Religion is a philosophy that everyone can understand.
A human being can please God only by leading a good life. And that is why wanting to please God with anything other than a good, pure, kind, humble life is only a deception and a false service to God.
— After Kant
What is special about Christian teaching is that it represents the difference between the morally-good and the morally-bad not as the difference between heaven and earth, but as the difference between heaven and hell. The image of hell with its eternal suffering troubles the soul, but in essence this representation is correct. It acts as a warning to us to not think that good and evil, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, are located next to each other, and that there are continuous, transitional stages between them. Instead, this representation suggests that good and evil are separated from each other by an immeasurable abyss.
— After Kant
The first and most ancient opinion about abstract things is always the most likely because it was the first thing that a healthy human mind had thought of. Such is the existence of the Universal Source—of God.
— After Lessing
Religion is simplified wisdom which appeals to the heart. Wisdom is religion justified by reason.
From the thing that people call religion flow their rules of conduct, politics, social economics and art.
— Giuseppe Mazzini
A human being without religion, i.e. without any kind of relationship to the world, is just as impossible as a human being without a heart. A human being might not know that he has a heart, but, just as he cannot exist without a heart, neither can he exist without religion.
The rules of leading a good life (do not kill, do not get angry, do not commit adultery, do not repay evil with evil, and others) should not be considered true and obligatory because they are God’s commandments, but rather, they should be considered God’s commandments because we feel deep inside that they are our obligations.
— After Kant
“How can we live without knowing what will happen, without knowing what awaits us?” It is only when we do not know what awaits us that true life begins. Only then do we create life and fulfill God’s will. He knows. Only this activity serves as evidence of faith in God and in his law. Only then are we free and alive.
Religion can illuminate philosophical reasonings. Philosophical reasonings can confirm religious truths. And that is why you should seek to communicate with truly religious people and true philosophers, both living and dead.
