Religion is so frequently a source of confusion in political life, and so frequently dangerous to democracy, precisely because it introduces absolutes into the realm of relative values.
Reinhold NiebuhrRead
Nationalism: One of the effective ways in which the modern man escapes life's ethical problems.
Interpretation
Nationalism allows individuals to avoid facing complex ethical dilemmas by providing a simplified identity.
Reinhold Niebuhr's quote suggests that nationalism offers a convenient escape for modern individuals from the challenging moral questions of life. By aligning themselves with national identity, people may find comfort and clarity at the expense of deeper ethical engagement and responsibility.
In practice
In a debate about national policies, one might use this quote to discuss how nationalism can oversimplify complex ethical issues.
Religion is so frequently a source of confusion in political life, and so frequently dangerous to democracy, precisely because it introduces absolutes into the realm of relative values.
The tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan value and ends is the source of all religious fanaticism.
The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self mastery.
All you earnest young men out to save the world. . . please, have a laugh.
Forgiveness is the final form of love.
God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed.
Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.
One can quite understand vegetarianism. One can quite understand meat-eating. But it is difficult to understand why a person who is a flesh-eater should object to one kind of flesh, namely cow's flesh. This is an anomaly which call for explanation.
Obscenity is a moral concept in the verbal arsenal of the establishment, which abuses the term by applying it, not to expressions of its own morality but to those of another.
For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness.
The greatest good that can come to anyone is forming within them an absolute certainty of themselves, and of their relationship to the Universe, forever removing the sense of heaven as being outside of them.
There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.
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