Compassion is the key in Islam and Buddhism and Judaism and Christianity. They are profoundly similar.
Karen ArmstrongRead
Human beings have always been mythmakers.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humans have a natural tendency to create myths and stories that explain their existence and experiences.
This quote by Karen Armstrong highlights the intrinsic nature of human beings to create myths, stories, and narratives that help them make sense of the world around them. Myths serve not only as cultural artifacts but also as means for people to connect with their history, identities, and shared experiences, thus portraying a fundamental aspect of human culture and psychology.
Themes
MythStorytellingHuman ExperienceCultureIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the importance of storytelling in cultural development.
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.
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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
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...when everything else fails, we communicate in the language of the stars
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