Compassion is the key in Islam and Buddhism and Judaism and Christianity. They are profoundly similar.
Karen ArmstrongRead
Creation stories had never been regarded as historically accurate; their purpose was therapeutic. But once you start reading Genesis as scientifically valid, you have bad science and bad religion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creation stories serve a therapeutic purpose rather than a literal truth. Viewing them as scientifically valid undermines both faith and reason.
In this quote, Karen Armstrong emphasizes that creation stories, such as those found in Genesis, are not intended to be taken as scientifically accurate accounts of history. Instead, their primary function is to provide comfort and meaning to human existence. When individuals attempt to interpret these narratives within a scientific framework, it leads to a conflict that diminishes the value of both science and faith, as each has its own unique context and purpose.
Themes
CreationStoriesScienceReligionMeaning
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of mythology in culture, this quote can provide insight into the therapeutic nature of stories.
More from Karen Armstrong
All quotes βYet a personal God can become a grave liability. He can be a mere idol carved in our own image, a projection of our limited needs, fears and desires. We can assume that he loves what we love and hates what we hate, endorsing our prejudices instead of compelling us to transcend them.
Karen ArmstrongRead
When violence becomes imbedded in a region, then this affects everything. It affects your dreams, your fantasies and relationships, and your religion becomes violent, too.
Karen ArmstrongRead
Far from being the father of jihad, [Prophet] Mohammad was a peacemaker, who risked his life and nearly lost the loyalty of his closest companions because he was determined to effect a reconciliation with Mecca
Karen ArmstrongRead
Yes, all fundamentalists feel that in a secular society, God has been relegated to the margin, to the periphery and they are all in different ways seeking to drag him out of that peripheral position, back to center stage.
Karen ArmstrongRead
Religion is a search for transcendence. But transcendence isn't necessarily sited in an external god, which can be a very unspiritual, unreligious concept.
Karen ArmstrongRead
Similar quotes
Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.
Thomas JeffersonRead
Retreat is a response to the call of the heart-that call which beckons us toward reality, to the truth of our being, to that which is truly sane, really real and liberating ... When a group of people come together as a response to that kind of inward call, it creates a very powerful environment, where truth is held in the highest esteem and the reality of our being responds to that deepest intention.
AdyashantiRead
I don't care about my character here on earth.I don't care about what other people think or say about me, all I care about is my standing before the Lord.
Brigham YoungRead
I have an instinctual distrust of conventional happy endings.
George R. R. MartinRead
I fear uniformity. You cannot manufacture great men any more than you can manufacture gold.
John RuskinRead
Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead