A Quote by H. L. Mencken

Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing.

H. L. Mencken

Quote Topics

Effort Explain Knowing Terms Theology Unknowable Worth

Quote Author

H. L. Mencken
American - Writer
September 12, 1880 - January 29, 1956

For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.

H. L. Mencken

The ultimate goal of theology isn't knowledge, but worship. If our learning and knowledge of God do not lead to the joyful praise of God, we have failed. We learn only that we might laud, which is to say that theology without doxology is idolatry. The only theology worth studying is a theology that can be sung!

Sam Storms

There is a broad distinction between religion and theology. The one is a natural, human experience common to all well-organized minds. The other is a system of speculations about the unseen and the unknowable, which the human mind has no power to grasp or explain, and these speculations vary with every sect, age, and type of civilization. No one knows any more of what lies beyond our sphere of action than thou and I, and we know nothing.

Lucretia Mott

As far as I'm concerned, if something is so complicated that you can't explain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway.

Bill Watterson

It's worth knowing more about the complicated environmental and genetic factors that could explain why traumatic brain injuries lead to long-term disabilities in some people and not in others.

Anne Wojcicki

We ought not to believe those who today, adopting a philosophical air and with a tone of superiority, prophesy the decline of culter and are content with the unknowable in a self-satisfied way. For us there is no unknowable, and in my opinion there is also non whatsoever for the natural sciences. In place of this foolish unknowable, let our watchword on the contrary be: we must know - we shall know.

David Hilbert

No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian has a theology. The issue, then, is not, dowe want to have a theology? That's a given. The real issue is, do we have a sound theology.? Do we embrace true or false doctrine?

R. C. Sproul

If atheism is to be used to express the state of mind in which God is identified with the unknowable, and theology is pronounced to be a collection of meaningless words about unintelligible chimeras, then I have no doubt, and I think few people doubt.

Leslie Stephen

The important things are not worth knowing because they are useful. They are worth knowing because they are true.

Andrew Sullivan

The goal of theology is the worship of God. The posture of theology is on one's knees. The mode of theology is repentance.

Sinclair B. Ferguson

If a man is worth knowing at all, he is worth knowing well.

Alexander Smith

There is no problem that is not improved by effort, and no effort that is too paltry to be worth undertaking.

Sam Waterston

If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living.

Henri Poincare

If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living

Henri Poincare

As much as I loathe this aging thing, I'm beginning to recognize that I am now a healthier person in terms of self-worth and knowing who I am and where I fit in the world. That's been a good trade-off for the wrinkles.