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B Quotes

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All B Quotes

“Belief sloshes around in the firmament like lumps of clay spiralling into a potter's wheel. That's how gods get created, for example. They clearly must be created by their own believers, because a brief resume of the lives of most gods suggests that their origins certainly couldn't be divine. They tend to do exactly the things people would do if only they could, especially when it comes to nymphs, golden showers, and the smiting of your enemies.”

“Belief systems are ephemeral and have a self-reinforcing component. This self-reinforcing characteristic allows you to experience the sustained reality of that belief system because it is constantly being chosen second to second. It is a type of momentum going in one direction and inspires you to act and select the same way in the next moment.”

“Belief Systems contradict both science and ordinary "common sense." B.S. contradicts science, because it claims certitude and science can never achieve certitude: it can only say, "This model"- or theory, or interpretation of the data- "fits more of the facts known at this date than any rival model." We can never know if the model will fit the facts that might come to light in the next millennium or even in the next week.”

“Belief, as I use the word here, is the insistence that the truth is what one would "lief" or wish it to be. The believer will open his mind to the truth on condition that it fits in with his preconceived ideas and wishes. Faith, on the other hand, is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be. Faith has no preconceptions; it is a plunge into the unknown. Belief clings, but faith lets go.”

“Belief, humble belief, is the foundation of all righteousness and the beginning of spiritual progression. It goes before good works, opens the door to an eternal store of heavenly truth, and charts the course to eternal life. . . . Belief is the brilliant beacon that marks the course through the waves and woes of the world to that celestial harbor where rest and safety are found.”

“Belief, thus, in the supernatural, great as are the services which it rendered in the early stages of human development, cannot be considered to be any longer required, either for enabling us to know what is right and wrong in social morality, or for supplying us with motives to do right and to abstain from wrong.”

“Beliefs about overimportance of thoughts and thought control are more frequent in highly religious people and mediate the observed association between religiosity and OCD. Thought-action fusion overlaps with magical thinking and is associated with religiosity, paranormal beliefs, and positive schizotypy. most likely, thought-action fusion plays a significant role in the etiology of autogenous obsessions.”

“Beliefs are limitations of vision and prisons of the mind. We believe too much and feel too little. Only when we follow our feelings, instead of denying them, will we break the grip the manipulators have on so many psyches. Go with the flow without fear of what others will think. The most powerful way to set ourselves free of the thinking, believing, fearing, intellect, is to celebrate our own uniqueness, allow everyone else to do the same, and never seek to impose what we believe on another.”

“Beliefs are not some special category of idea sitting at a higher station of truth than our ordinary, everyday mortal thoughts. Beliefs are not neccesarily "the truth" at all. (Remember, there was a time everyone believed the earth was flat)”

“Beliefs are personal, but universal truths are above that. For example, the surface temperature of the sun is around 5,505 degrees Celsius – the speed of light is around 300,000 kilometers per second – the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old – modern day chimps are the closest cousins of us humans. These are irrefutable universal truth, regardless of what anyone believes.”

“Beliefs are powerful motivators. You can gather a group of idiots with different viewpoints on the same subject and watch them reach a confident state of mind by gradually agreeing on untruthful conclusions. Or you can find an experienced researcher and doubt his uncommon insights and even watch how such insights are rejected by the previous group. But nothing is more unbelievable than a dream that was unseen and manifested far from the eyesight of the unbelievers, whom, through the actions motivated by their own thoughts, withdrew their presence from the continually transforming reality of the dreamer.”