"I cannot claim to have had any direct personal divine inspiration. Yet coping with multitudinous problem-solving efforts and observing the world in which I live evokes an openness to a mystery of being that I cannot deny. Critical reflection leads me to believe than an awareness of such mysteries is a necessity in the constitution of order in democratic societies. If religion is a necessity in the conceptualization of paradigmatically diverse formulations, religion might be viewed as a necessary element in a system of knowledge pertaining to the constitution of order. We do, however, face the problem of those system of order that were constituted under circumstances of explicitly rejecting religion as a necessary feature in their constitution. We have the potential, then, of those who reject religion becoming the prophets of new secular religions. What we call "ideologies" may be the source of that most profound pathologies in human personal and social disorders."
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Vincent Ostrom. 1997. The Meaning of Democracy and the Vulnerability of Democracies: A Response to Tocqueville's Challenge. University of Michigan Press. p. 179
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vincent_Ostrom
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Vincent Ostrom
Vincent A. Ostrom (September 25, 1919 – June 29, 2012) was an American political scientist, known as the Founding Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, based at Indiana University. He and his wife, the economist Elinor Ostrom, made numerous contributions to the field of political science.
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