#nit

If a faithful account was rendered of Man’s ideas upon Divinity, he would be obliged to acknowledge, that for the most part the word “gods” has been used to express the concealed, remote, unknown causes of the effects he witnessed; that he applies this term when the spring of the natural, the source of known causes, ceases to be visible: as soon as he loses the thread of these causes, or as soon as his mind can no longer follow the chain, he solves the difficulty, terminates his research, by ascribing it to his gods  …   When, therefore, he ascribes to his gods the production of some phenomenon  …   does he, in fact, do any thing more than substitute for the darkness of his own mind, a sound to which he has been accustomed to listen with reverential awe? ↗

— Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach

#divinity #gods #ignorance #knowledge #materialism

Faced with stress, too many people feel they have nowhere to turn to, that they don't have access to the kind of friendships or communities where they can easily and openly share their problems and worries. ↗

— Daisaku Ikeda

#communities #easily #faced #feel #friendships

Humanity has experienced many revolutionary changes over the course of history: revolutions in agriculture, in science, industrial production, as well as numerous political revolutions. But these have all been limited to the external aspects of our individual and collective lives. ↗

— Daisaku Ikeda

#aspects #been #changes #collective #course

Overall relations between the North and the South have developed in favor of national reconciliation, unity and reunification. ↗

— Kim Jong Il

#developed #favor #national #north #overall

It is the Band which unites the Interests of Individuals; it secures to them their respective Rights, and preserves them from Injuries; it is the Source of numberless Blessings, which are interrupted, or wholly vanish, the Moment it is disturbed. ↗

— Charles Inglis

#blessings #disturbed #individuals #injuries #interests

Another factor is the decision, made in 1976, to sharply divide the FBI and the foreign intelligence agencies. The FBI would collect within the United States; the foreign intelligence agencies would collect overseas. ↗

— Bobby Ray Inman

#another #collect #decision #divide #factor

One doesn't become a soldier in a week - it takes training, study and discipline. There is no question that the finest Army in the world is found in the United States. ↗

— Daniel Inouye

#become #discipline #finest #found #question

Thus passing through the infinite varieties of space we reach the Divine space which is absolutely free from all dimensions and constitutes the meeting point of all infinities. ↗

— Muhammad Iqbal

#absolutely free #constitutes #dimensions #divine #free

How we think about God matters. It affects the credibility of religion in general and of Christianity in particular. Our concept of God can make God seem real or unreal, just as it can also make God seem remote or near. ↗

— Marcus J. Borg

#christianity #god #religion #faith

I have little shame, no dignity - all in the name of a better cause. ↗

— A. J. Jacobs

#cause #dignity #i #little #name