Rational Inquiry Quotes

“If rational inquiry is removed from a religion that claims to be a complete way of life, it is deprived of the oxygen it needs to sustain and grow. Religion gives up its dynamism and gets reduced to a static list of dos and don’ts.”
― Akbar Hussaini, The Great Disconnect Between Islam and Muslims: An Extraordinary Perspective of An Ordinary Muslim on The Decline of The Ummah

“Zen particularly regards rational inquiry and academic scholarship as a hindrance along the way of enlightenment. The life story we told earlier of Hui-neng makes the Sixth Patriarch completely illiterate. Although this part of the story is contradicted by other reports giving testimony to his intimate knowledge of the sutras, this illiteracy is taken as a criterion for the authenticity of his way of Zen.”
― Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Enlightenment: Origins And Meaning