Welcome to Age-of-the-Sage where we present many awesomely profound Spiritual Insights Quotations and enter
into the Faith vs Reason Debate or Controversy in an attempt to discredit the "New Atheism" of such "clever and rational", but
very possibly "unenlightened", persons as
Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris.
Religions teach Spirituality as well as such things as Creationism.
In the case of Christianity it might be
said that Jesus' core teaching ~ The Sermon on the Mount ~ is a Spiritual rather than a Creationist teaching.
Our attempt to discredit the "New Atheism" of Richard
Dawkins and others is based on the real evidence of "profoundly moving" Spiritual Insights
Quotations and thus can effectively only be conclusively made on behalf of spiritual religion.
We use the term the real evidence because the "profoundly moving" nature of certain Spiritual Insights Quotations,
at the very least, is palpable evidence of something spiritual within each of us as Human Beings.
It may be that success in the discrediting of "New Atheism" in relation to Spirituality
will extend to other aspects of faith as, if spiritual teachings can be shown fully capable of weathering the
"Atheist and Agnostic Storm", closely associated teachings will seem more credible by inference.
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 who live their lives
in the modern world.
Some truly extra-ordinary wisdoms ~ a selection of "Central Spiritual Insights"
gleaned from Christian sources closely followed by another selection of "Central Spiritual Insights" drawn from "non-Christian" Inter-Faith sources
~ are set out below.
Some words of background context introduction to the important wisdoms we are attempting to identify as "Central Spiritual Insights" are probably
necessary:-
Many commentators, (including Aldous Huxley), have claimed to have discerned a "Perennial Philosophy" of
central agreement about "Divine Truths" between the Great Religions of the World across the ages!!!
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
a principal holy book of the Hindu faith].
In his own celebrated study into the central agreements about "Divine Truths" between the Great Religions of the World,
(first published as The Perennial Philosophy in 1945), Aldous 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 came to 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 were 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.
Interestingly, some deservedly famous quotations from some of the greatest of English-language poets that show a secular, poetic,
acceptance of these same wisdoms are
also featured immediately after these selections of "Central Spiritual Insights" gleaned from Christian sources and from "non-Christian"
Inter-Faith sources.
A selection of "Central Spiritual Insights" gleaned from Christian sources
- A Disdain for Materialism
-
Some have Me in their mouths, but little in their
hearts.
There are others who, being enlightened in their understanding
and purified in their affection, always breathe after things
eternal, are unwilling to hear of earthly things, and grieve to
be subject to the necessities of nature; and such as these
perceive what the Spirit of Truth speaketh in them.
For it teacheth them to despise the things of the earth and to
love heavenly things; to disregard the world, and all the day and
night to aspire after heaven.
Thomas a Kempis
- A Distrust of Intellect
- This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles
walk, in the vanity of their mind. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
St. Paul
- A Yearning for Divine Edification
- It is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared
for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by his
Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things
of God.
...the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of
God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned.
St. Paul
- Charity
- Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that
loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
St. John
- Purity of Heart
- Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my
presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things
without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and
harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a
crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the
world;
St. Paul
- Humility
- Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even
Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
And whomsoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that
shall humble himself shall be exalted.
Jesus
- Meekness
- Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear,
slow to speak, and slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God.
St. James
"Central Spiritual Insights" drawn from "non-Christian" Inter-Faith sources
- A Disdain for Materialism
- Chuang Tzu put on cotton clothes with patches in them, and
arranging his girdle and tying on his shoes,
(i.e. to keep them from falling off),
went to see the prince of Wei.
"How miserable you look, Sir!" Cried the prince. "It is poverty,
not misery", replied Chuang Tzu. "A man who has TAO cannot be
miserable. Ragged clothes and old boots make poverty, not
misery".
Chuang Tzu - (Taoism)
- A Distrust of Intellect
- Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; Cleverness is mere
opinion, bewilderment intuition.
Rumi - (Islam)
- A Yearning for Divine Edification
- The intelligence of the mean man does not rise beyond bribes and letters of
recommendation. His mind is beclouded with trivialities. Yet he would penetrate the
mystery of TAO and of creation, and rise to participation in the ONE. The result is
that he is confounded by time and space; and that trammelled by objective existences,
that he fails apprehension of that age before anything was.
But the perfect man, - he carries his mind back to the period before the beginning.
Content to rest in the oblivion of nowhere, passing away like flowing water, he is
merged in the clear depths of the infinite.
Chuang Tzu - (Taoism)
- Charity
- He that does everything for Me, whose supreme object I am, who
worships Me, being free from attachment and without hatred to any
creature, this man, Arjuna!, comes to Me.
Bhagavad Gita - (Hinduism)
- Purity of Heart
- The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more
and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as
darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
Solomon - (Judaism)
- Humility
- Would you become a pilgrim on the road of love? The first
condition is that you make yourself humble as dust and ashes.
Ansari of Herat - (Islam)
- Meekness
- Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good;
let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth!
Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked
for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.
Dhammapada - (Buddhism)
The Great Poets have won many profoundly instructive insights.
The
following quotations could be said to
"somehow encapsulate" the same Truths just presented from Christian sources, and from "non-Christian" Inter-Faith sources.
