.
I decided to take God and organized religion seriously and to reject the secular life which in my teens had looked attractive because it allowed me to act in any way that I wanted.
We're all sick of holy wars and bloodshed because religion is supposed to give us life and a better life and is supposed to bring out our best self. When it results in mass destruction and hatred and anxiety it's the antithesis I think of what religion was designed to do.