Quotessence
Home / Authors / Robert Neelly Bellah Biography
Robert Neelly Bellah

Robert Neelly Bellah Biography

Sociologist

Related Quotes

“We have imagined ourselves a special creation, set apart from other humans. In the last twentieth century, we see that our povertyis as absolute as that of the poorest nations. We have attempted to deny the human condition in our quest for power after power. It would be well for us to rejoin the human race, to accept our essential poverty as a gift, and to share our material wealth with those in need.”

NeedsHumansWellsWould BeLastsNationsWealthRaceAcceptingPovertyShareSpecialConditionsCenturyCreationMaterialsEssentialsAbsolutesDenyHuman RaceHuman ConditionQuestsTwentieth CenturyPoorestThose In NeedMaterial Wealth
Author:Robert Neelly Bellah
Create image

“Women have entered the work force . . . partly to express their feelings of self-worth . . . partly because today many families would not survive without two incomes, partly because they are not at all sure their marriages will last. The day of the husband as permanent meal-ticket is over, a fact most women recognize, however they feel about "women's liberation.”

FeelsTwoSelfFactsFeelingsTodayLastsForceHusbandSelf WorthIncomeLiberationPermanentMealsTickets
Author:Robert Neelly Bellah
Create image

“"Nothing is ever lost" means that what we are now goes all the way back through natural history. We are biological organisms and not simply computerized brains. By focusing totally on the present, thinking only about science and computers, and forgetting four billion years of life on this planet, we are losing perspective on who and what we are.”

ThinkingWayYearsMeanLostNaturalForgetBrainFourPlanetsPerspectiveComputerLosingBillionsOrganismsNatural HistoryYears Of Life
Author:Robert Neelly Bellah
Create image

“We're [humans] running great risks of doing things that will not be good for us. The cost can be very high indeed if we reach the point where we can't adapt to our own increasingly rapid adaptations. We run the risk of early extinction. So this certainly isn't a triumphalist story, but it is trying to get at what, in the very long run, leads to the amazing creatures that we are.”

IfsTryingHumansLongStoriesRunningRiskCostCreaturesBe GoodLong RunsAdaptationExtinctionRapidsGreat Risk
Author:Robert Neelly Bellah
Create image

“Hinduism, Confucianism, and Buddhism are huge traditions of enormous importance, and they aren't monotheistic. Again, this reflects the fact that our preconceptions about what religion is are so influenced by Protestantism - either real Protestantism or the secularized Protestantism that dominates our culture - and its assumption that beliefs are the most important thing.”

ImportantRealFactsCultureBeliefHugeBuddhismTraditionImportanceImportant ThingsEnormousAssumptionHinduismPreconceptionsConfucianismProtestantism
Author:Robert Neelly Bellah
Create image

“Yet Buddhism is four hundred years older than Christianity, and if it's not a universal religion I don't know what a universal religion is. There's also a strong focus on selectionism and the notion that religion plays a functional role in the evolutionary process. But religion is dysfunctional all the time, as well as functional. It's not so simple.”

IfsKnowsYearsWellsPlayStrongProcessSimpleChristianityRolesFocusFourBuddhismHundredUniversalNotion
Author:Robert Neelly Bellah
Create image

“One of the important things about religion is that it is a sphere which is partially protected from selection. Religious creativity occurs when people pull out of the whole selectivity issue. Becoming celibate - obviously you couldn't be less selective that that. Yes, selection is always in the background. But it's not always there in the foreground. If you don't understand that, you're missing a lot.”

PeopleIfsImportantWholeReligiousCreativityIssuesMissingBecomingImportant ThingsBackgroundsSpheresProtectedSelectionSelectiveForeground
Author:Robert Neelly Bellah
Create image

“We may wonder at the choice of Israel and Rome as the archetypes of the new nation, in view of the long history of suffering of the former and the decline of the latter. We may wonder that our ancestors over-looked the darker days of those earlier nations. They did not. They hoped to construct a republic on principles to sound that if we should decline in piety and public virtue we would meet the inexorable fate of nations, which are as but dust in the hands of God.”

IfsShouldMayLongHandsSufferingChoicesNationsSoundViewsWonderPrinciplesVirtueFateIsraelDustFormerLatterRepublicRomeAncestorDeclineConstructsPietyHands Of GodArchetypeInexorable
Author:Robert Neelly Bellah
Create image