But when a man’s religion becomes really frantic; when it is a positive torment to him; and in fine, makes this earth of ours an uncomfortable inn to lodge in; then I think it high time to take that individual aside and argue the point with him.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that when someone's strong beliefs cause them distress, it's important to address this situation thoughtfully.
The quote reflects on the nature of religious conviction and its impact on individual well-being. It highlights that if a person's faith leads to suffering or discomfort, it is essential to engage with them and explore these challenges in a supportive manner. The speaker implies that faith should offer solace rather than torment, prompting a reconsideration of beliefs when they become burdensome.
In practice
During a group discussion about the challenges of faith in modern society.
So in 1987 I gave up all animal products and became a vegan. Simply so that I could eat and live in accordance with my beliefs that animals have their own lives, that they're entitled to their own lives and that contributing to animal suffering is something that I don't want to be a part of.
I love to be busy. I'm envious of people who are able to take their spare time and relax. All I like to do is work. Perhaps it's lingering Calvinist guilt?
There might be a lot of difference between Republicans and Democrats on key social issues like women's rights and health care. But when it comes to taking corporate cash, they're pretty much the same beast.
And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves, and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.
It's heartbreaking that so many hundreds of millions of people around the world are desperate for the right to vote, but here in America people stay home on election day.
Keep your weather eye open, and sing out every time.
I believe there is something going on in a conscious being, which includes many animals, as well as ourselves, that is not a computational activity. And to be conscious at all is not a quality that a computer as such will ever possess - no matter how complicated, no matter how well it plays chess or any of these things.
I don't think it had ever occurred to me that man's supremacy is not primarily due to his brain, as most of the books would have one think. It is due to the brain's capacity to make use of the information conveyed to it by a narrow band of visible light rays. His civilization, all that he had achieved or might achieve, hung upon his ability to perceive that range of vibrations from red to violet. Without that, he was lost.
Equality and prosperity shouldn't be seen as enemies of each other, but as partners. One reinforces the other.
Human beings have neither kindness, nor faith, nor charity beyond what serves to increase the pleasure of the moment.
ORPHAN, n. A living person whom death has deprived of the power of filial ingratitude . . .
It is necessary to posit something which is necessary of itself, and has no cause of its necessity outside of itself but is the cause of necessity in other things. And all people call this thing God.
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