The answer to the question of what God is depends primarily on the adherents of what religious and philosophical worldviews it will be asked. For adherents (followers) of monotheistic religions, the most common of which are Christianity, Islam and Judaism, this is primarily the Creator of the world and the personification of the Absolute in all its manifestations. For them, one God is the fundamental principle and the beginning of everything that exists in the world. Being eternal and unchanging, He is at the same time beginningless, infinite and comprehensible to the human mind only within the limits that He Himself sets.

What is God in the understanding of the pagans?

The idea of ​​each individual person about God depends not only on the characteristics of the culture and religion of his people, but to a large extent on personal qualities, among which the key ones are spiritual maturity and level of education. It is not enough just to give yourself an answer to the key question "is there a God", it is also important to have at least some clear idea of ​​what meaning is put into this concept. Otherwise, it is impossible to understand the ways and forms of His influence on the world.

Adherents of polytheism (polytheism), or, as they are commonly called in Christian theology, pagans, believe in several gods at once, each of which, as a rule, is able to influence only one side of human life.

In the pre-Christian period in Rus', both the highest gods, which include Perun, Mokosh, Dazhdbog, Svarog, Veles and a number of others, and the patron spirits of the clan were revered. There was also a cult of dead ancestors ─ ancestors. The various rituals performed in their honor were intended to ensure, first of all, earthly well-being, to bring success, wealth, many children, and also to protect from the influence of evil spirits, natural disasters and invasions of enemies. Belief in God, or rather, in a whole pantheon of gods, was an important part of their life for the pagans. This approach to the perception of the deity was characteristic of almost all peoples of the world on early stage their development.

Understanding God in Orthodoxy

Within the framework of Orthodoxy ─ the religious confession covering the majority of the inhabitants of Russia ─ God is perceived as an incorporeal and invisible Spirit. On the pages of the Old Testament there is evidence that it is not given to a person to see God and remain alive at the same time. Just as the rays of the sun, warming everything earthly, are capable of blinding one who dares to raise his gaze to the shining disk, so the great holiness of the Divine is inaccessible to human contemplation.

God is omnipotent and omniscient. He knows about everything in the world, and even the most secret thought cannot hide from him. At the same time, the power of the Lord is so infinite that it allows Him to do everything for which there is His holy will. God in Orthodox understanding is the creator and spokesman of all the good that only exists in the world, and therefore, speaking of him, it is customary to use the expression "all-good."

God is one in three Persons

The main dogma of Orthodoxy is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It contains the statement that the one God has in Himself three hypostases (persons) bearing the following names: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They are connected to each other not together, but at the same time not separately. You can understand this combination, which is difficult at first glance, using the example of the same sun.

Its disk, shining in the sky, as well as the light emitted by it, and the heat that warms the earth, are essentially three independent realities, but at the same time they are all unmerged and inseparable components of a single heavenly body. Like the sun that gives warmth, God the Father gives birth to God the Son. Just as light comes from the sun, so God the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father. Thus, prayer to God is always addressed to all of His three hypostases at the same time.

Cross sacrifice of Jesus Christ

Another most important dogma of Orthodoxy is the doctrine of the sacrifice brought on the cross by the Son of God, sent by the Heavenly Father for redemption. original sin once done by Adam and Eve. Having incarnated in man and uniting in Himself all his properties, except for sin, Jesus Christ, by His death and subsequent resurrection, opened the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven to all adepts (followers) of the Church He created on earth.

According to gospel teaching, true faith in God is impossible without the love for one's neighbor bequeathed by the Savior and without sacrifice. Orthodoxy is a religion of love. The words of Jesus Christ addressed to His disciples: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34) became the main commandment, expressing the greatest humanism contained in the teaching given to people by the Son of God.

The search for truth

Having created man in His image and likeness, the Lord endowed him with reason, one of the properties of which is the ability to critically comprehend everything that happens in the world. That is why for many the path to religious life begins with the question: “Is there a God?”, and the subsequent path to the salvation of the soul largely depends on how convincing the answer to it will be received.

Christianity, like any other religion, is based primarily on blind faith in the dogmas that it preaches. However, over the two thousand years that have passed since the events described in the Gospel, inquisitive minds do not stop searching for evidence of the existence of God. Many church leaders who lived in different eras and belonged to different Christian denominations, such as Malebranche and Anselm of Canterbury, as well as the outstanding philosophers Aristotle, Plato, Leibniz and Descartes, devoted their works to this exciting issue.

