We have found it entirely possible to research into the Profund Truths that have been "captured and somehow encapsulated" within certain spiritual and poetical quotations!!!

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].

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 11:55 ~ (Hinduism)

And my soul is absorbed 
In the Love of My Lord. 
Bow humbly to the saint 
That is a pious act. 
Bow to the ground before him 
That is devotion, indeed. 
 
The faithless know not, 
The joy of the love of the Lord; 

From Sohila-Arti ~ a bed-time prayer
This section of which is attributed to Guru Ram Das - (Sikhism)

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)

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 following linked pages briefly, but compellingly, demonstrate a ~ perhaps surprising ~ degree of Common Ground between the Inner-most Spiritual Teachings of several major World Religions:-
Buddhist Spirituality Quotations	Islamic Spirituality Quotations	Vedic-Hindu Spirituality Quotations
Christian Spirituality Quotations
Sikh Spirituality Quotations	Taoist Spirituality Quotations	Jewish Spirituality Quotations
Central poetry insights ~ Secular but comparable in depth and content!!! Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Keats, Cowper and Dryden ~ need we say more?
A collection of these wisdoms is available to from this page

Prominent "New Atheists", also known as The Four Horsemen.

Richard Dawkins	Image Credit: Neil Davies - caricatureclub.co.uk	Daniel Dennett
Christopher Hitchens		Sam Harris

A decisive, THEISTIC, challenge is possible:-

Since Darwin's time the Faith vs. Reason debate or Controversy, which his theorising massively contributed to bringing to prominence, has seen " Faith " losing ground to " Reason ".

We cannot deny that over the last one hundred and fifty or so years an intellectually persuasive Theory of Evolution has become vastly influential, that Friedrich Nietzsche has agonised over the Death of God, that we have become persuaded that the earthly land masses upon which we live actually move across the surface of our planet due to currents present within the Earth's fluid internal layers of molten rock, that eminent scientists such as Stephen Hawking and Lawrence Krauss are persuaded that the Existence of the Universe could have arisen from the operation of purely natural forces and Richard Dawkins has been making efforts to persuade us all that God is a Delusion.

Agnosticism and Atheism have increasingly gained hold on human minds: particularly so in the westernised world.

Spirituality vs Secularism
Faith vs Reason debate links

Friedrich Nietzsche God is dead quote	Theory of Evolution development history Charles Darwin - Alfred Russel Wallace and Malthus' Essay on Population	Charles Darwin quotes on God & religious beliefs
Richard Dawkins science vs. religion quotes	What does Stephen Hawking believe in? Some quotes on God and Religion	The main Tectonic Plates boundaries and boundary types
Richard Dawkins quotations and quotes about God and Religion	Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss The Unbelievers	Richard Dawkins quotations and quotes Science Darwin & Evolution

There has been a widespread acceptance of the "New Atheism" proposed by such "clever and rational", (but very possibly "spiritually un-enlightened"), persons as Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris.

We can give some consideration to how insistent and uncompromising the New Atheists have been by reminding ourselves of the titles of the books produced by the chief proponents of the "New Atheism".

Over the last decade the leading figures in the New Atheism movement have been responsible for the authorship of books with such titles as:-

Dawkins

"The God Delusion" (2006)
(As of January 2010 the English-language version alone had sold more than two million copies with translations also being available in thirty other languages).

Dennett

"Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" (2006)

Hitchens

"God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" (2007)
(The book was published on May 1, 2007, and within a week had reached No. 2 on the Amazon.com bestsellers list. It then went on to reach No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller list in its third week).

Harris

"The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason" (2005)

It cannot be denied that the "New Atheism" has been quite culturally influential!!!

Nevertheless, a decisive Spiritual-Theistic challenge to the current "New Atheism" is indeed possible!

The evidence presented above of Common Ground in the core spiritual teachings of several World Faiths tells us something about the Gods, (or Spirits), that they each revere being, at least, quite similar and ~ at most ~ Identical.

It also puts this quotation from Richard Dawkins into a different perspective:-

“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”
Richard Dawkins ~ The God Delusion

From this perspective it is even possible to turn the sort of wordy assertions Dawkins himself likes to deploy against him:-

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
Daniel J. Boorstin, Librarian of the United States Congress 1975 - 1987
(and sometimes misattributed to Stephen Hawking).

 

Our selections of spiritual insights quotations may hold a particular relevance in relation to the the Faith vs Reason Debate or controversy!!!

In the Introduction to The Perennial Philosophy Aldous Huxley explicitly asserts that:-

"Knowledge is a function of being."

In other words, if you are not suited to knowing something, you can not know it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, (who has been described by one of his biographers as having become "the leading voice of intellectual culture in the United States"), included this passage in his Essay "The Over-Soul":-

..."The soul's advances are not made by gradation, such as can be represented by motion in a straight line; but rather by ascension of state, such as can be represented by metamorphosis, — from the egg to the worm, from the worm to the fly. The growths of genius are of a certain total character, that does not advance the elect individual first over John, then Adam, then Richard, and give to each the pain of discovered inferiority, but by every throe of growth the man expands there where he works, passing, at each pulsation, classes, populations, of men. With each divine impulse the mind rends the thin rinds of the visible and finite, and comes out into eternity, and inspires and expires its air"...

Huxley concludes his Introduction to The Perennial Philosophy with these words:-

"If one is not oneself a sage or saint, the best thing one can do, in the field of metaphysics, is to study the works of those who were, and who, because they had modified their merely human mode of being, were capable of a more than merely human kind and amount of knowledge."

