Taste and see...

[daver49]

I grabbed this off the Center for Action and Contemplation Website:

"T. S. Elliot said in the Four Quartets, "[Human]kind cannot bear very much reality." What humans often prefer are highly contrived ways of avoiding the real, the concrete, the physical. We fabricate artificial realities instead, one of which, I'm sad to say, is religion itself. So Jesus brought all of our fancy thinking down to earth, to one concrete place of incarnation--this bread and this cup of wine! "Eat it here, and then see it everywhere," he seems to be saying. (Munch it, chew it, gobble it.) If it's too idealized and pretty, if it's somewhere floating around up in the air, it's probably not the Gospel. We come back, again and again, to this marvelous touchstone of orthodoxy, the Eucharist. The first physical incarnation in the body of Jesus is now continued in space and time in ordinary food."

So how do you all interpret this?

[Alex K]

What's much to interpret there?

[Thumpalumpacus]

Not all humans seek to avoid reality. I also think he gives short shrift to the fact that religious people have largely been programmed to hold their particular beliefs.

[LostLocke]

I interpret it as a quote from a website on Christian mythology.
Nothing more nothing less.

[Nope]

I grabbed this off the Center for Action and Contemplation Website:
If it's too idealized and pretty, if it's somewhere floating around up in the air, it's probably not the Gospel.

I certainly don't see Christianity as a 'pretty' religion, whatever that means. It is an ugly religion headed by a cruel dictator god.

[Aoi Magi]

I interpret it as copypasta.

What do I win?

[downbeatplumb]

I grabbed this off the Center for Action and Contemplation Website:

"T. S. Elliot said in the Four Quartets, "[Human]kind cannot bear very much reality." What humans often prefer are highly contrived ways of avoiding the real, the concrete, the physical. We fabricate artificial realities instead, one of which, I'm sad to say, is religion itself. So Jesus brought all of our fancy thinking down to earth, to one concrete place of incarnation--this bread and this cup of wine! "Eat it here, and then see it everywhere," he seems to be saying. (Munch it, chew it, gobble it.) If it's too idealized and pretty, if it's somewhere floating around up in the air, it's probably not the Gospel. We come back, again and again, to this marvelous touchstone of orthodoxy, the Eucharist. The first physical incarnation in the body of Jesus is now continued in space and time in ordinary food."

So how do you all interpret this?

Slimming aid?

[Faith No More]

I grabbed this off the Center for Action and Contemplation Website:

"T. S. Elliot said in the Four Quartets, "[Human]kind cannot bear very much reality." What humans often prefer are highly contrived ways of avoiding the real, the concrete, the physical. We fabricate artificial realities instead, one of which, I'm sad to say, is religion itself. So Jesus brought all of our fancy thinking down to earth, to one concrete place of incarnation--this bread and this cup of wine! "Eat it here, and then see it everywhere," he seems to be saying. (Munch it, chew it, gobble it.) If it's too idealized and pretty, if it's somewhere floating around up in the air, it's probably not the Gospel. We come back, again and again, to this marvelous touchstone of orthodoxy, the Eucharist. The first physical incarnation in the body of Jesus is now continued in space and time in ordinary food."

So how do you all interpret this?

He started out well in the bold, but then he went full retard.

He's essentially saying, "People are silly for creating false realities...and here's mine."

[daver49]

I interpret it as copypasta.

What do I win?

And being true to your quote from Lao Tse, you say that with reservations....right?

You already have what you wanted to win...

---

I grabbed this off the Center for Action and Contemplation Website:

"T. S. Elliot said in the Four Quartets, "[Human]kind cannot bear very much reality." What humans often prefer are highly contrived ways of avoiding the real, the concrete, the physical. We fabricate artificial realities instead, one of which, I'm sad to say, is religion itself. So Jesus brought all of our fancy thinking down to earth, to one concrete place of incarnation--this bread and this cup of wine! "Eat it here, and then see it everywhere," he seems to be saying. (Munch it, chew it, gobble it.) If it's too idealized and pretty, if it's somewhere floating around up in the air, it's probably not the Gospel. We come back, again and again, to this marvelous touchstone of orthodoxy, the Eucharist. The first physical incarnation in the body of Jesus is now continued in space and time in ordinary food."

So how do you all interpret this?

Slimming aid?

In a way, yes!

---

What's much to interpret there?

Reality.

---

I interpret it as a quote from a website on Christian mythology.
Nothing more nothing less.

Happy Belated St. Patrick's day to you! I hope you had a pint or two...
I had three Guinness myself.

[watchamadoodle]

To be honest, I am underwhelmed by that quote. Is Eliot presenting that statement as a profound insight into the Eucharist or is this quote meant to give insights into the thinking of a fictional character in a story? (I've never read Eliot, so I have no idea of the context.)