"Otto expresses the relation of our mind to the Ultimate and its mystery in two terms: "tremendum" -- that which produces trembling, fear, and awe; and "fascinosum" -- that which produces fascination, attraction, and desire. Man’s unconditional awe of and unconditional attraction to the holy are what he means in these two terms, and they imply the threat of missing one’s possible fulfillment. The dread of missing one’s fulfillment -- this is the awe. The desire to reach one’s fulfillment -- this is the attraction."

-Paul Tillich, My Search for Absolutes, chapter four

The final mysteries of life and reality cannot be answered by science, ethics, politics, or art; for none of them can even begin to address the issue of the meaning or purpose of the whole, or of the sufferings of an individual human life, which inevitably comes to a more or less arbitrary and unsatisfactory end. Nevertheless, most human beings have lived their lives and reached their ends with some sense of ultimate meaning, however irrational or inexplicable, whether through an overtly religious approach, philosophical resignation, or some obviously fraudulent religion substitute (Marxism, etc.).


http://www.friesian.com/otto.htm

"Forgetting is probably more difficult for a religious tradition than any other human heritage. But God is not only the beginning from which we came; He is also the end to which we go. He is the creator of the new as well as the ancient of days. To all creatures He has given presence; and presence, although it rests on the past, drives into the future. Therefore, all life has received the gift of forgetting. A church that does not accept this gift denies its own creatureliness, and falls into the temptation of every church, which is to make itself God. Of course, no church or nation or person should ever forget its own identity. We are not asked to forget our name, the symbol of our inner self. And certainly, no church is required to forget is foundation. But if it is unable to leave behind much of what was built on this foundation, it will lose its future."

Paul Tillich, The Eternal Now, chapter two, "Forgetting and being Forgotten"

" According to Bonhoeffer, the church has failed in its mission to the modern world because it was not able to separate the message of Christ from religious trappings."

found at : Boston Collaborative Encyclopeadia

"Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal.
He is the only animal that has the True Religion
–- several of them.
He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself
and cuts his throat, if his theology isn’t straight."

- Mark Twain

"Here on earth, God's work must truly be our own."

- John F. Kennedy

"I never told my own religion nor scrutinized that of another.
I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change another’s creed.
I am satisfied that yours must be an excellent religion to have produced a life of such exemplary virtue and correctness.
For it is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be judged."

- Thomas Jefferson

That statement implies that all religions are good, which is not true.

I don't think our former president, Mr. Jefferson, meant all religions are equally true. In fact I don't think he addressed that question.

Among Adventist, for example, if we were to judge Adventism by observing the lives of certain adherents we might easily come to opposite conclusions about Adventism, depending upon which Adventists we observed. Hmmm?

On second thought, monica is partially right. The key, however, to understanding what Mr. Jefferson meant is in the last sentence: "For it is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be judged." All 'religions' which only generate words and not changed lives are equally useless. Any religion which transforms a life for the better is 'true' in the sense that it produces 'good fruit'.