Quotes about Belief

Nothing inspires people to believe in God as much as God-centered people doing good, just as nothing alienates people from belief in God as much as people doing evil in God's name.

When Bad Things Happen to Good People and his lectures.

But answering requests is not the primary role of God, and many people who believe it is will become disappointed and perhaps even alienated from God.

My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.

God made nature, and is therefore not natural. This led to the end of the universal human belief in nature gods (such as rain gods). And sure enough, as belief in the Torah's God declines, nature worship seems to be returning.

Most people believe if God performed a miracle—just one miracle—for them, they would surely and permanently believe in God. But, as explained in the commentary to Exodus 16:2, human nature doesn't work that way. The power of witnessing a miracle wears off quickly, and most individuals soon need (or merely want) another miracle. Over time, most people's attitude toward those who have done something good for them is: "What have you done for me lately?

The Torah and Judaism are behaviorist in their approach to life. How we behave is ultimately more important than how we think or feel. This is one of the greatest differences between the Torah and the contemporary mind, which attaches far more importance to how people feel.

The believer has to account for the existence of unjust suffering; the atheist has to account for the existence of everything else.

Judaism has consisted of four components: God,Torah, Israel, and Chosenness; that is, the God introduced by the Jews, Jewish laws, Jewish peoplehood, and the belief that the Jews are God's chosen people. Jews' allegiance to any of these components has been a major source of antisemitism because it not only rendered the Jew an outsider, but more important, it has often been regarded by non-Jews as challenging

A faith based on miracles will quickly fade, dependent on the next miracle. Such an attitude cannot even be called faith.

So the desire you have, that itch that you have to be whatever it is you want to be … that itch, that desire for good is God's proof to you sent already to indicate that it's yours. You already have it. Claim it.

The chances you take… the people you meet… the people you love… the faith that you have — that's what's going to define your life.