- A Disdain for Materialism
-
Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.
Shakespeare
- A Distrust of Intellect
- The intellectual power, through words and things,
Went sounding on, a dim and perilous way!
Wordsworth
- A Yearning for Divine Edification
- God guard me from those thoughts men think
In the mind alone;
He that sings a lasting song
Thinks in a marrow-bone;
Yeats
- Charity
- That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.
Wordsworth
- Purity of Heart
- A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience.
Shakespeare
- Humility
- The best of men
That e'er wore earth about him, was a sufferer,
A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,
The first true gentleman that ever breathed.
Thomas Dekker
- Meekness
- Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice,
And could of men distinguish her election,
Sh'hath sealed thee for herself, for thou hast been
As one in suff'ring all that suffers nothing,
A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well co-medled,
That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please: give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.
Shakespeare
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.
This page is intended to as a contribution to the Faith vs Reason Debate or Controversy and it is surely interesting in this regard that
Aldous Huxley, who later in his life sincerely researched into Spiritual Truth, was a grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley who was a scientific contemporary
of Charles Darwin, (and prominent in the same fields of scientific study)!
Where Darwin himself was somewhat reluctant to launch his theories upon the world Aldous Huxley's grandfather
became such a vocal champion of "Darwinism" that he became known as "Darwin's Bulldog"!
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:-
Spirituality as an aspect to Human Nature?
Explore Human Nature with the aid of profound insights from such historically notable authorities asSeveral World ReligionsPlato and Socrates
ShakespearePythagorasand Modern Psychological Science!!! on:-
Also of major interest!!!
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?
Who can doubt that "Wisdom" and "Enlightenment" are essentially aligned with "Inspiration in association with Reason" rather than being
aligned with "Reason" alone?
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
|
Richard Dawkins
(The God Delusion, 2006).
|
Daniel Dennett
(Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, 2006).
|
Christopher Hitchens
(God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, 2007).
|
Sam Harris
(The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, 2004).
|
Image Credit: Neil Davies - caricatureclub.co.uk
|
|
Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris were announced, in the summer of 2011, as keynote speakers at a Global Atheist
Convention - "A Celebration of Reason" - to be held
in Australia early in 2012.
|
[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 sought to portray as its negative influences on society.
It has happened. however,
that the ill-health he was known to have been suffering from actually claimed his life in december 2011].
|
We at Age-of-the-Sage would like to sympathise with
Christopher Hitchens' family and friends in their personal loss.
According to http://richarddawkins.net/pages/mission ~ as of April, 2012 :-
The mission of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science is to support scientific education, critical thinking and evidence-based understanding of the natural world in the quest to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and suffering.
In fairness to Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris it must be recognised that much of their initial aversion
to religion seems to stem from what they saw as appalling instances of human strife being directly related to religious adherence.
This aversion was easily built on by pointing to examples of hypocrisy perpetrated by some individuals who profess to be religious and by
critiquing those religious teachings that demand extremes of Humility and, (given what appear to be obvious scientific advances
~ often displacing acceptance of "Creationism"),
a preference for Faith over Reason!!!
There is an US based Center For Inquiry with a mission statement reading as follows:-
The mission of the Center for Inquiry is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values.
(http://www.centerforinquiry.net/about ~ as of April, 2012)
Just below this mission statement on this "about" page we read:-
To oppose and supplant the mythological narratives of the past, and the dogmas of the present, the world needs an institution
devoted to promoting science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. The Center for Inquiry is that institution.
Alongside its other activities the Center for Inquiry does much toward co-operating with the US Council for Secular Humanism (described on
the Center for Inquiry web site as "North America’s largest organization for ethical, nonreligious people").
In 2010, as part of its contribution to the Center for Inquiry's Campaign for Free Expression, the Council for Secular Humanism invited professional and amateur artists to submit their
sharpest, cleverest, and most ingenious creations touching on that most sensitive subject: religion.
The follwing cartoon "Memes" submitted by Doug Davis of Los Angeles, California was one of the principal prizewinners and may dramatise some of the ways in
which Religion freaks many Secular Humanists out.
[Memes - a term coined by Richard Dawkins - are conceived of as being "units of culture" (ideas, beliefs, patterns of behaviour, etc.) which are "hosted" in one or more
individual minds, and which can reproduce themselves, thereby jumping from mind to mind].
We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. `Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a
monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme.
Richard Dawkins, "The Selfish Gene", Chapter 11.
Meanwhiles the "Enlightenment is not Intellectual" and "Distrust of the Intellect" panels displayed earlier featured contributions by some
undoubted, (and perhaps ~ in cases ~ largely undoubtable), authorities including A Zen Master, Solomon
the Wise (often mooted as the principal author of the Book of Proverbs), Jesus' Parable of the Sower, John Dryden, William Shakespeare, William Cowper and Rumi (the most famous mystical
poet in the Islamic World).
It could be suggested that sprituality can be an inherently rewarding form of Human self-expression and can be much more than just "an acceptance of
a unit of culture".
Religions have comforted and guided most of Mankind for many thousands of years.
|
|
![[spiritual insights quotations, faith vs versus reason science debate]](enlightenment.gif)
