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Agnosticism Quotes

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Agnosticism Quotes

“{Stockton, a playwright who performed plays about Robert Ingersoll, gives the four moments in Ingersoll's life that shaped him, first being the death of his father, who was a reverend} Despite their opposing religious views, the old revivalist on his deathbed asked Bob to read to him from the black book clutched to his chest. Bob relented, took the book, and was surprised to discover that it wasn't the Bible. It was Plato describing the noble death of the pagan Socrates: a moving gesture of reconciliation between father and son in parting. The second event was Bob’s painful realization that his outspoken agnosticism not only invalidated his own political career but ended his brother Ebon’s career in Congress, as well. Third was the exquisite anguish of seeing his supportive wife Eva and his young daughters made to suffer for his right to speak his own mind. And fourth was the dramatic tension of having to walk out alone on public stages, in a glaring spotlight, time after time with death threats jammed in his tuxedo pocket informing him that some armed bigot in that night’s audience would see to it that he didn't leave the stage alive.”

“An agnostic does not want to succumb to a religious heritage without proof supported by science. An agnostic is guided more by rational thinking than by emotions and religious sentiments that may or may not exist in him or her. This fight, or dilemma, in every one of us, is a fight between a believer and an atheist. Many believers are, perhaps, agnostics to some extent. They know they don’t know the truth and will never find it, but they still believe (credo quia absurdum). Faith and agnosticism do not necessarily exclude each other, as it is usually perceived, and are compatible.”

“A believer rejects the idea of disbelief merely because it is impossible to prove God’s existence or to know it in any other way except through faith. Although this may sound paradoxical, this approach is more rational than agnosticism because agnosticism excludes belief only because there is no evidence, even though providing that evidence is “impossible.” On the other hand, nobody can say, prove, or exclude the possibility of such proof.”

“All major philosophers are “right” to a greater or lesser extent. It’s not merely a matter of right and wrong but of improving thought and discoveries that lead to a clearer understanding of the world. Every major philosopher provided a bit of understanding that clarified the crucial problems, even for those who objected to the ideas of the same philosophers.”

“Opponents of the particular ideas of past philosophers may be equally indebted, to a larger or lesser extent, to the very same philosophers they oppose as those they agree with. One thing is sure—there is no complete agreement or disagreement, nor can there be one, with any of the philosophers. (Complete agreement can be expected only within purely religious thought based on the dogmas of nominal religions.)”

“The main problem lies not in the beliefs but in the conception of God. What is God? Depending on the answer to the question of what God is, our relation, not only to God but to the idea of beliefs and religions, is formed and resolved. The main obstacle to this problem comes from our concept of God and not from God or the world itself. First of all, we cannot agree on what God is. We only see, analyze, and interpret religions in their expressed forms, primarily based on revelations that serve (and must serve) as God’s given laws. In these books and “laws,” God is described, ascribed, and prescribed. As such, God is a defined and untouchable being. The status of untouchability lies in revelations by the prophets, which is to say, in “God’s own words.” That is the only legitimacy to base these laws and secure them. We have no other fact or proof except the words of the few, which we must believe and follow.”

“What do we do by following these words or rules, laws, prophets and their revelations, and religions? We only believe in those who uttered and wrote these words and revelations. However, we do not know if there were any revelations in the first place or even if they were “real” to become the measures or expressions of truth or God automatically. There is nothing beyond this secret except our belief not in God but in the people (so-called prophets).”

“These practices persisted for thousands of years, and it is a logical consequence that our real idea about God, or our idea about “real God,” necessarily became so distorted that we cannot talk about this idea or concept with almost any certainty. In this manner, we can never know if we talk about the same thing and mean the same thing unless we speak to people with the same opinions and way of thinking (followers).”

“Agnosticism is compatible with faith. We either believe or not, irrespective of our ability to find the truth. Faith, developed or established based on the nominal religion, is not proof of our ability to prove God’s existence and is not proof of our implied agnosticism. Genuine faith is based on the belief in God regardless of the lack of evidence, religion, or agnosticism that may exist in a believer.”

