29 quotes
Any global tradition needs to begin with a shared worldview — a culture-independent, globally accepted consensus as to how things are.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
We nurture our children selflessly. But we also recognize them as our most tangible sources of renewal — for a child, the world is always new.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
When I sing the hymns of faith in Jesus' love, I am drawn to their intimacy, their allure, their poetry. But in the end, such faith is simply not available to me.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
Life from nonlife, like wine from water, has long been considered a miracle wrought by gods or God. Now it is seen to be the near-inevitable consequence of our thermal and chemical circumstances.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
Sex without death gets you single-celled algae and fungi; sex with a mortal soma gets you the rest of the eukaryotic creatures.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
The biochemistry and biophysics are the notes required for life; they conspire, collectively, to generate the real unit of life, the organism.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
Patterns of gene expression are to organisms as melodies and harmonies are to sonatas.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
This mythos comes to us, often in experiences called revelation, from the sages and the artists of past and present times.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
I have no choice but to pour these capacities and needs into earthly relationships, fragile and mortal and difficult as they often are.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
To take the universe on — to ask Why Are Things As They Are? — is to generate the foundation for everything else.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
We are, each one of us, ordained to live out our lives in the context of ultimate questions, such as:
Why is there anything at all, rather than nothing?
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
Throughout the ages, the weaving of our religious weft has been the province of our prophets and gurus and liturgists and poets.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
These answers are by definition beliefs since they can neither be proven nor refuted. They may be gleaned from existing faith traditions or from personal search.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
When the responses elicited by the Epic of Evolution are gathered together several religious principles emerge that I can believe, serve as a framework for a global Ethos.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
Without a hook, the new information falls on the floor.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
The tapestry maker first strings the warp, long strong fibers anchored firmly to the loom, and then interweaves the weft, the patterns, the color, the art.
The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998)
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)
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)
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)