57 quotes
I love traditional religions. Whenever I wander into distinctive churches or mosques or temples, or visit museums of religious art, or hear performances of sacred music, I am enthralled by the beauty and solemnity and power they offer.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
The words in the traditional texts may sound different to us than they did to their authors, but they continue to resonate with our religious selves. We know what they are intended to mean.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
The most reliable joy is to be out of doors, to be a creature among other creatures. I find it very restful.
Uncommon Knowledge (2005)
The good stuff of most religions turns out to be a golden rule that defines a morality which allows humans to flourish in community.
Science and Spirit interview (2004)
Emergence is inherent in everything that is alive, allowing our yearning for supernatural miracles to be subsumed by our joy in the countless miracles that surround us.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
Reverence is the sense that there is something larger than the self, larger even than the human, to which one accords respect and awe and assent.
Uncommon Knowledge (2005)
Humans need stories — grand compelling stories — that help to orient us in our lives in the cosmos. The Epic of Evolution is such a story, beautifully suited to anchor our search for planetary consensus, telling us of our nature, our place, our context.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
While I agree… that indifference is indeed our most dangerous capacity, I actually do believe that it's on the wane.
As the forbears of our children we are called to transmit to them a joyous and sustainable vision of their future — meaning that we are each called to develop such a vision.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
We are embedded in the great evolutionary story of planet Earth, the spare, elegant process of mutation and selection and bricolage. And this means that we are anything but alone.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
The role of religion is to integrate the Cosmology and the Morality, to render the cosmological narrative so rich and compelling that it elicits our allegiance and our commitment to its emergent moral understandings.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
I confess a credo of continuation. And in so doing, I confess as well a credo of human continuation.
There are two kinds of power. "Power over" is very problematical. "Power within" is very exciting. You can tell the difference by whether you are messing with other people or not.
Uncommon Knowledge (2005)
I like mindful people. Fear prevents mindfulness, and then greed marches in because you are fearful, so you feel like you have to shore everything up.
Uncommon Knowledge (2005)
You can't have thought without emotion, and one emotion is fear, and making an important decision on the basis of fear is not a good idea. So develop your courage.
Uncommon Knowledge (2005)
I have no need to take on the contradictions or immiscibilities between them, any more that I would quarrel with the fact that Scottish bagpipes coexist with Japanese tea ceremonies.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
I call myself a non-theist as opposed to an atheist because as I see an atheist as having a belief about God, i.e. that there isn't one.
Meaning of Life interview (2008)
I don't have any problem accessing experiences of unity. I feel completely part of the universe and all that's going on.
Science and Spirit interview (2004)
I like the Buddhist concept of beginning-less-ness, that the universe has always been going on.
Science and Spirit interview (2004)
The religious naturalist is provisioned with tales of natural emergence that are, to my mind, far more magical than traditional miracles. Emergence is inherent in everything that is alive, allowing our yearning for supernatural miracles to be subsumed by our joy in the countless miracles that surround us.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)