The Theosophical Society in America website hosts a more detailed treatment of the KNOWLEDGE AS A FUNCTION OF BEING aspect to the Introduction to the Perennial Philosophy here
.
The Great Faiths tend to prefer "Inspiration" over "Thought":-

Enlightenment is not 'Intellectual'

A University Professor went to see Nan-in, a Zen Master, to find out more about Zen.
As their meeting continued Nan-in was pouring Tea and continued to pour even though the cup was overflowing. The Professor cried. "Enough! No more will go in!"
Nan-in replied "Like this cup you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

 

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
The Book of Proverbs

 

The Parable of the Sower is, perhaps, the most "Enlightenment" related teaching of Jesus!!!

  And he began to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was beside the sea on the land.
  And he taught them many things by parables, and he said unto them in his doctrine,
  Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:
  And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.
  And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:
  But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
  And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred.
  And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

By way of fuller explanation Jesus said:-

  The sower soweth the word (i.e. of God).
  And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
  And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word immediately receive it with gladness;
  And have no root in themselves, and so endure for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.
  And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,
  And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
  And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.
  And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick?
  For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was anything secret, but that it should come abroad.
Jesus' teaching ~ as set out in St Mark's gospel Chapter 4

This "Parable of the Sower" could be said to suggest that Enlightenment does not appear to be Intellectual but may principally arise from keeping to spiritual teachings!!!

 

The Great Poets join with The Great Faiths in tending to show an awareness of the importance of non-rational appreciation of spiritual truths:-

Distrust of the Intellect

Errors like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls must dive below.
John Dryden

Into the eye and prospect of his soul.
William Shakespeare

Here the heart
May give a useful lesson to the head,
And learning wiser grow without his books
William Cowper

The soul is the perceiver and revealer of truth. We know the truth when we see it, let skeptic and scoffer say what they choose.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Would he had been less full of borrowed knowledge! Then he would have accepted inspired knowledge from his father. When, with inspiration at hand, you seek book-learning, your heart, as if inspired, loads you with reproach. Traditional knowledge, when inspiration is available, is like making ablutions in sand when water is near. Make yourself ignorant, be submissive, and then you will obtain release from your ignorance.
Rumi

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?

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!!!

	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 and its associated mindsets.

This viewpoint can explain these New Atheists' self-adopted "Four Horsemen" nom-de-campaign: this being a contraction of Hitchens' original "Four Horsemen of the counter-Apocalypse" suggestion. (The biblical "apocalyptically destructive" Four Horsemen being War, Famine, Pestilence and Plague).
Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris saw the potential for ruinously destructive human strife arising from religious adherence and its associated mindsets as being so alarming as to demand their strenuous efforts to combat the error, as they saw it, of religious belief.
Their subsequent endeavors to combat faith featured such things as pointing to examples of hypocrisy perpetrated by some individuals who profess to be religious and by critiquing those religious teachings that, from secular viewpoints, demand an un-necessary Humility and, (given what appear to be, from secular and scientific viewpoints, obvious scientific advances displacing any possible rational acceptance of "Creationism"), critiquing 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").

Meanwhiles the "Enlightenment is not Intellectual" specific and "Distrust of the Intellect" specific quotations 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).

Religions have comforted and guided most of Mankind for many thousands of years.

He / She is so other-worldly minded as to be of no earthly use.

Spirituality as an aspect to Human Nature?

Is "Human Being" more truly Metaphysical than Physical?

Explore Human Nature with the aid of profound insights from such historically notable authorities as
Several World Religions
Plato and Socrates
Shakespeare
Pythagoras
and Modern Psychological Science!!! on:-

Our Human Nature - Tripartite Soul page

Also of major interest!!!

"In old Rome the public roads beginning at the Forum proceeded north, south, east, west, to the centre of every province of the empire, making each market-town of Persia, Spain, and Britain pervious to the soldiers of the capital: so out of the human heart go, as it were, highways to the heart of every object in nature, to reduce it under the dominion of man. A man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots, whose flower and fruitage is the world. His faculties refer to natures out of him, and predict the world he is to inhabit, as the fins of the fish foreshow that water exists, or the wings of an eagle in the egg presuppose air. He cannot live without a world."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
History (1841)

"Whatever concept one may hold, from a metaphysical point of view, concerning the freedom of the will, certainly its appearances, which are human actions, like every other natural event, are determined by universal laws. However obscure their causes, history, which is concerned with narrating these appearances, permits us to hope that if we attend to the play of freedom of the human will in the large, we may be able to discern a regular movement in it, and that what seems complex and chaotic in the single individual may be seen from the standpoint of the human race as a whole to be a steady and progressive though slow evolution of its original endowment."
Immanuel Kant
Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784)

A possible profound interplay between Human Nature and Historical Developments

More than half a century ago the prominent novelist and speaker C.P. Snow, described a chasm between literary intellectuals and scientists, a gulf that impoverished both sides and impeded efforts to relieve suffering around the world. Science was not understood or respected by then dominant literary culture, to the detriment of all, he said. At some point scientists had ceased to be considered intellectuals, Snow noted, and though any educated person was required to know Shakespeare, almost none were similarly expected to be familiar with the second law of thermodynamics.

"We need a worldview grounded in science that does not deny the richness of human nature and the validity of modes of knowing other than the scientific. If we can bring our spirituality, the richness and wholesomeness of our basic human values, to bear upon the course of science in human society, then the different approaches of science and spirituality will contribute together to the betterment of humanity."
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
In a comment on "War of the Worldviews", a faith vs. reason debate or controversy related book written by the scientist Leonard Mlodinow and by the prominent spiritual writer Deepak Chopra.
Leonard Mlodinow has previously co-authored with Stephen Hawking on scientific subjects.

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The Faith vs Reason Debate