No tribal rite has yet been recorded which attempts to keep winter from descending; on the contrary: the rites all prepare the community to endure, together with the rest of nature, the season of the terrible cold.
Joseph CampbellRead
In choosing your god, you choose your way of looking at the universe. There are plenty of Gods. Choose yours.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Choosing a deity reflects one's perspective on life and the universe.
This quote by Joseph Campbell suggests that the choice of a god or a guiding belief system profoundly influences how one interprets the world around them. It emphasizes the power of personal belief and the multitude of viewpoints available to each individual, encouraging people to select their own path in understanding existence.
Themes
ChoiceBeliefPerspectiveDeityUniverse
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophy class discussion on the nature of faith.
More from Joseph Campbell
All quotes →Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies.
Joseph CampbellRead
Christianity isn’t moving people’s lives today. What’s moving people’s lives is the stock market and the baseball scores. What are people excited about? It’s a totally materialistic level that has taken over the world. There isn’t even an ideal that anybody’s fighting for.
Joseph CampbellRead
Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon but to the fact that our ignorance and our complacency are coming to an end. The exclusivism of there being only one way in which we can be saved, the idea that there is a single religious group that is in sole possession of the truth—that is the world as we know it that must pass away. What is the kingdom? It lies in our realization of the ubiquity of the divine presence in our neighbors, in our enemies, in all of us.
Joseph CampbellRead
The demon that you can swallow gives you it’s power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.
Joseph CampbellRead
And if there was no Fall, what then of the need for Redemption? What god was offended and by whom? Some especially touchy cave bear whose skull had been improperly enshrined?
Joseph CampbellRead
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Once the command of the air is obtained by one of the contending armies, the war becomes a conflict between a seeing host and one that is blind.
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The gospel of Christ must always be an open door with a welcome sign for all.
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This doctrine of prenatal influence is now slowly being recognized, and science as well as religion calls out: 'Keep yourself holy, and pure.' So deeply has this been recognized in India, that there we even speak of adultery in marriage, except when marriage is consummated in prayer.
Swami VivekanandaRead