Thomas Aquinas' statements

In the XIII century, the outstanding Italian theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) tried to answer the question "what is God" and prove the indisputability of His existence. In his reasoning, he relied on the law of cause and effect, considering God as the cause of everything on earth. He formulated the proofs of the existence of God derived by him in five points, which he included in the capital work called "The Sum of Theology". Briefly, they contain the following statements:

1. Since everything in this world is in motion, there must be something that gave this process the initial impetus. It can only be God.
2. Since nothing in the world can produce itself, but is always derived from something, it is necessary to recognize the existence of a certain primary source, which has become the initial link in the subsequent chain of emergence of more and more new realities. This primary source of everything in the world is God.
3. Each thing can have both a real being and remain in an unrealized potency. In other words, it may appear, or it may not. God must be recognized as the only force that translates it from potentiality into reality.
4. Since the degree of perfection of this or that thing can only be assessed in comparison with something that surpasses it, it is logical to assume the existence of some kind of absolute that stands above everything that exists in the world. Only God can be such a height of perfection.
5. And finally, the expediency of everything that happens in the world indicates the existence of God. Since humanity is moving along the path of progress, it means that there must be some force that not only determines the right direction of movement, but also creates the necessary prerequisites for the implementation of this process.

The Proof That Wasn't

However, along with religious philosophers who tried to find arguments to substantiate the idea of ​​the existence of God, there were always those who pointed out the impossibility of a scientifically sound answer to the question of what God is. Prominent among them is the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).

Contrary to the assertion of Woland, the hero of Bulgakov's immortal novel The Master and Margarita, Kant did not refute the five proofs of the existence of God that he allegedly built and did not invent the sixth, this time absolutely irrefutable. On the contrary, he never tired of repeating all his life that in terms of proving the existence of God, no theoretical construction can have any serious scientific justification. At the same time, he considered faith in God useful and even morally necessary, since he recognized the depth and significance of the Christian commandments.

As a result of this approach to the fundamentals of the doctrine, the German philosopher was subjected to severe attacks from representatives of the church. It is even known that some of them, in order to express their contempt for the scientist, called him the name of their domestic dogs.

A curious detail: the legend that Kant, contrary to his views, created the so-called moral proof of the existence of God ─ exactly the one that Woland spoke about on the bench at the Patriarch's Ponds ─ was born by the clerics themselves, who wished in this way to take revenge on their fierce enemy.

Religion as the restoration of man's connection with God

At the end of the conversation, it would be appropriate to dwell on the issue of the emergence of religion. By the way, this word itself comes from the Latin verb religare, which means "to reunite." IN this case This refers to the restoration of communication with God, broken as a result of original sin.

Among historians, there are three main points of view about the emergence of religion. The first of them is called “religious”. Its supporters are of the opinion that man was created by God and before his fall had direct communion with Him. Then it was broken, and at the present time for a person only a prayer to God is the only possibility turn to your Creator, who reveals Himself through prophets, angels and various miracles.

Religious compromise

The second point of view is "intermediate". It's kind of a compromise. Based on modern scientific knowledge and the moods prevailing in society, its supporters at the same time adhere to the main religious postulate about the creation of the world and man by God. According to them, after the fall, man completely severed communion with his Creator and, as a result, is forced to re-seek the path to Him. It is this process that they call religion.

The materialist point of view

And finally, the third point of view ─ "evolutionary". Those who adhere to it insist that religious ideas arise at a certain stage in the development of society and are the result of the inability of people to find rational explanations for natural phenomena.

Perceiving them as rational actions of certain beings more powerful than himself, a person created in his imagination a pantheon of gods, attributed to them his own emotions and actions, thereby projecting into the fictional world of the features of the society in which he was. Accordingly, with the development of society, religious ideas became more complex and colored in a new way, progressing from primitive forms to more complex ones.

I thought about what helps people in life .. And I decided firmly and thoroughly that this is FAITH. No matter what, the point is that there is something brilliant, powerful, harmonious, higher that helps you and can even save the world .. It gives strength to live, gives an explanation to everything and that notorious meaning of life that everyone is looking for and with they talk about it with difficulty .. Faith gives the core on which life is built, a system of principles and beliefs .. And if you think about it, everything exists for a person from the position of his faith .. The subject of faith, the main aspect, is God. But at the same time - EVERYONE HAS OWN GOD.

