It never before happened that the rich ruling and more educated minority, which has the most influence on the masses, not only disbelieved the existing religion but was convinced that no religion is no longer needed.

Leo Tolstoy
About This Quote

Here, G.K. Chesterton explains what he believes the origins of human religious belief are. As we have seen in previous quotes, people need to believe in something. What they believe is as important as what they believe in.

If people do not believe in God and instead choose to believe in something else, it will lead to a falling away from faith and a falling into disbelief and then into godlessness. People today often say that godless people are immoral and that their godless souls must be punished for their sins. However, this is not true and the belief that godless people must be punished for their sins is an outdated superstition.

It was not always this way and it cannot always be this way.

Source: What Is Religion? And Other New Articles And Letters

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More Quotes By Leo Tolstoy
  1. I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.
  2. Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.
  3. Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand."- Anna Karenina {Anna Karenina}
  4. I've always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.
  5. They've got no idea what happiness is, they don't know that without this love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us--there is no life.
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