This Sunday’s readings: Psalm 19:1-14

Reflections

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
~ Aristotle, 384-322 BC

Past secular creeds were built on the 18th-century enlightenment view of man as an autonomous, rational creature who could reason his way to virtue.
~ David Brooks, The New York Times, 2-3-2015

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
~ Voltaire (1694-1778), French Enlightenment philosopher

It is not enough to be delivered from sin; it is enough to be delivered to righteousness.
~ Edwin Louis Cole, 1922-2002, Author, Founder CMM

Despite the frequent claim that we are living in a secular age defined by the death of God, many citizens in rich Western democracies have merely switched one notion of God for another—abandoning their singular, omnipotent (Christian or Judaic or whatever) deity reigning over all humankind and replacing it with a weak but all-pervasive idea of spirituality tied to a personal ethic of authenticity and a liturgy of inwardness … At the heart of the ethic of authenticity is a profound selfishness and callous disregard of others.
~ Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster in The NY Times, June 29, 2013