God is both Jesus and kindness, beauty, love, nature .. For each his own. God can be many things, entities .. in the end, perhaps it is you yourself?

Everyone chooses what to believe in, what they fear, wait, whom to worship, before whom to kneel and pray (or not to do so). Someone wants to call himself a slave, follow the instructions (even if his soul opposes this), live by the commandments and wait for a bright, but very distant future as a reward .. Someone wants to fill his life with dreams of afterlife, thereby missing Life, that very moment here and now. Someone wants to believe in predestination, divine will, and thus refuses the idea that man himself is the creator of his own happiness and destiny..

I understand that I have no right to condemn religious people .. but I don’t want to be like that myself. I do not want to grab onto these ingenious and powerful foundations religion as a lifeline. I do not want to believe that there is or someone else who is watching me, predetermines my life and will ultimately judge me. It seems to me that all this is just a figment of the imagination, a way of avoiding real life (after all, often people who have lost something important, suffer and do not understand why and how to live on ... and religion can often provide answers to these questions). It is a powerful mind control tool; perhaps this is a way to give a command to people to be “good” and manageable, this is a way of uniting the nation, unification ..

I personally realize what is good and what is bad, I don’t need such guidelines ... I don’t condemn the commandments, but I think morality, culture, legal norms could also reflect them .. Without religion ...

…I wonder if my opinion will change after a while.. Will something happen that will change me and make me look at it differently? Life will show... And now I am sure only that to each his own and that this world, whatever it may be, always gives you the opportunity to choose. Choose - what kind of person to be, what to strive for and expect from life, what to believe in, what to be afraid of and in general how to spend, what to spend that period of time, the chain of these minutes, hours, days and years that are called LIFE ....

You just need to realize that the choice (and maybe then fate?) is yours. I think it's worth it. My gods, my faith, what helps me in life is nature, harmony, beauty (bodies and souls), sincerity and justice. This is love, music, optimism... It gives me strength...

What is faith for you?

Vanga - deep religious man She believes in God, in his existence.

We have preserved tape recordings of conversations in which the clairvoyant talks about God, Jesus Christ and Faith, so we quote strictly documentary:

“Listen to God and everything will be fine. If you go against him, you will suffer and suffer. Baptize your children to keep them safe from harm.”

“Strengthen faith in God, love each other and be kinder, because without this you will not succeed in anything. Although with difficulty, the bad gives way to the good. Do not hurry. Heaven knows better what order events should follow. There are other laws and reasons.”

“We live in difficult times. Broken brothers and sisters. Let us unite in order to save ourselves for a better share. "One God, one ruler, one people - that's what you need!"

“Not a day, not two, but for fifty-three years (since I began to prophesy. - Ed.) There is no peace in my soul. But I will tell you - only good can overcome evil. Kindness - God's grace. Be wise, do not believe crazy speeches! Then you will be saved sooner.”

Vanga interprets many biblical legends. For example, a rainbow, according to Vanga, is a reminder of the Flood. “In ancient times, punishment was sent down on people for their sins: it rained for forty days. Water flooded the earth, living beings drowned, and, of course, people also drowned. Noah survived and with him in the ark "every creature in pairs." Noah on his ark, although he did not completely lose faith in salvation, despaired of fighting the waves, and then a rainbow rose in the sky. Under the rainbow, the peaks of the mountains sparkled with snow, and a dove flew from there with an olive branch in its beak. That was the signal: you are saved because you believed.

In general, Noah Vanga spoke about the Flood and the ark very many times with various shades and variations:

“When the rain stopped, a rainbow first appeared in the sky, and before that it went on and on for 40 days and destroyed the entire human race and all earthly creatures. Only Noah's ark remained.

Late in the evening, just before midnight, I walk through my house past this Noah's ark. It has been standing there for many years…”

And once Vanga said: “Noah's Ark is very close to my house. As soon as I walk ten steps, I will touch his warm, mossy side with my hand. The tree warmed by the sun is so pleasant to the touch!”

Mysterious words - Noah's Ark in Vanga's house in Petrich ... Noah's Ark next to the house. What is it - a vision of the legendary event described in the Old Testament, when God destroyed his creation? Or does the revelation of the prophetess symbolize something completely different?

Vanga urged not to quarrel, but to love each other, emphasizing that the main thing for the well-being of the people is faith and love.

