Excerpt #134 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
The time has come to move beyond the primitive urge to use force to settle our differences.
The time has come when the destruction of any living species is no longer acceptable . . . and will no longer be tolerated.
The time has come to feed people’s hope, not their hate.
The time has come that we understand that longevity is determined not by demonstrations of brute force but by securing the hearts and minds of all peoples.
The time has come for the intelligent people of this planet with unprecedented inclusiveness, respect for diversity, and a sense of responsibility for the whole of life to join together on a planetary scale and move humanity and civilization in a direction that is peaceful, just, and sustainable!
TO FLY, WE REQUIRE BOTH LEFT AND RIGHT WINGS.
All who genuinely seek to learn, whether atheist or believer, scientist or mystic, are united in having not a faith but faith itself. Its token is reverence, its habit to respect the eloquence of silence. For God’s hand may be a human hand, if you reach out in loving kindness, and God’s voice your voice, if you but speak the truth. – Timothy Ferris, The Whole Shebang
WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.
This is a time for a loud voice, open speech, and fearless thinking. I rejoice that I live in such a splendidly disturbing time. – Helen Keller
Primordial chaos and violence gave birth to our world some 4.56 billion years ago.
Although we humans—very recent arrivals to this planet—have been here for only the last 300,000 years, that original chaos and violence is our heritage.
Today, given our greater understanding of the phenomenon of life, we have a unique opportunity to create a place of truth, beauty, love, peace, and health in a world that has had and continues to have far too little of these precious qualities.
We have our work cut out for ourselves.
THE PAST, WE INHERIT; THE FUTURE, WE CREATE.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality…To change something…Build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. – Buckminster Fuller
In New York city, a Zen Master ordered a hot dog with everything on it from a hot dog vendor.
The Master gave the vendor $50.
When he received no change, he asked, “Where’s my change?”
The hot dog vendor replied, “Change comes from within.”