Spiritual Quote of the Day (Carl Gustav Jung, on Rationalism and Values)

“Modern man does not understand how much his ‘rationalism’ (which has destroyed his capacity to respond to numinous symbols and ideas) has put him at the mercy of the psychic ‘underworld.’ He has freed himself from ‘superstition’ (or so he believes), but in the process he has lost his spiritual values to a positively dangerous degree. His moral and spiritual tradition has disintegrated, and he is now paying the price for this break-up in worldwide disorientation and dissociation.” — Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist and psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), Man and His Symbols (1964)

Quote of the Day (Voltaire, on Absurdities and Atrocities)

“Formerly there were those who said: You believe things that are incomprehensible, inconsistent, impossible because we have commanded you to believe them; go then and do what is unjust because we command it. Such people show admirable reasoning. Truly, those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. If the God-given understanding of your mind does not resist a demand to believe what is impossible, then you will not resist a demand to do wrong to that God-given sense of justice in your heart. As soon as one faculty of your soul has been dominated, other faculties will follow as well.”—French author, humanist, rationalist, and satirist Voltaire (1694 - 1778), Questions sur les miracles (“Of Miracles”) (1765)

Quote of the Day (Randall Balmer, on Faith and Rationalism)

“I believe because of the epiphanies, small and large, that have intersected my path—small, discrete moments of grace when I have sensed a kind of superintending presence outside of myself. I believe because these moments—a kind word, an insight, an anthem on Easter morning, a chill in the spine—are too precious to discard, and I choose not to trivialize them by reducing them to rational explanation. I believe because, for me, the alternative to belief is far too daunting. I believe because, at the turn of the twentieth century, belief itself is an act of defiance in a society still enthralled by the blandishments of Enlightenment rationalism.”— Randall Balmer, “The Generation of Faith,” in Searching for Your Soul: Writers of Many Faiths Share Their Personal Stories of Spiritual Discovery, edited by Katherine Kurs (1999)