Religion can make it worse. Are you supposing that if people were encouraged to believe in a transcendent reality, and to be encouraged by grand rituals and music and preaching, to love their neighbors, then they would put jealousy and frustration aside? – Mary Douglas
I am convinced that living in an enclave shapes the personality, and living alone shapes the personality too. – Mary Douglas
It seems true that the growth of science and secularism made organized Christianity feel under threat. – Mary Douglas
If people want to compete for leadership of a religious group, they can compete in piety. A chilling thought. Or funny. – Mary Douglas
Dr. Richard Bentley (1662-1742)… is said one day, on finding his son reading a novel, to have remarked—’Why read a book that you cannot quote?’— a saying which affords an amusing illustration of the nature and object of his literary studies. – Cyclopædia of English Literature edited by Robert Chambers, 1844