“Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians have insisted for centuries that God does not exist and that there is 'nothing' out there; in making these assertions, their aim was not to deny the reality of God but to safeguard God's transcendence.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“Auschwitz was a dark epiphany, providing us with a terrible vision of what life is like when all sense of the sacred is lost and the human being--whoever he or she may be--is no longer revered as an inviolable mystery.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“In [the] early days, Muslims did not see Islam as a new, exclusive religion but as a continuation of the primordial faith of the ‘People of the Book’, the Jews and Christians. In one remarkable passage, God insists that Muslims must accept indiscriminately the revelations of every single one of God’s messengers: Abraham, Isaac, Ishamel, Jacob, Moses, Jesus and all the other prophets. The Qur’an is simply a ‘confirmation’ of the previous scriptures. Nobody must be forced to accept Islam, because each of the revealed traditions had its own din; it was not God’s will that all human beings should belong to the same faith community. God was not the exclusive property of any one tradition; the divine light could not be confined to a single lamp, belonged neither to the East or to the West, but enlightened all human beings. Muslims must speak courteously to the People of the Book, debate with them only in ‘the most kindly manner’, remember that they worshipped the same God, and not engage in pointless, aggressive disputes.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“لم يكن الطقس "الطقوس الدينية" في العالم قبل الحديث نتاج أفكار دينية بل على النقيض فقد كانت الأفكار نتاج الطقوس”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“Some Western Christians read the story as a factual account of the Original Sin that condemned the human race to everlasting perdition. But this is a peculiarly Western Christian interpretation and was introduced controversially by Saint Augustine of Hippo only in the early fifth century. The Eden story has never been understood in this way in either the Jewish or the Orthodox Christian traditions. However, we all tend to see these ancient tales through the filter of subsequent history and project current beliefs onto texts that originally meant something quite different.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“Anybody who imagines that revealed religion requires a craven clinging to a fixed, unalterable, and self-evident truth should read the rabbis. Midrash required them to “investigate” and “go in search” of fresh insight. The rabbis used the old scriptures not to retreat into the past but to propel them into the uncertainties of the post-temple world.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“The Deuteronomists had made violence an option in the Judeo-Christian religion. It would always be possible to make these scriptures endorse intolerant policies.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“If a stranger lives with you in your land, do not molest him. You must treat him like one of your own people and love him as yourselves, for you were strangers in Egypt.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“Once you gave up the nervous craving to promote yourself, denigrate others, draw attention to your unique and special qualities, and ensure that you were first in the pecking order, you experienced an immense peace.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“There is also a widespread assumption that the Bible is supposed to provide us with role models and give us precise moral teaching, but this was not the intention of the biblical authors. The Eden story is certainly not a morality tale; like any paradise myth, it is an imaginary account of the infancy of the human race.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“Any interpretation of scripture that bred hatred or disdain for others was illegitimate,”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“لم تكن الطقوس الدينية في العالم قبل الحديث مناج أفكار دينية بل على النقيض فقد كانت الأفكار نتاج الطقوس”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“The French philosopher Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973) distinguished between a problem, “something met which bars my passage” and “is before me in its entirety,” and a mystery, “something in which I find myself caught up, and whose essence is not before me in its entirety.”69”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“He claimed gleefully that he had no opinions at all, because he had no self. A poet, he believed, was ‘the most unpoetical of any thing in existence; because he has no Identity’.75 True poetry had no time for ‘the egotistical sublime’,76 which forced itself on the reader:”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“A disorderly spirituality that makes the practitioner dreamy, eccentric, or uncontrolled is a very bad sign indeed. In”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“نفرط في أيامنا هذه، في الحديث عن الله، بيد أن معظم ما نقوله يتسم بالسطحية والتبسيط. نعتقد، في مجتمعنا الديمقراطي، أن مفهوم الرب يجب أن يكون سهلًا، وأن يكون الدين متاحًا للجميع، كثيرًا ما يقول لي القرّاء، على سبيل العتاب، أن كتابي هذا أو ذاك صعب. وأريد أن أجيب "إنه عن الله" لكن الكثيرون يجدون إجابتي محيرة. فمن المؤكد أن الجميع يعرفون من هو الله: الكائن الأعظم الذي خلق العالم وكل شيء فيه. تظهر عليهم الحيرة حين نبين أنه من غير الدقة أن نسمي "الله" الكائن الأعظم لأن الله ليس كائنًا على الإطلاق، وأننا لا نعرف مانعنيه حينما نقول إنه "خيّر" أو "حكيم" أو "ذكي".”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“so Enlightenment philosophers developed a new form of theism, based entirely on reason and Newtonian science, which they called Deism.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“He insisted that it was impossible to understand a single word of the Book of Nature without knowing the language of mathematics.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
Karen Armstrong
Born place: in Wildmoor, Worcestershire, The United Kingdom
Born date November 14, 1944
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“The other thing you have to understand was that the message crept into our national consciousness very slowly. It did not happen all at once. We did not wake up one morning to hear it pouring out of the radio at full strength. It started with a sneering comment, the casual use of the term "cockroach," the almost humorous suggestion that Tutsis should be airmailed back to Ethiopia. Stripping the humanity from an entire group of people takes time. It is an attitude that requires cultivation, a series of small steps, daily tending.”
― quote from An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography
“Three g’s, and an r: Get in, get the info, get out, relocate.”
― Kim Harrison, quote from The Drafter
“Is it my turn yet?” Lassiter asked over the earpiece. “I was born ready for this.” “Of all the people who could be immortal,” V muttered, “why are you one of them?” “Because I’m awwwwwesome,” the fallen angel sang. “And I’m part of your team—” “No, you’re not—” “—living your dream!” Butch’s head started thumping even worse. “Shut up, Lass. I can’t do singing right now.” “It’s from Despicable Me,” the angel commented. Like he was being helpful. “Shut up,” V cut in. “Shut up.” Butch fought to keep his voice low. “We’ve got another four minutes in the gym. I’ll let you know when you can—” “I’m losing air over here, you know,” Lassiter bitched. “My inflatable is deflating.” V cursed. “That’s because it doesn’t want to be around you any more than we do.” “You keep this up and I’m going to start thinking my enmity is mutual.” “About fucking time.” Right, Butch didn’t get off on dragging soaking-wet, panicked idiots out of a pool—but, man, he was really frickin’ glad he wasn’t on the back side of the house with those two fighting. “Sit tight, Lass,” he said. “I’ll be in touch—and, V, for the love of God, will you turn off his fucking mic—” “Ow! Hey! What the fuck, V—”
― J.R. Ward, quote from Blood Kiss
“My fault? It could be. So much was my fault, the result of my actions or decisions. Sabina”
― Faith Hunter, quote from Dark Heir
“But the world did not match the picture in my head, and instead I was with a strange, uncombed person, overlooking a sea without water and a forest without trees.”
― Lemony Snicket, quote from Who Could That Be at This Hour?
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Beneath a Scarlet Sk...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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