American founding fathers Quote by Thomas Jefferson

What has been the effect of religious coercion? To make half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.

— Thomas Jefferson

Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced…

— Thomas Jefferson

Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined, and imprisoned, yet we have not advanced…

— Thomas Jefferson

“Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions…

— Thomas Jefferson

Huge imbalance in power has resulted in the alienation, rage, fury, and awful amoral terrorism that has erupted and is erupting at the present…

— Karen Armstrong

When the power, prestige, and financial support of government is placed behind a particular religious belief, the indirect coercive pressure upon religious minorities to…

— Hugo Black

“People worship different things; there must be 'no coercion in matters of faith!”

— Karen Armstrong

The distortions and insults about organized religion will continue unabated as long as our popular culture continues its overall campaign against judgment and values.…

— Michael Medved

People forget that there is a big difference between coercion and persuasion. The idea that evangelism is coercive is nonsense.

— Mark Dever

Pretending that the world’s religions are the same does not make our world safer. Like all forms of ignorance, it makes our world more…

— Stephen Prothero

Hypocrisy and distortion are passing currents under the name of religion

— Mahatma Gandhi

“Religious toleration, to a certain extent, has been won, because people have ceased to consider religion so important as it was once thought to…

— Bertrand Russell