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Against Religion: The Atheist Writings of H.P. Lovecraft

Book by H. P. Lovecraft · 11 quotes · Conformity, Ifs, Religion

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Against Religion: The Atheist Writings of H.P. Lovecraft Quotes

“It is the night-black Massachusetts legendry which packs the really macabre "kick". Here is material for a really profound study in group-neuroticism; for certainly, no one can deny the existence of a profoundly morbid streak in the Puritan imagination.”

NightBlackImaginationExistenceStudyGroupsMaterialsProfoundDenyKicksPacksStreaksPuritanMorbidMassachusettsMacabre
Book:Against Religion: The Atheist Writings of H.P. Lovecraft
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“I recognise a distinction between dream life and real life, between appearances and actualities. I confess to an over-powering desire to know whether I am asleep or awake--whether the environment and laws which affect me are external and permanent, or the transitory products of my own brain.”

KnowsRealDreamLawDesireMy OwnBrainEnvironmentProductsAppearanceReal LifePermanentAwakeDistinctionRecogniseActualityTransitory
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“The very fact that religions are not content to stand on their own feet, but insist on crippling or warping the flexible minds of children in their favour, forms a sufficient proof that there is no truth in them. If there were any truth in religion, it would be even more acceptable to a mature mind than to an infant mind--yet no mature mind ever accepts religion unless it has been crippled in infancy.”

IfsMindChildrenHas BeensFactsWould BeFormAcceptingFeetProofSufficientMatureAcceptableFavourInfantFlexibleInfancyCrippled
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“I never cheat or steal. Also, I never wear a top-hat with a sack coat or munch bananas in public on the streets, because a gentleman does not do those things either. I would as soon do the one as the other sort of thing--it is all a matter of harmony and good taste.”

DoeMatterStreetsTasteHarmonyStealingGentlemanHatsCheatCoatsBananasGood TasteTop HatsNever Cheat
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“I am distinctly opposed to visibly arrogant and arbitrary extremes of government--but this is simply because I wish the safety of an artistic and intellectual civilisation to be secure, not because I have any sympathy with the coarse-grained herd who would menace the civilisation if not placated by sops.”

IfsGovernmentWishIntellectualSafetyExtremesSecureArtisticArrogantArbitraryHerdsCivilisationMenaceCoarse
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“If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences. With such an honest and inflexible openness to evidence, they could not fail to receive any real truth which might be manifesting itself around them. The fact that religionists do not follow this honourable course, but cheat at their game by invoking juvenile quasi-hypnosis, is enough to destroy their pretensions in my eyes even if their absurdity were not manifest in every other direction.”

TruthReligionHonestyConformityOpenness To Evidence
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“We all know that any emotional bias -- irrespective of truth or falsity -- can be implanted by suggestion in the emotions of the young, hence the inherited traditions of an orthodox community are absolutely without evidential value.... If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences. With such an honest and inflexible openness to evidence, they could not fail to receive any real truth which might be manifesting itself around them. The fact that religionists do not follow this honourable course, but cheat at their game by invoking juvenile quasi-hypnosis, is enough to destroy their pretensions in my eyes even if their absurdity were not manifest in every other direction.”

TruthEmotionAtheismHonorEvidenceValueAtheistOrthodoxConformityBiasCheatAbsurdityIndoctrinationBrainwashingFalsityReligionists
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