June Ryu’s Reviews > Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion > Status Update

"It is fundamental to the power of the Christian story that Jesus died in more or less the greatest agony ever experienced by anyone. He thus offers all human beings, however racked by illness and grief, evidence that they are not alone in their condition - sparing them, if not suffering itself, then at least the defeated feeling that they have been singled out for unusual punishment."

"Spinoza... For him, 'God' was merely a scientific term for the force that had created the universe, the first cause or, in the philosopher's preferred phrase, the 'cause of itself', causa sui.

"Science should matter to us not only because it helps us to control parts of the world, but also because it shows us things that we will never master."

"Religions understand the value of training our minds with a rigour that we are accustomed to applying only to the training of our bodies."