It seems that not being religious is a form of risk-taking, consistent with other patterns of short-sighted behaviour in men.

The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians.

Theology is in disrepute among most Western intellectuals. The word is taken to mean a passe form of religious thinking that embraces irrationality and dogmatism. So too, Scholasticism.

Not only were science and religion compatible, they were inseparable--th e rise of science was achieved by deeply religious Christian scholars.

Many people who say they have no religion are simply saying they have no official religious affiliation. They may actually have strong personal beliefs.

For one, thing, the media are dominated by the irreligious. So are universities.

People value religion on the basis of cost, and they don't value the cheapest ones the most. Religions that ask nothing get nothing.

It has been said of many modern Christian theologians that their primary aim is to find ways to express disbelief as belief.

America is an unusually religious nation.

No other single innovation had so much impact on history.

The overwhelming majority of social scientists were irreligious or even anti-religious. This led them to believe that religion was a disappearing and unimportant factor in human affairs.

I say making movies is like eating a sandwich of shit. Sometimes you get more bread, sometimes less bread, but you always get shit." (Guardian interview 2006)

The more sects we have the better. They are all getting somebody in (to the Church) that the others could not: and even with the numerous divisions we are all doing tolerably well.

Women hate everything which strips off the tinsel of sentiment, and they are right, or it would rob them of their weapons.

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

Marriages are made in heaven and consummated on Earth.

The man who has the largest capacity for work and thought is the man who is bound to succeed.

there's no art but has some business to it and no business but some art.

People want to act like they know celebrities. They want to see pictures. They want to know where you're going. They want to hear you talk about your family.

I'm the foe of moderation, the champion of excess.

And that was what I was asking to happen and I was told that the indictment would be signed, but I was coming to the end of my one-year contract, I had to return to New Zealand for personal reasons.