Peter Farb (1929–1980) American academic and writer
Man's Rise to Civilization (1968)
Of course, after his death, his disciples tend to deify him or at least give him saintly status.
Man's Rise to Civilization (1968)
Peter Farb (1929–1980) American academic and writer
Man's Rise to Civilization (1968)
Mircea Eliade (1907–1986) Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer and philosopher
Myth and Reality (1963)
Context: Myth is an extremely complex cultural reality, which can be approached and interpreted from various and complementary viewpoints.
Speaking for myself, the definition that seems least inadequate because most embracing is this: Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in primordial Time, the fabled time of the "beginnings." In other words myth tells how, through the deeds of Supernatural Beings, a reality came into existence, be it the whole of reality, the Cosmos, or only a fragment of reality — an island, a species of plant, a particular kind of human behavior, an institution. Myth, then, is always an account of a "creation"; it relates how something was produced, began to be. Myth tells only of that which really happened, which manifested itself completely. The actors in myths are Supernatural Beings. They are known primarily by what they did in the transcendent times of the "beginnings." hence myths disclose their creative activity and reveal the sacredness (or simply the "supernaturalness") of their works. In short, myths describe the various and sometimes dramatic breakthroughs of the sacred (or the "supernatural") into the World. It is this sudden breakthrough of the sacred that really establishes the World and makes it what it is today. Furthermore, it is as a result of the intervention of Supernatural Beings that man himself is what he is today, a mortal, sexed, and cultural being.
Michael Moorcock book The Runestaff
Book 1, Chapter 5 “A City of Glowing Shadows” (p. 406)
The Runestaff (1969)
Huston Smith book The World's Religions
Arguing that Confucianism ought to be considered a religion and not a 'moralistic rationalism.'
The World's Religions (1991)
Akbar (1542–1605) 3rd Mughal Emperor
Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh by Abdul Qadir Badaoni, vol. II, quoted from Lal, K. S. (1999). Theory and practice of Muslim state in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 2
Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator
"A Song On the End of the World"
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer
Is Divorce Wrong? (1889)
Context: Marriages are made by men and women; not by society; not by the state; not by the church; not by supernatural beings. By this time we should know that nothing is moral that does not tend to the well-being of sentient beings; that nothing is virtuous the result of which is not good. We know now, if we know anything, that all the reasons for doing right, and all the reasons against doing wrong, are here in this world.
Peter Farb (1929–1980) American academic and writer
Man's Rise to Civilization (1968)