#secularism

Whether we "spiritualize" our life or "secularize" our religion, whether we invite men to a spiritual banquet or simply join them at the secular one, the real life of the world, for which we are told God gave his only begotten Son, remains hopelessly beyond our religious grasp. ↗

— Alexander Schmemann

#secularism #spirituality #life

Misstraue jedem Politiker, jedem Regierungs- oder Staatschef, der seine Religion zum Instrument macht. Halte Abstand von solchen Politikern, die ihre auf das Jenseits orientierte Religion und ihre diesseitige Politik miteinander vermischen. ↗

— Helmut Schmidt

#fundamentalism #politics #religion #secularism #religion

The real question is how much suffering we've caused our womenfolk by turning headscarves into symbols - and using women as pawns in a political game. ↗

— Orhan Pamuk

#politics #secularism #islam

I want the French people to respect values that allow each individual to practice his or her faith, but in the frame of our common rules of secularism. ↗

— Francois Hollande

#common #each #faith #frame #french

To imply that religious believers have no right to engage moral questions in the public square or at the ballot is simply to establish a Reichian secularism as our state faith. ↗

— Maggie Gallagher

#believers #engage #establish #faith #imply

Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead. ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#atheism #humanism #secularism #humans

All my moral and intellectual being is penetrated by an invincible conviction that whatever falls under the dominion of our senses must be in nature and, however exceptional, cannot differ in its essence from all the other effects of the visible and tangible world of which we are a self-conscious part. The world of the living contains enough marvels and mysteries as it is—marvels and mysteries acting upon our emotions and intelligence in ways so inexplicable that it would almost justify the conception of life as an enchanted state. No, I am too firm in my consciousness of the marvelous to be ever fascinated by the mere supernatural which (take it any way you like) is but a manufactured article, the fabrication of minds insensitive to the intimate delicacies of our relation to the dead and to the living, in their countless multitudes; a desecration of our tenderest memories; an outrage on our dignity. ↗

— Joseph Conrad

#intelligence

But the philosophical and scientific process which I call 'secularization' necessarily involves the divesting of spiritual meaning from the world of nature; the desacralization of politics from human affairs; and the deconsecration of values from the human mind and conduct. ↗

— Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas

#secularization #nature

Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly? ↗

— Sandra Day O'Connor

#religion #secularism #separation-of-church-and-state #state #theocracy