All -isms end up in schisms. Huston Smith More Quotes by Huston Smith More Quotes From Huston Smith I had assumed that Bush's seemingly inflexible policy to support Sharon was for political reasons of his getting elected. But as to whether he really believes his actions are going to hasten the day of the final conflict, I do not know. Huston Smith support political believe Religion is the call to confront reality; to master the self. Huston Smith masters self reality Rationalism and Newtonian science has lured us into dark woods, but a new metaphysics can rescue us. Huston Smith woods dark science In India there was a sense of time that does not tick with modern clocks, just as there is a knowledge that is not gained through science and empirical experiments. In the modern West knowledge is of objective, finite particulars in historical time. India recognizes that kind of useful information: it calls it "lower knowledge." Higher knowledge (paravidya) proceeds differently, or rather it doesn't proceed at all but enters history full-blown on the morning of a new creation. Huston Smith historical morning science When historians look back on our century, they may remember it most, not for space travel or the release of nuclear energy, but as the time when the peoples of the world first came to take one another seriously. Huston Smith nuclear space energy In mysteries what we know, and our realization of what we do not know, proceed together; the larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder. It is like the quantum world, where the more we understand its formalism, the stranger that world becomes. Huston Smith realization together islands I am critical of modernity giving science and technology a blank check as if it were the fountain of all truth. That is not true. And I think I may have introduced a word which has now caught on quite a bit, scientism. Science is good. It simply reports a discovery. Huston Smith good technology truth science Science is like a flashlight in the hands of people living in a huge balloon. They can illuminate anything in the balloon, but cannot shine it outside the balloon to see where it is floating - or if it is floating at all. Huston Smith shine science hands people It's often difficult for us to act compassionately, but sacred art eases the difficulty by ennobling us. Huston Smith act us difficult art The modern period adds social ethics to religions agenda, for we now realize that social structures are not like laws of nature. They are human creations, so we are responsible for them. Huston Smith religions realize ethics nature The scientific method is nearly perfect for understanding the physical aspects of our life. But it is a radically limited viewfinder in its inability to offer values, morals and meanings that are at the center of our lives. Huston Smith morals understanding perfect life Pure science - this vision of the universe as 15 billion light years across - I am bedazzled and awed by it. Huston Smith i-am vision light science When the scientific method came into being, it gave us a new window on the truth; namely, a method by laboratory-controlled experiments to winnow true hypotheses from false ones. Huston Smith true new truth window
