Welcome to Age-of-the-Sage.
Our site's content ranges quite extensively into the study of Human Spirituality.
We have undertaken exhaustive investigations into the Timeless Wisdoms that have been handed down by the Great Religions of
the World and believe that the results of those investigations should be of deep interest to many persons.
The researches which led to our identification of
key selections of "Central Spiritual Insights" drawn from the texts of several major World Religions were largely inspired
by Aldous Huxley's "The Perennial Philosphy" where some Common Ground between ~ the inner-most
spiritual teachings of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and Judaism ~ was set out.
A brief selection of Christian quotations
that may even qualify as
"Central Spiritual Insights"
will be presented shortly together with links leading to (~ self-evidently comparable ~ Islamic, Vedic-Hindu,
Buddhist, Taoist and
Jewish) faith-by-faith selections
of Spiritual Quotations that seem to be equally "Central" to each of these World Faiths.
Some words of introduction to these important wisdoms are probably necessary:-
In his celebrated study Huxley accepted the proposition, deriving from Leibniz, a notably eminent scholar who was an early investigator
into the
Common Ground shared by The World Religions, that Religions concern themselves
"with the one, divine Reality"
and that
"the nature of this one Reality is such that
it cannot be directly or immediately apprehended except by those who have chosen to fulfill certain conditions, making themselves loving, pure in heart,
and poor in spirit."
The results of our own studies into The Perennial Philosophy were such as to lead us to also accept that "the one, divine Reality"
is better discerned by those
spiritually endowed with Charity, Purity of Heart and Humility. However, we believe Meekness to be another spiritual endowment which
may well tend to contribute towards heightened powers of discernment.
This suggestion that Meekness is of immense spiritual
value may not surprise.
More unexpectedly, perhaps, the outcomes of our researches are such as to suggest that it is appropriate
to fully associate A Disdain for Materialism
(compared to the Spiritual), A Distrust of the Intellect,
and A Yearning for Divine Edification (or A Thirst for Enlightenment), with the centralities of The Perennial Philosophy.
Some truly extra-ordinary wisdoms ~ the "Central Spiritual Insights"
(from Christian sources) already mentioned ~ are set out below in a "scrollable" panel.
These quotations feature A Disdain for Materialism,
A Distrust of the Intellect, A Yearning for Divine Edification and Meekness alongside Charity, Purity of Heart and Humility.
Our selections of spiritual insights quotations may hold a particular relevance in relation to the the Faith vs Reason Debate or controversy!!!
The Great Faiths tend to prefer "Inspiration" over "Thought" as shown in the content of this scrollable
panel:-
The content of this scrollable panel also shows a preference for non-rational appreciation of important truths:-
Most people like to think that they hold a coherent view of the World and of Humanity's place in it.
In this regard it cannot be denied that
here seems to be a divergency between deep-seated wellsprings of spiritual-poetic inspiration and feeling, and the more conceptual reasonings of the intellect, that continues to be
difficult to reconcile.
Spiritual Authorities would have us believe in "Faith-Related" Truths ~ scientists would have us believe
in other Truths which they hold to be "Scientifically Valid".
Could it be that Human Beings are capable of d-e-e-p spirituality notwithstanding the "Rational" theories offered by Science?
Chronological snobbery, a term coined by friends C. S. Lewis and Owen Barfield, refers to the belief that
"intellectually, humanity languished for countless generations in the most childish errors on all sorts of crucial subjects, until it was redeemed by some simple scientific dictum of the last
(i.e. nineteenth) century." - e.g. Darwinian Evolutionary Theory
In the first place he (i.e. Barfield) made short work of what I have called my "chronological snobbery," the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate common to our own age
and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited. You must find why it went out of date. Was it ever refuted (and if so by whom, where, and how conclusively)
or did it merely die away as fashions do? If the latter, this tells us nothing about its truth or falsehood. From seeing this, one passes to the realization that our own age is also "a period,"
and certainly has, like all periods, its own characteristic illusions. They are likeliest to lurk in those widespread assumptions which are so ingrained in the age that no one dares to attack
or feels it necessary to defend them.
C. S. Lewis - Surprised by Joy (chapter 13, p. 207-208)
Despite the fact that World Faith Teachings, (and Great Poets), can be shown to value "Inspiration" over "Thought" Atheists often seem to
be totally
"Intellectually Convinced" of the reasonableness of their own positions!!!
Prominent "New Atheists" also known as The Four Horsemen
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Richard Dawkins
(The God Delusion, 2006).
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Daniel Dennett
(Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, 2006).
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Christopher Hitchens
(God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, 2007). |
Sam Harris
(The End of Faith, 2004). |
Image Credit: Neil Davies - caricatureclub.co.uk
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Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris have been announced as keynote speakers at a Global Atheist
Convention - "A Celebration of Reason" - to be held
in Australia early in 2012.
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[Christopher Hitchens, (health permitting), was also prominently included in the projected panel of speakers at this event because of his high profile as a
critic of religion and of what he eloquently portrayed as its negative influences on society. In has happened. however,
that the ill-health he was known to have been suffering from actually claimed his life in december 2011].
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The findings of our investigations into the Timeless Wisdoms that have been handed down as World Faith Teachings help to richly demonstrate that, alongside the Creationism which is most directly challenged by Science, there are
also teachings about Spirituality which can definitely be shown to retain an unimpaired relevance to peoples lives.
We consider that
many of the Wisdoms presented here are so inherently persuasive as to offer some potent
challenges to the "best-selling - Human Reason reliant - New Atheism" of such persons as Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris.
In efforts to convey something of these Wisdoms to our readers we have assembled several selections of quotations from World Faith sources.
Many of the Spiritual Insights Quotations presented express a distrust of Reason and a preference for Enlightenment.
It follows from this that the wisdoms related on this page will venture a little into the Faith vs Reason Debate.
We have hopes that this page will receive many visitors as the Faith versus Reason Controversy seems to be quite a hot topic on the Web.
As a result of our
wide-ranging researches, we are prepared to assert that, across the ages, wisdoms have been divined or
discovered by a wide range of mystics, holy men, poets and philosophers who themselves lived out their
individual lives in spiritually, culturally, and geographically, widespread situations.
"More than twenty-five centuries have passed since that which has been called the Perennial Philosophy was first committed to writing;
and in the course of those centuries it has found expression, now partial, now complete, now in this form, now in that, again and again...
...the Perennial Philosophy has spoken almost all the languages of Asia and Europe and has made use of the terminology and traditions of every
one of the higher religions. But under all this confusion of tongues and myths, of local histories and particularist doctrines, there remains
a Highest Common Factor, which is the Perennial Philosophy in what may be called its chemically pure state..."
[Taken from an introduction, written in 1944 by Aldous Huxley, to an English language translation of the
Bhagavad-Gita, or Song of God, which is the principal holy book of the Hindu faith.]
Our site features the results of our own investigations into this Highest Common Factor to be found across the inner-most spiritual
teachings of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism,
Taoism and Judaism.
Where Huxley's justly celebrated work identified only a limited range of agreement our
own studies identify a far wider consensus in ways that are, possibly, even more persuasive than those demonstrated in Huxley's The Perennial Philosphy.
We consider that our site features an un-rivalled collection of impact-full spiritual and poetical insights quotations which
"somehow encapsulate" timeless wisdoms.
You can use the navigation links on the right of this page to delve deeply into such Wisdoms.
Start of
Spiritual Insights Quotations
and the Faith vs versus Reason Debate
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![[spiritual insights quotations, faith vs versus reason science debate]](enlightenment.gif)
