Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes on God
Ludwig Wittgenstein returned throughout his life to questions of religion, and the quotes gathered here show his distinctive approach to them. For Wittgenstein religious belief is not a matter of holding factual opinions: a religious symbol, he wrote, does not rest on any opinion, and error, which belongs to opinion, does not properly apply to it. He connected belief in God instead with the sense of life's meaning, writing in his wartime notebooks that to believe in a God means to see that life has a meaning, that the facts of the world are not the end of the matter. He pictured religion as the calm bottom of the sea at its deepest point, undisturbed however high the waves on the surface. Drawn from his notebooks and posthumous writings, these passages present religion as a dimension of life rather than a set of theories.
Quotes
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“If God had looked into our minds he would not have been able to see there whom we were speaking of.”
Philosophical Investigations(1953) | Pt II, p. 217 -
“Religion is, as it were, the calm bottom of the sea at its deepest point, which remains calm however high the waves on the surface may be.”
Culture and Value(1980) | p. 53e -
“"I never believed in God before." — that I understand. But not: "I never really believed in Him before."”
Culture and Value(1980) | p. 53e -
“To believe in a God means to understand the question about the meaning of life. To believe in a God means to see that the facts of the world are not the end of the matter. To believe in God means to see that life has a meaning.”
Notebooks 1914-1916 | Journal entry (8 July 1916), p. 74e -
“Frazer's account of the magical and religious views of mankind is unsatisfactory; it makes these views look like errors .”
Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951(1993) | Ch. 7 : Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough , p. 119 -
“A religious symbol does not rest on any opinion . And error belongs only with opinion. One would like to say: This is what took place here; laugh, if you can.”
Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951(1993) | Ch. 7 : Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough , p. 123