Very often, in fact, almost always, answering a question about the situation in the country, the prophetess tirelessly repeated that the people must restore their lost faith in God and strengthen their morality. According to Vanga, in order to overcome the crisis, it is necessary, first of all, to follow Christian virtues, strengthen moral principles and take concrete actions on this basis. Here is what Vanga says: “There is Good. There is Evil. And every person has the right to choose ... "

The right to choose... A person comes into the world with this right, it is his most important asset from the first to last day life. Dualism underlies the structure of earthly life - there is no only good or bad, they always coexist with each other. Will a person be virtuous or will he not resist the temptation, will he serve people and follow Christian morality, or will he love himself - the choice is his, for all his will, about which Vanga says that "no - force will not break her."

"Pray that God will spare man, for man is mad in his hatred of his neighbor."

“Be kinder so as not to suffer anymore, a person is born for good deeds. The bad guys don't go unpunished. The most severe punishment awaits not the one who caused the evil, but his descendants. It hurts even more."

Next, let us quote - Vanga's statements about God, Jesus Christ, faith to supply with small comments. All these comments were made directly during or immediately after the conversations with the clairvoyant. So, quotes from the conversation with Vanga and comments.

“Explore me, experiment, study with the help of instruments and equipment ... Do you want to explain what I do? But how can you explain this when it is the work of God?

“My gift is from God. He deprived me of sight, but gave me other eyes with which I see the world - both visible and invisible ... "

“You don’t believe in God, but you want him to help. Don't come to me without faith. Not me, but He helps you.”

Vanga's hope in God does not leave her until her last breath. She thanks him for her wonderful gift and destiny. He prays for the forgiveness of human sins, makes him believe in him, honors his authority.

God for Vanga is the answer to all the eternal questions of existence that continue to be asked simple people. God for her is the beginning and end of human existence, goodness, justice and truth.

It is noteworthy that all the famous soothsayers in recent history Humanity prioritizes faith in God. And, explaining that the past and the future are moments of a single process called time, they are trying to reveal the great truth that there is a force that created people, and that they are only its particles in their diversity.

Vanga often spoke about this truth, about the highest knowledge of the order of things:

“How many books have been written, but no one will give a final answer if they don’t understand and admit that there is a spiritual world (heaven) and a physical one (earth) and a supreme power, call it whatever you want, which created us.”

In order to understand the Bible, a person must rise spiritually, only then will he be able to perceive and understand the highest knowledge. God will reward him and give him strength and help him so that he can understand how it happened.”

"God exists. And if you keep quiet, the stones will say that He exists. Just as the blind know that there is light, just as the lame know that there are healthy people, so the healthy must know that there is God!”

A lot of fragments have been preserved where Vanga is talking about the Bible. For her, the Bible is both a source of inspiration and spiritual support (personally for herself and for a huge number of people), and faith in salvation, and the ability to prevent big and small troubles.

Vanga bluntly declares: “It will be bad, but we will cope with the trouble. And it's written in the Bible. Look to the Bible more often, especially when it is difficult and difficult. Everything is written there."

This is not just a call of an ordinary believer. It is known that most prophets and astrologers are deeply religious, regardless of which God they worship. In their faith, a metaphysical meaning is hidden, little accessible modern people, who for many years were brought up in the spirit of atheism and the denial of the spiritual fundamental principles of being.

According to the soothsayer, the problems facing people and the country can only be solved by faith, love and compassion. Vanga calls on the people to turn their faces to religion, otherwise ...

“People are waiting for severe trials, for we are atheists!”

"People do not believe in God and in unity, so they are tormented in sin."

If faith in God is one of the conditions for achieving a bright future, then another condition is the unity of the nation. The prophetess does not tire of emphasizing that people should be united, love each other and help each other, while, unfortunately, the centuries-old history of the country testifies to the opposite.

In the "Encyclopedia" one cannot ignore such difficult questions: how does Vanga see the image of God? How Vanga sees Jesus Christ? What does she say about the apostles?

According to biblical canons, the meaning of the word "apostle" is "sent", that is, a messenger, a representative.

In the New Testament, the twelve disciples of Jesus are called apostles, as are Paul and other Christians who preach the gospel.

Jesus chose twelve disciples to follow him, preach and heal. After His resurrection from the dead, Jesus commanded His disciples to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.

