- Much of the literature of the sacred consists of sayings and stories. From Confucious, to Buddha, to Plato/Socrates, to Jesus, to Mohammed, learning, promoting, and passing on these sayings is much of the substance of the traditions. Today we label many of these sayings aphorisms and the stories parables. Aphorisms stick easily in the mind and thus influence behavior. [66F/W’13]
- But in our secular world we also have poetry, music lyrics, folk sayings and quotations that seem to capture truths about human life in the minimum number of words. That seems to be an important component of such sayings…..that they are very concise. Perhaps it is because of this feature they are easy to remember, pass on, and have such emotional impact packed into terse delivery. [67F/W’13]
- Science too has its sayings. They are not just insightful words of scientists, but also of the facts experiments have reproducibly shown to be true. One might characterize all of the output of 400 years of scientific experiments as an effort to discipline our human “memes” and “sayings” to more closely follow precise statements (in linguistic or mathematical sequences) of how nature works. Some current texts in physics, geology, and molecular biology even title each and every subsection in voluminous 1,000 page introductions as a statement of fact then explained by description of peer-reviewed published articles. [68F/W’13]
- This section is a place to collect some of your and our favorites allowing commentary on each of them in the context of our overall theme of bridging, if possible, the secular and the sacred. The concentration of them, mixed, from both domains might be of service to the cause. Perhaps even their juxtaposition will lead to insights and sudden recognition of similarities not yet perceived or forgotten from the past. [69F/W’13]
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