#eli

The reason why Jesus got into such severe trouble was that he tried to bring into the present a construction of the world, of God and of the self that belonged to a still-remote future. He was much too far ahead of his time, and suffered accordingly. ↗

— Don Cupitt

#god #religion #religion

I thought I saw how stories of this kind could steal past a certain inhibition which had paralysed much of my own religion in childhood. Why did one find it so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about God or the sufferings of Christ? I thought the chief reason was that one was told one ought to. An obligation to feel can freeze feelings. And reverence itself did harm. The whole subject was associated with lowered voices; almost as if it were something medical. But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday School associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one not thus steal past those watchful dragons? I thought one could. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#dragons #narnia #past-watchful-dragons #potency #reverence

يلزم التنويه بأنه إذا كان التطرف والاعتدال هما محض طريقتين في الاشتغال يتسع لهما خطاب تديين السياسة، فإن ذلك يعني أنهما من قبيل العارض الذي لا يؤثر في حضور المشتغلين بهما معاً تحت مظلة ذات الخطاب الواحد. وبعبارة أخري، فإن الفارق بينهما يتعلق بمحض الإجرائي السطحي، وليس بالبنيوي العميق، أو أنه من قبيل الفارق في الدرجة، وليس النوع. وتبعاً لذلك، فإنه لن يكون بمقدور أحد التبرؤ من العنف الواقع تحت مظلة هذا الخطاب، باعتبار أنه مجرد ممارسة منحرفة لأفراد غير أسوياء؛ لأن هذا العنف- في حقيقته- لا يتعلق، فحسب، بما يقصد إليه الأفراد، بل يرتبط- وهو الأهم- بضرورات منطق الخطاب ↗

— علي مبروك

#religion

At the Temple of the Seven-Handed Sek a hasty convocation of priests and ritual heart-transplant artisans agreed that the hundred-span-high statue of Sek was altogether too holy to be made into a magic picture, but a payment of two rhinu left them astoundedly agreeing that perhaps He wasn't as holy as all that. A prolonged session at the Whore Pits produced a number of colourful and instrutive pictures, a number of which Rincewind concealed about his person for detailed perusal in private. As the fumes cleared from his brain he began to speculate seriously as to how the iconograph worked. ↗

— Terry Pratchett

#nonsense #religion #religion

A lot of people come up here and they thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. He didn't help me a bit. If it was up to him, Cesar Millan would be up here with that damn dog. So all I can say is, 'suck it, Jesus! This award is my God now'! ↗

— Kathy Griffin

#blasphemy #comedy #humor #humour #religion

If a man cannot serve two masters, neither can Christianity, or several thousand of them as the case may be. ↗

— E.A. Bucchianeri

#christian #christianity #god #one-christ-one-church #religion

تدرك السياسة, وخصوصاً حين تكون قامعة مستبدة، أن العقل المنفتح غير المقيد هو أخطر ما يتهددها؛ وذلك من حيث يؤشر علي أن نقيضها من الحكم الرشيد هو المؤدي- وليس سواه- إلي تحقيق صالح المجموع، ومن هنا ما تسعي إليه، علي الدوام، من إزاحته وإبعاده. وإذ تدرك استحالة إنجاز هذا الإنجاز بما تمتلك من وسائل الترويع والبطش، فإنها تتوسل بالدين والشرع لتضعهما في مواجهة معه، وللغرابة، فإن ذلك لا ينتهي إلي إسكات صوت العقل فحسب، بل إلي تهديد منظومتي الدين والشرع علي نحو كامل. ↗

— علي مبروك

#philosophy #religion #religious #religion

My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally. ↗

— John Dominic Crossan

#religion #religion

And if you would know God, be not therefore a solver of riddles. Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children. And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain. You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees. ↗

— Kahlil Gibran

#religion #spirituality #nature

Dora was stunned by this information. She stopped. 'Do you mean' she said, 'that they're completely imprisoned in there?' Mrs. Marks laughed. 'Not imprisoned, my dear,' she said. 'They are there of their own free will. This is not a prison. It is on the contrary a place which it is very hard to get into, and only the strongest achieve it. Like Mary in the parable, they have chosen the better part. ↗

— Iris Murdoch

#the-bell #religion