#lis

An unexamined faith is not worth having, for fundamentalism and uncritical certitude entail the rejection of one of the great human gifts: that of free will, of the liberty to make up our own minds based on evidence and tradition and reason. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#certitude #entail #evidence #faith #free

The more we can do to support and promulgate the intellectual traditions of the Abrahamic faiths - of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - the better armed we will be to fight fundamentalism. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#better #christianity #faiths #fight #fundamentalism

Among the many problems with taking the Bible literally is it reduces the most mysterious and complex of realities to simple - even simplistic - terms. Yes, scripture speaks of fire and damnation and eternal bliss, but the Bible is the product of human hands and hearts, and much of the imagery is allegorical, not meteorological. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#among #bible #bliss #complex #damnation

A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again. ↗

— Margaret Mead

#answer #any #city #country #familiar

Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess. ↗

— Margaret Mead

#able #anthropology #astonishment #been #demands

This very individualistic form of Protestant Christianity that became so basic in English and then American life is to a large degree responsible for the historical success of Britain and America. ↗

— Walter Russell Mead

#american #american life #basic #became #britain

Once again I stopped listening to the news this week. ↗

— Donella Meadows

#i #listening #news #once #stopped

Yet habit - strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish? ↗

— Herman Melville

#cannot #habit #strange #strange thing #thing

He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor. ↗

— Menander

#all things #despair #diligence #diligently #labor

Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible as baseball in Italian. ↗