„No religion can grant enlightenment or salvation“

„Granted, religion is wishful thinking, but there is no other kind of thinking.“

—  John Leonard American critic, writer, and commentator 1939 - 2008

"Good News" (p. 17)
Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979)

„In human life, you will find players of religion until the knowledge and proficiency in religion will be cleansed from all superstitions, and will be purified and perfected by the enlightenment of real science.“

—  Мустафа Кемаль Ататюрк Turkish army officer, revolutionary, and the first President of Turkey 1881 - 1938

Speech (October 1927); quoted in Atatürk’ten Düşünceler by E. Z. Karal, p. 59

„School has become the world religion of a modernized proletariat, and makes futile promises of salvation to the poor of the technological age.“

—  Ivan Illich, книга Deschooling Society

Источник: Deschooling Society

„That Religion may flourish upon its true Plan
Of Glory to God and Salvation to Man.“

—  John Byrom Poet, inventor of a shorthand system 1692 - 1763

Источник: Miscellaneous Poems (1773), A Paraphrase on the Prayer used in The Church Liturgy for All Sorts and Conditions Of Men, XII
Контексте: This short Supplication, or Litany, read
When the longer with us is not wont to be said,
Tho' brief in Expression, as fully imports
The Will to all Blessings, for "Men of all Sorts," —
Same brotherly Love, by which Christians are taught
To "pray without ceasing," or limiting
Thought; That Religion may flourish upon its true Plan
Of Glory to God and Salvation to Man.

„Any religion that endorses violence is incapable of delivering spiritual enlightenment — how obvious does that have to be?“

—  Pat Condell Stand-up comedian, writer, and Internet personality 1949

and it has no right even to call itself a religion. Without the shield of religion to hide behind, Islam would be banned in the civilized world as a political ideology of hate — and we have no obligation to make allowances for it, any more than we do for Nazism. It's a bigger threat to our freedom than Nazism ever was. Yes, both are totalitarian, and both divide the world unnecessarily into us-and-them, the pure and the impure, and both make no secret of their desire to exterminate the Jews. But we were all more or less on the same side against the Nazis, whereas the Islamonazis have got plenty of friends among people in the West who ought to know better.
"No mosque at Ground Zero" (4 June 2010) http://youtube.com/watch?v=vjS0Novt3X4
2010

„Contemporary intellectuals have given up the Enlightenment assumption that religion, myth, and tradition can be opposed to something ahistorical, something common to all human beings qua human.“

—  Richard Rorty American philosopher 1931 - 2007

"The priority of democracy to philosophy"

„In religion, [we find] the pursuit of an ultimate aim, such as salvation or enlightenment, from which all other good things flow. How like the unlimited aim of money! I wonder what the effect would be on our spirituality if we gave up on the pursuit of a unitary abstract goal that we believe to be the key to everything else. How would it feel to release the endless campaign to improve ourselves, to make progress toward a goal? What would it be like just to play instead, just to be? Like wealth, enlightenment is a goal that knows no limit, and in both cases the pursuit of it can enslave. In both cases, I think the object of the pursuit is a spurious substitute for a diversity of things that people really want.“

—  Charles Eisenstein American writer 1967

Sacred Economics http://sacred-economics.com/
Sacred Economics (2011)

„Athirst for personal salvation, the West forgets that many religions had but a vague notion of the life beyond the grave; true, all great religions stake a claim on eternity, but not necessarily on man's eternal life.“

—  André Malraux French novelist, art theorist and politician 1901 - 1976

Part IV, Chapter I
Les voix du silence [Voices of Silence] (1951)

„I have always thought there were dark … corners in religion. I took that for granted. That's not the surprising thing for me. … The frightening thing is rather that, in the Arab world, we have let the darkness of religion flourish.“

—  Kanan Makiya American orientalist 1949

"Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero" http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/faith/interviews/makiya.html, PBS Frontline (2002)

„Religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. Destroying intellectual freedom is always evil, but only religion makes doing evil feel quite so good.“

—  Philip Pullman English author 1946

„Swathi Thirunal, a devout Hindu, is seen to have agreed to teaching of Christian scriptures in the school supported by a government grant, and it admitted students of all caste and religion.“

—  Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma Maharajah of Travencore 1813 - 1846

Dr Achuthsankar S. Nair, in "An enlightened and princely patron of true science".
About Swathi Thirunal

„(…) In every Age people reached salvation through different types of action and sadhana (spiritual practice), but in this Age one can reach liberation only through hard work. (…) We need not consider religion or caste, but only look to hard work.“

—  Haidakhan Babaji teacher in northern India

Karma yoga
Источник: The Teachings of Babaji, 21 March 1983

„The chief danger of the 20th century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.“

—  William Booth British Methodist preacher 1829 - 1912

Вариант: I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be.... religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God and heaven without hell.

„This would be something added to one's religion, not subtracted from it. The only thing it would subtract (and there's no way around this) is the belief that one's own path is the only true path to salvation.“

—  Ken Wilber American writer and public speaker 1949

An Integral Spirituality
Контексте: Attunement could occur through any of the great religions, but would be tied exclusively to none of them. A person could be attuned to an "integral spirituality" while still be a practicing Christian, Buddhist, New-Age advocate, or Neopagan. This would be something added to one's religion, not subtracted from it. The only thing it would subtract (and there's no way around this) is the belief that one's own path is the only true path to salvation.

„If it be granted that the Britons, generally speaking, were expert in hunting, it is still uncertain what animals were obnoxious to the chase; we know however, at least, that the hare was not anciently included; for Cæser tells us, "the Britons did not eat the flesh of hares, notwithstanding the island abounded with them." And this abstinence, he adds, arose from a principle of religion; which principle, no doubt, prevented them from being worried to death: a cruelty reserved for more enlightened ages.“

—  Joseph Strutt British engraver, artist, antiquary and writer 1749 - 1802

pg. 2
The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (1801), Britons

„When two-three different religions claim that only their own religions are true and all other religions are false, their religions are only ways to Heaven, conflicts can not be avoided. Thus, fundamentalism tries to abolish all other religions. This is called Bolshevism in religion. Only the path shown by the Hinduism can relieve the world form this meanness.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore Bengali polymath 1861 - 1941

R. Tagore, `Aatmaparichapa' in his book `Parichaya' http://hindusamhati.blogspot.com/2013/05/thoughts-of-rabindranath-tagore-on.html

„It is you, O God, who is being sought in various religions in various ways, and named with various names. For you remain as you are, to all incomprehensible and inexpressible. When you will graciously grant it then sword, jealous hatred and evil will cease and all will come to know that there is but one religion in the variety of religious rites.“

—  Nicholas of Cusa German philosopher, theologian, jurist, and astronomer 1401 - 1464

Great Thoughts Treasury http://www.greatthoughtstreasury.com/author/nicholas-cusa-also-nicholas-kues-and-nicolaus-cusanus?page=4

„With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.“

—  Steven Weinberg American theoretical physicist 1933

„They who seek religion for culture's sake are aesthetic, not religious, and will never gain that grace which religion adds to culture, because they never can have the religion.“

—  John Campbell Shairp British writer 1819 - 1885

Источник: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 503.