Karen Armstrong
author profile
born
November 14, 1944
gender
female
place of birth
Wildmoor, Worcestershire, The United Kingdom
website
genre
Religion & Spirituality, History
about this author
British author of numerous works on comparative religion.
you can know about from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Armst...
http://www.islamfortoday.com/karenarmstr...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/karena...
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"A God who kept tinkering with the universe was absurd; a God
who interfered with human freedom and creativity was tyrant. If God is
seen as a self in a world of his own, an ego that
relates to a thought, a cause separate from its effect. he becomes a
being, not Being itself. An omnipotent, all‐knowing tyrant is not so
different from earthly dictators who make everything and
everybody mere cogs in the machine which they controlled. An atheism
that rejects such a God is amply justified."
— Karen Armstrong
who interfered with human freedom and creativity was tyrant. If God is
seen as a self in a world of his own, an ego that
relates to a thought, a cause separate from its effect. he becomes a
being, not Being itself. An omnipotent, all‐knowing tyrant is not so
different from earthly dictators who make everything and
everybody mere cogs in the machine which they controlled. An atheism
that rejects such a God is amply justified."
— Karen Armstrong
"A personalized God can be a mere idol carved in our own image- a projection of our limited needs, fears, and desires. We can assume that he loves what we love and hates what we hate, endorsing our prejudices instead of compelling us to transcend them. When he seems to fail to prevent a catastrophe or seems even to desire a tragedy, he can seem callous and cruel. A facile belief that a disaster is the will of God can make us accept things that are fundamentally unacceptable. The very fact, as a person, God has a gender is also limiting: It means that the sexuality of half the human race is sacralized at the expense of the female and can lead to neurotic and inadequate imbalance in human sexual mores. A personal God can be dangerous, therefore. Instead of pulling us beyond our limitations, “he” can encourage us to remain complacently within them; “he” can make us cruel, callous, self-satisfied and partial as “he” seems to be. Instead of inspiring the compassion that should characterize all advanced religions, “he” can encourage us to judge, condemn, and marginalize."
— Karen Armstrong
— Karen Armstrong
topics mentioning this author
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminalcoffee: It's weird when all of you disappear at once. (What are you reading? Thinking? Reading about thinking? Thinking about reading?) | 29 | 48 | Jan 07, 2009 08:14PM | |
| True North: Stalin--Misunderstood? Skinner boxes and the Godstick/Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game, and Mormon underwear | 148 | 87 | Jan 15, 2009 05:09PM | |
| The Next Best Boo...: Books to learn about the Bible/Christianity from an unreligous point of view | 17 | 175 | Jun 23, 2009 08:32AM |
































