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Absolute atheism starts in an act of faith in reverse gear and is a full-blown religious commitment. Here we have the first internal inconsistency of contemporary atheism: it proclaims that all religion must necessarily vanish away, and it is itself a religious phenomena.

— Jacques Maritain The Range of Reason (1952)

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Atheism

More quotes by Jacques Maritain

To philosophize man must put his whole soul into play, in much the same manner that to run he must use his heart and lungs.

An Essay on Christian Philosophy (1955)

To redeem creation the saint wages war on the entire fabric of creation, with the bare weapons of truth and love.

The Range of Reason (1952)

The day when efficacy would prevail over truth will never come for the Church, for then the gates of hell would have prevailed against her.

The Peasant of the Garonne (1968)

It is not possible to escape from the results of the irruption of faith into the structures of our knowledge.

Science and Wisdom (1954)

Not only does the democratic state of mind stem from the inspiration of the Gospel, but it cannot exist without it.

Christianity and Democracy (1943)

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Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

Religion in so far as it is a source of consolation is a hindrance to true faith; and in this sense atheism is a purification.

Simone Weil

One of the most exquisite pleasures of human love — to serve the loved one without his knowing it — is only possible, as regards the love of God, through atheism.

Simone Weil Last Notebook (1942)

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended.

John C. Lilly The Human Biocomputer (1974)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jacques Maritain (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.