Later, when they were looking for someone to replace the backslidden Judas Iscariot as an apostle, Peter said that they should choose one of those who had been with Jesus from the very beginning of His ministry and who had seen Him after the resurrection from the dead. Paul defended his right to be an apostle because he believed that what he experienced on the road to Damascus was an encounter with the living Jesus. He was chosen by Christ to bring the gospel to the non-Jewish world (Gentiles).

And Vanga says this about the apostles and their mission:

“All the apostles are not sitting still now, they descended to Earth, for the time of the Holy Spirit has come. But the most important mission is entrusted to the Apostle Andrew. He paves the way for Christ just as He commanded."

According to the Law of God and the Bible, God is the highest being. He has no equal anywhere, neither on earth nor in heaven.

We humans cannot fully comprehend Him with our minds. And we ourselves could not know anything about Him, if God Himself did not reveal Himself to us. What we know about God, all this is revealed to us by Himself.

The God of the Bible is the highest spiritual person who is beyond our understanding, but reveals Himself to the human race through the creation of the world and participation in world history. He created all living things and life itself, which continues only thanks to Him.

From the Old Testament we learn about how God created the world and how He helped His people, Israel.

In the New Testament, God is revealed to us primarily in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

There are no abstract philosophical descriptions of the essence of God in the Bible, but it follows from it that God is all-seeing, all-knowing and omnipresent. He is holy and just, loving and forgiving. The existence of God is regarded in the Bible as a fact that needs no proof. It begins with a simple statement: “In the beginning God created…”

People imagined God in different ways. They worshiped many gods. Old Testament shows that Yahweh (the Old Testament name of God) is the only true God. He is the Creator and King of all things, only He is the "light", only He is absolutely holy and full of love.

Finally, according to the Law of God, the Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ, appeared on earth and completed everything that people need to know about God. He revealed to people the great secret that God is one, but three-chen in Persons. The first Person is God the Father, the second Person is God the Son, the third Person is God the Holy Spirit.

These are not three Gods, but one God in three Persons, the Trinity consubstantial and inseparable.

All three Persons have the same Divine dignity, there is neither senior nor junior among them; just as God the Father is true God, so God the Son is true God, so the Holy Spirit is true God.

They are separated only by the fact that God the Father is not born from anyone and does not proceed; The Son of God is born from God the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father.

Now more about Jesus Christ. "Jesus" is the name given to the Son of God who became man. It means "Savior". "Christ" - Greek translation words "Messiah", "Anointed". Jesus Christ, through the revelation of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, taught us not only to truly worship God, but also to love God, since all three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — eternally abide with each other in uninterrupted love and constitute one Being. God is the most perfect Love.

Now, after we have remembered how God appears according to the Bible and the Law of God, let's get acquainted with what Vanga says about God and Jesus Christ.

The clairvoyant Vanga does not claim to be an abstract philosophical description of the essence of God. The soothsayer in this case does not predict, but rather gives precisely the poetic image of God:

“God exists, but he has no flesh. This is a fireball that is painful to look at because of the dazzling radiance. Only light and nothing else.

Here is another curious example of how Vanga imagines God. According to her deep conviction. God reminds her of a kind of unsleeping eye. “No one hides in a house, no one hides in the shade of a tree, no good or bad deed goes unnoticed. And do not think that you are free to do what you want, no one is free in their actions, and everything is predetermined. One can only experience feelings: joy from a good deed, bitterness and repentance from a bad deed. Wang thinks so.

And to the question of the journalist K.K., who interviewed her back in 1983, to the question - did she see Jesus Christ, Vanga answered like this: “Yes, I saw it. But he is not at all the same as depicted on the icons. Christ is a huge ball of fire, which is impossible to look at, it is so brightly bright. Only light, nothing else. If someone tells you that he saw God, and he was similar in appearance to a man, know that there is a lie hidden here.

Vanga has repeatedly said that the truth should be sought in the Bible and that it will be revealed to everyone who has been morally cleansed and exalted in order to understand its language.

The Bible promises the second coming of Christ. Vanga also talks about this and even warns of the approach of this day.

”, published by the publishing house of the Sretensky Monastery, an attempt was made to collect the brightest and most significant thoughts of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, put into the mouths of his heroes or expressed by himself in numerous articles and notes. These are thoughts concerning the main topics that worried the writer throughout his creative life: faith and God, man and his life, creativity, modernity, morality, love and, of course, Russia.

