Recapture the Rapture Quotes

“A society that has no sense of the sacred is one in which you’ll have a lot of anomie, normlessness, loneliness, hopelessness.”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“There are moments that stand out from the chaos of everyday as shining beacons,” University of Chicago professor Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi writes. “In many ways, one might say that the whole effort of humankind through millennia of history has been to capture these fleeting moments of fulfillment and make them a part of everyday existence”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“Back in the age of empires, pharaohs built pyramids and kings constructed castles, enshrining their divine right to rule. In the medieval era, monasteries and cathedrals loomed large across Europe, reflecting the power of the Church. With the emergence of the nation-state in the eighteenth century, capitols and courthouses took center stage in urban plans and skylines. By the twentieth century and the age of corporations, skyscrapers towered above everything—monuments to the barons and banks that built them. Today, silicon campuses designed by celebrity architects claim the spotlight. Power has now been harnessed in the physical world by those who invented our virtual ones.”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“It's entirely possible that the Great Sorting Hat at the End of Time won't give a damn which side we thought we were on - Rebel or stormtrooper, Red Pill or Blue - but only our intentions. Which flag we flew, which uniform we wore will yield to something much simpler. Were we coming from fear or love? Were we standing for all of us or only some of us? Were we playing Team Finite, or Team Infinite?”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“Plans,” said Winston Churchill, “are worthless. But planning is priceless.”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“What experience and history teach us is this,” the German philosopher Georg Hegel warned, “peoples and governments have never learned anything from history.”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“Cynicism is so deep on all sides that it's become incredibly tempting to conclude that the whole system needs to come down. To break this stalemate we might have to give up our search for common ground, to meet each other on higher ground.”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“We’ve spent so long meticulously collecting the stories of our grief, and using them as a shield against showing up fully, that when it comes time to toss them on the fire, we often hesitate.”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“As much as we might dance around it, or seek to repress our core physicality, it is an essential and unavoidable part of the human experience. It's not that our animal selves lie in contradiction to our angel selves. Our animal selves are literally our stairway to heaven.
Despite his brilliant insights on so many aspects of the human condition, Becker was wrong on this one. Nature doesn't mock us. It unlocks us.”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“What's better- supply side economics a la John Keynes, or libertarian free markets a la Milton Friedman? Safety nets or bootstraps to build a just society? Big sticks or carrots to preserve international order? Federal or states' rights to guide the governed? Investing in education or employment to empower a citizenry? Seperation or integration of church and state? Multicultural melting pot or national identity? Revolution or evolution?
The only honest answer is "it depends." and we're not entirely sure.”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“Becoming an astronaut in order to glimpse global unity is a small-batch solution to a large-scale problem.”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“the dustbin of history has swallowed civilizations far older and fancier than ours.”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“Prometheans run a distinct risk of getting their matches confiscated by the priests, all in the name of public safety. All it would take is an attorney general with a prosecutor's distrust of the weird or revolutionary, and decades of work could be frozen overnight.”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind

“Left to our own devices, we regress under stress. Put simply, tribalism is destiny. Humanism is optional”
― Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind