Secular Enlightenment Quotes & Sayings

Secular humanism proposes ... the complete implementation of the agenda of modernism ... what is necessary for it to occur is a ... New Enlightenment. — Paul Kurtz

Intricate minglings of different uses in cities are not a form of chaos. On the contrary, they represent a complex and highly developed form of order. — Jane Jacobs

Flawed as they may be, science and the secular Enlightenment values expressed in Western democracies are our best hope for survival. — Michael Shermer

Strength in peace. Strength in love. Always. — Janice Anderson

A secular approach to Buddhism is thus concerned with how the dharma can enable humans and other living beings to flourish in this biosphere, not in a hypothetical afterlife. Rather than emphasizing personal enlightenment and liberation, it is grounded in a deeply felt concern and compassion for the suffering of all those with whom we share this earth. — Stephen Batchelor

By calling into question the very ideal of a universal, autonomous reason (which was, in the Enlightenment, the basis for rejecting religious thought) and further demonstrating that all knowledge is grounded in narrative or myth, Lyotard relativizes (secular) philosophy's claim to autonomy and so grants the legitimacy of a philosophy that grounds itself in Christian faith. Previously such a distinctly Christian philosophy would have been exiled from the 'pure' arena of philosophy because of its 'infection' with bias and prejudice. Lyotard's critique, however, demonstrates that no philosophy - indeed, no knowledge - is untainted by prejudice or faith commitments. In this way the playing field is leveled, and new opportunities to voice a Christian philosophy are created. Thus Lyotard's postmodern critique of metanarratives, rather than being a formidable foe of Christian faith and thought, can in fact be enlisted as an ally in the construction of a Christian philosophy. — James K.A. Smith

For millennia, religions in general, and Jewish, Christian, and Islamic churches in particular, have had little problem with the forced enslavement of hundreds of millions of people. It was only after the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment that rational arguments were proffered for the abolition of the slave trade, influenced by and citing such secular documents as the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. After an unconscionably long lag time, religion finally got on board the abolition train and became instrumental in helping to propel it forward. — Michael Shermer

Interesting. Stonecipheco Baby Foods. Not a bad line of products, really. A bit soft and runny for my taste, of course ... "
"Well, it's infant food, really, Norman. — David Foster Wallace

Second, some common interpretations of our shared past are badly in need of correction. Secular liberals who claim that the United States was built on Enlightenment foundations are just as mistaken as religious nationalists who believe that the American founders were "orthodox Christians." Revolutionary worldviews were actually a rich mixture of Jewish, Christian, liberal, and republican ideas and values. Third, — Philip S Gorski

If we replace five pounds of fat with five pounds of muscle, which is a significant achievement for most adults, we will increase our energy expenditure by two dozen calories a day. — Gary Taubes

When you really laugh, for those few moments you are in a deep meditative state. Thinking stops. It is impossible to laugh and think together ... If you are still thinking. laughter will be just so-so ... It will be a crippled laughter. — Rajneesh

Peter remained on friendly terms with Christ notwithstanding Christ's having healed his mother-in-law. — Samuel Butler

Always take the scenic route. — Janice Anderson

There are also two Christianities in the world today. There is (1) the Christianity of the New Testament, and there is (2) the Christianity of accommodation to modernism, egalitarianism, niceness, naturalism, pop psychology, secular humanism, relativism, subjectivism, individualism, "Enlightenment" rationalism or postmodern irrationalism. New converts to the first Christianity are constantly amazed and scandalized by finding many of their clergy to be in love with the second and in fear of the first. — Peter Kreeft

I made a big mistake. There's no doubt about it. But there have been positive testing cases in the past where the offender wasn't attacked to quite the same extent, especially not by other riders. — Patrik Sinkewitz

You can't create a political movement out of pabulum. — Robert Reich

If Putin wants to knock the hell out of ISIS, I'm all for it 100 percent and I can't understand how anybody would be against that. — Donald Trump

There are dedicated actors and there are people now who only stay famous for putting on weight, losing it, then putting it on again. — Joe Dempsie

The theories of the major philosophers of the 18th century secular enlightenment were biblical and theological in spite of themselves. — M.H. Abrams

When he pulled away, he smiled kindly at me. I felt so good, I'll admit I teared up a little. I guess until that moment I hadn't allowed myself to realize just how terrified I had been the last few days.
"Dad-"
"Shhh," he said. "No hero is above fear, Percy. And you have risen above every hero. Not even Hercules- — Rick Riordan

I had been taught that the separation between religion and politics happened in the Enlightenment. But there were people who tried to create a secular relationship to government 2,000 years ago, and those people were the Jews. — Elaine Pagels

American culture really has two souls. And it's not a question of whether the culture becomes secularized. The culture never becomes one thing or the other. The culture is always two. The culture is always William Bradford and Jonathan Edwards. The culture is always Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison. America was born just in time to have two mentalities. We're like Jacob and Esau struggling in the womb. Secular people want to believe that we are a nation of the Enlightenment, and because of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution that secularism will supersede religion. Religious people want to believe that through the revival religion will supersede secularism. And both are wrong. "What's going to happen," he said, "is that there will continue to be a constant dynamic and tension between the two, running side by side.And they're going to keep on being about that for as long as there's an American identity worth talking about. — Bruce Feiler

In a sense, scattered dots are exactly what one would expect to see in a pre-Enlightenment, pre-mechanized world. There were disbelievers in Greek antiquity just as there were everywhere, but there was no obvious role for mass-movement atheism in a culture where ensuring the stability of the state - which depended on the favor of the gods - was prized above all else. Atheism has prospered in the West since the eighteenth century because society has a role for it: in an advanced capitalist economy based on technological innovation, it has been necessary to claw intellectual and moral authority away from the clergy and reallocate it to the secular specialists in science and engineering. It is this social function that has allowed atheism to emerge as a movement composed of individual atheists. — Tim Whitmarsh

Rumors alone can cause his family grief. It just isn't fair to compromise a person's reputation. — Mary Ellis

I want to be the kind of actress where, if I'm in the press, I'm in for the right reasons - for my work. To be in the press about family drama is kind of embarrassing. — Ariel Winter

Grades are a subjective rating masquerading as an objective evaluation. — Alfie Kohn