I am a child of the age, a child of unbelief and doubt until now and even (I know this) to the grave. What terrible torments cost me and cost me now this thirst to believe, which is the stronger in my soul, the more contrary arguments I have. And yet, God sometimes sends me moments in which I am completely calm; at these moments I love and find that I am loved by others, and at such and such moments I have composed for myself a symbol of faith in which everything is clear and sacred to me. This symbol is very simple, here it is: to believe that there is nothing more beautiful, deeper, more sympathetic, more reasonable, more courageous and more perfect than Christ, and not only not, but with jealous love I tell myself that it cannot be. Moreover, if someone proved to me that Christ is outside the truth, and indeed it would be that the truth is outside of Christ, then I would rather like to remain with Christ than with the truth.

(Letters. XXVIII / 1. S. 176)

... If you distort the faith of Christ, connecting it with the goals of this world, then the whole meaning of Christianity will be lost at once, the mind must undoubtedly fall into unbelief, instead of the great Christ ideal, only a new Tower of Babel will be built.

(Introductory speech, said at the literary morning in favor of students of St. Petersburg University

(Diary 1881. XXVII. S. 85)

Without a higher idea, neither a person nor a nation can exist. And there is only one highest idea on earth, namely, the idea of ​​the immortality of the human soul, because all the other “higher” ideas of life that a person can be alive follow from it alone.

(A writer's diary. XXIV, p. 48)

... Without faith in one's soul and its immortality, human existence is unnatural, unthinkable and unbearable.

(A writer's diary. XXIV, p. 46)

Conscience without God is horror, it can stray to the most immoral

Conscience without God is horror, it can stray to the most immoral.

(Diary 1881. XXVII. S. 56)

The Holy Spirit is a direct understanding of beauty, a prophetic awareness of harmony, and therefore, a steady striving for it ...

(Notes to "Demons". XI. S. 154)

There is nothing better for correction than to recall the former with repentance.

(Idiot. VIII. p. 203)

... There is a mother's joy when she notices the first smile from her baby, the same joy happens with God every time he sees from heaven that a sinner before him with all his heart becomes a prayer.

(Idiot. VIII. S. 183-184)

On earth, however, we truly seem to be wandering, and if there were no precious image of Christ before us, then we would perish and get completely lost, like the human race before the flood. Much on earth is hidden from us, but in return we have been granted a secret innermost feeling of our living connection with the other world, with the heavenly and higher world, and the roots of our thoughts and feelings are not here, but in other worlds.

(The Brothers Karamazov. XIV. P. 290)

Good deeds do not go unrewarded, and virtue will always be crowned with the crown of God's justice, sooner or later.

(Poor people. I. S. 105)

Destroy the faith in humanity in your immortality, not only love will immediately dry up in it, but all manpower

… Destroy the belief in your immortality in humanity, not only love will immediately dry up in it, but also any living force in order to continue the life of the world. Not only that: then nothing will be immoral, everything will be allowed.

(The Brothers Karamazov. XIV. S. 64-65)

Secret what? everything is a mystery, friend, in everything is the mystery of God. In every tree, in every blade of grass, this very secret is enclosed. Whether a small bird sings, or the stars in the sky shine in the night in a host - all this one mystery, the same. And the biggest secret of all is what awaits the soul of a person in the next world. That's it, friend!

(Adolescent. XIII. S. 287)

Oh, I thank You, God, for everything, for everything, and for Your anger, and for Your mercy! .. And for Your sun, which has now shone upon us after the storm! Thank you for this whole moment!

(Humiliated and insulted. III. S. 422)

God is already necessary to me because it is the only being that you can love forever...

(Demons. X. S. 505)

The absence of God cannot be replaced by love for humanity, because a person will immediately ask: why should I love humanity?

(Notebook. XXIV. S. 308)

... The essence of religious feeling is not suitable for any reasoning, for any atheism; something is not right here, and it will always be wrong; there is something here that atheisms will forever slide about and will forever talk about the wrong thing.

(Idiot. VIII. p. 181)

Only in human spiritual dignity is equality, and this will be understood only among us. If there were brothers, there would be brotherhood, but before brotherhood they would never be divided. We keep the image of Christ, and it will shine like a precious diamond to the whole world ... Wake up, wake up!

(The Brothers Karamazov. XIV. P. 286)

There is no rest. The future is fraught. Something unfinished in the world.

(Notebook. XXIV. P. 97)