yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati bharata
abhyuthanamadharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham
I appear on this earth, whenever there is decay of religion and exultation of a
perverse form of religion.
Lord Krishna in the Gita (4:7)
If we consider the history of ideas, the history of ideas during the last few centuries in particular, we will
find that religion has very often been misunderstood and even condemned not only by mediocre people in
the street but also by many leading thinkers. As a spokesman of certain sections of 16th century Britain, a
character in Christopher Marlowe’s Jew of Malta, for example, described religion as “a childish toy”:
I count religion but a childish toy,
And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
In his Prometheus Unbound, Shelley, a Romantic poet, described it as “the dust of creeds outworn” and
Jiddu Krishnamurti described it as “the frozen thought of men out of which they build temples”1. Karl
Marx said that religion was “the opium of the people”.2 Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), the Italian
dictator, equated it with fascism:
Fascism is a religion; the twentieth century will be known
in history as the century of fascism.3
Sigmund Freud, the famous psychologist, described religion as an illusion:
Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in
with our instinctual desires.
1 The Observer 22 April 1928
2 A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
3 Listed in Bloomsbury Dictionary of Quotations, p.270.
William Blake went to the extent of relating religion to brothels:
Prisons are built with stones of Law, brothels with bricks of Religion.4
Sir Thomas Browne was of the view that religion is that sphere of endeavour in which people
characteristically lose their reason.
Men have lost their reason in nothing so much as their religion, wherein
stones and clouts make martyrs.5
Jonathan Swift condemned religion as a source of hatred and animosity and said:
We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to love one
another.6
Dennis Potter condemned religion in equally strong terms and said:
Religion to me has always been the wound, not the bandage.7
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche thought of a religious person as someone who was physically not clean and
said:
After coming in contact with a religious man, I always feel that I must wash
my hands.8
Harvey Allen understood religion not as eternal principles of being and becoming but as something that
keeps changing every now and then.
Religions change: beer and wine remain.9
4 William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Blooms p.66
5 Listed in The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations p.344
6 Jonathan Swift Thoughts on Various Subjects Listed as a quote in The Little Oxford Dictionary of
Quotations. p 346.
7 Listed in The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. p. 346.
8 The Antichrist
9 Anthony Adverse Pt 1, Ch.3, Sect, xx. The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations p.3.
abhyuthanamadharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham
I appear on this earth, whenever there is decay of religion and exultation of a
perverse form of religion.
Lord Krishna in the Gita (4:7)
If we consider the history of ideas, the history of ideas during the last few centuries in particular, we will
find that religion has very often been misunderstood and even condemned not only by mediocre people in
the street but also by many leading thinkers. As a spokesman of certain sections of 16th century Britain, a
character in Christopher Marlowe’s Jew of Malta, for example, described religion as “a childish toy”:
I count religion but a childish toy,
And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
In his Prometheus Unbound, Shelley, a Romantic poet, described it as “the dust of creeds outworn” and
Jiddu Krishnamurti described it as “the frozen thought of men out of which they build temples”1. Karl
Marx said that religion was “the opium of the people”.2 Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), the Italian
dictator, equated it with fascism:
Fascism is a religion; the twentieth century will be known
in history as the century of fascism.3
Sigmund Freud, the famous psychologist, described religion as an illusion:
Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in
with our instinctual desires.
1 The Observer 22 April 1928
2 A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
3 Listed in Bloomsbury Dictionary of Quotations, p.270.
William Blake went to the extent of relating religion to brothels:
Prisons are built with stones of Law, brothels with bricks of Religion.4
Sir Thomas Browne was of the view that religion is that sphere of endeavour in which people
characteristically lose their reason.
Men have lost their reason in nothing so much as their religion, wherein
stones and clouts make martyrs.5
Jonathan Swift condemned religion as a source of hatred and animosity and said:
We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to love one
another.6
Dennis Potter condemned religion in equally strong terms and said:
Religion to me has always been the wound, not the bandage.7
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche thought of a religious person as someone who was physically not clean and
said:
After coming in contact with a religious man, I always feel that I must wash
my hands.8
Harvey Allen understood religion not as eternal principles of being and becoming but as something that
keeps changing every now and then.
Religions change: beer and wine remain.9
4 William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Blooms p.66
5 Listed in The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations p.344
6 Jonathan Swift Thoughts on Various Subjects Listed as a quote in The Little Oxford Dictionary of
Quotations. p 346.
7 Listed in The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. p. 346.
8 The Antichrist
9 Anthony Adverse Pt 1, Ch.3, Sect, xx. The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations p.3.
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