
Free Synagogue Pulpit: Sermons and Addresses
Source: p. 28 https://archive.org/details/freesynagoguepu00wisegoog/page/n36/mode/2up
An Interview with Dr. Leo Igwe — Founder, Nigerian Humanist Movement (2017)
Free Synagogue Pulpit: Sermons and Addresses
Source: p. 28 https://archive.org/details/freesynagoguepu00wisegoog/page/n36/mode/2up
“Human beings are social animals. We were social before we were human.”
Source: The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress (1981), Chapter 1, The Origins Of Altruism, p. 3
An introduction to this book
The Religion of God (2000)
2000s, The Central Idea (2006)
Context: The equality of mankind is best understood in light of a two-fold inequality. The first is the inequality of mankind and of the subhuman classes of living beings that comprise the order of nature. Dogs and horses, for example, are naturally subservient to human beings. But no human being is naturally subservient to another human being. No human being has a right to rule another without the other's consent. The second is the inequality of man and God. As God's creatures, we owe unconditional obedience to His will. By that very fact however we do not owe such obedience to anyone else. Legitimate political authority—the right of one human being to require obedience of another human being—arises only from consent. The fundamental act of consent is, as the 1780 Massachusetts Bill of Rights states, "a social compact by which the whole people covenants with each citizen and each citizen with the whole people that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good." The "certain laws for the common good" have no other purpose but to preserve and protect the rights that each citizen possesses prior to government, rights with which he or she has been "endowed by their Creator." The rights that governments exist to secure are not the gift of government. They originate in God.
“For many human beings, religion has been the music which they believe in.”
Source: Real Presences (1989), III: Presences, Ch. 6 (p. 218).
“science and religion are intrinsically interconnected both being expressions of the human spirit.”
page 10
Truth and Tension in Science and Religion
“My concept of secularism is to be a good human being who respects all religions.”
Quoted in "Sunil Dutt — film star, peace activist, secularist, politician extraordinary" in The Hindu.
We all are one, whichever religion we belong to
“Glamour cannot exist without personal social envy being a common and widespread emotion.”
Source: Ways of Seeing (1972), p. 148