A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
C. S. LewisRead
I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that true happiness doesn't come from religion, but rather from simpler pleasures like a drink.
C. S. Lewis highlights a personal perspective on the relationship between spirituality and happiness. He implies that relying on religious beliefs for comfort may not be as fulfilling as enjoying life's simpler pleasures, such as having a glass of Port wine. This reflects a critical view of how people often seek solace in religion when, in fact, their happiness might stem from different, more tangible sources.
In practice
This quote could be used during a discussion about the role of religion in personal fulfillment.
A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
I enjoyed my breakfast this morning, and I think that was a good thing and do not think it was condemned by God. But I do not think myself a good man for enjoying it.
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
Forgiving and being forgiven are two names for the same thing. The important thing is that a discord has been resolved.
I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. It doesn't change God - it changes me.
The instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred
But I cannot forget that, at other times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions; and, attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming.
Human history is a Gaian dream.
Every being has its own interior, its self, its mystery, its numinous aspect. To deprive any being of this sacred quality is to disrupt the total order of the universe. Reverence will be total or it will not be at all. The universe does not come to us in pieces any more than a human individual stands before us with some part of his/her being.
Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that's how we've got to live.
For the very reason that we expect things to be good and beautiful, they won't be. In genuine spirituality, we don't look for bliss.
thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast.
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