My Study Of Religion, Which

If Professional Religious Leaders Can [no Longer] Instruct..., Our Artists And Creative Writers Can Perhaps Step Into This Priestly Role And Bring Fresh Insight To Our Lost And Damaged World.

Religious Ideas And Practices Take Root Not Because They Are Promoted By Forceful Theologians, Nor Because They Can Be Shown To Have A Sound Historical Or Rational Basis, But Because They Are Found In Practice To Give The Faithful A Sense Of Sacred Transcendence.

Compassion Is Aptly Summed Up In The Golden Rule, Which Asks Us To Look Into Our Own Hearts, Discover What Gives Us Pain, And Then Refuse, Under Any Circumstance Whatsoever, To Inflict That Pain On Anybody Else. Compassion Can Be Defined, Therefore, As An Attitude Of Principled, Consistent Altruism.

Buddhists Talk About Nirvana In Very Much The Same Terms As Monotheists Describe God.

Theologians In All The Great Faiths Have Devised All Kinds Of Myths To Show That This Type Of Kenosis, Of Self-emptying, Is Found In The Life Of God Itself. They Do Not Do This Because It Sounds Edifying, But Because This Is The Way That Human Nature Seems To Work. We Are Most Creative And Sense Other Possibilities That Transcend Our Ordinary Experience When We Leave Ourselves Behind.