“A believer is not necessarily someone who never had any doubts about the existence of God but rather someone who did not submit to skepticism and doubt. A believer is the one who fights agnosticism; an agnostic is the one who submits to it. To put it differently—a believer is the one whose atheism (or agnosticism) submits to his or her faith (or belief); an atheist is the one whose faith (if there is any) submits to atheism rather than submitting to faith or agnosticism; an agnostic is the one in whom faith and disbelief are equally present. This equidistance to God and atheism makes agnostics appear somewhat indifferent about these questions. Agnostics would rather wait for proof than bother tirelessly with the question without evidence. In believers, faith wins; in atheists, disbelief wins; in agnostics, neither belief nor disbelief wins.”

“Let us be honest. Did all the priests of Rome increase the mental wealth of man as much as Bruno? Did all the priests of France do as great a work for the civilization of the world as Voltaire or Diderot? Did all the ministers of Scotland add as much to the sum of human knowledge as David Hume? Have all the clergymen, monks, friars, ministers, priests, bishops, cardinals and popes, from the day of Pentecost to the last election, done as much for human liberty as Thomas Paine? What would the world be if infidels had never been? The infidels have been the brave and thoughtful men; the flower of all the world; the pioneers and heralds of the blessed day of liberty and love; the generous spirits of the unworthy past; the seers and prophets of our race; the great chivalric souls, proud victors on the battlefields of thought, the creditors of all the years to be. Why should it be taken for granted that the men who devoted their lives to the liberation of their fellow-men should have been hissed at in the hour of death by the snakes of conscience, while men who defended slavery—practiced polygamy—-justified the stealing of babes from the breasts of mothers, and lashed the naked back of unpaid labor, are supposed to have passed smilingly from earth to the embraces of the angels? Why should we think that the brave thinkers, the investigators, the honest men, must have left the crumbling shore of time in dread and fear, while the instigators of the massacre of St. Bartholomew; the inventors and users of thumb-screws, of iron boots and racks; the burners and tearers of human flesh; the stealers, the whippers and the enslavers of men; the buyers and beaters of maidens, mothers and babes; the founders of the Inquisition; the makers of chains; the builders of dungeons; the calumniators of the living; the slanderers of the dead, and even the murderers of Jesus Christ, all died in the odor of sanctity, with white, forgiven hands folded upon the breasts of peace, while the destroyers of prejudice, the apostles of humanity, the soldiers of liberty, the breakers of fetters, the creators of light, died surrounded by the fierce fiends of God?”

“I ascend into the inferno, where the plagues become my conqueror. I tremble the fragility of the earth, eternally bringing forth destruction. I come as the great accuser, seeking to lay bare my infected divinity. I misbegotten my absence of conviction, for I am the bastard wolf. I use my thoughts as the wraith of my sword, carving my knowledge into the ears of every blind disciple of the Heavenly who condemns my sin. I am no follower of divinity, I only adhere to agnostic philosophy.”

“A good psychologist will take already-traumatic events in your life and work with you to contextualize them as non-traumatic. A bad psychologist will take non-traumatic events in your life and twist your narrative to both make them traumatic and connect them to your current problems. The problem is that good psychologists solve your issues while bad ones create dependency and thus recurring revenue streams.”

“It's no devil,' I said. 'And why do you say that?' she asked again, as if we hadn't discussed this before. 'Because,' I said, 'the Devil has more important things to do if he exists at all, and on the point of his existence at all I am not certain.' 'Where did you get an idea there was no Devil?' 'Rousseau,' I said. 'His philosophy argues that the worst evil is in man.”

“...The Presidential election has given me less anxiety than I myself could have imagined. The next administration will be a troublesome one, to whomsoever it falls, and our John has been too much worn to contend much longer with conflicting factions. I call him our John, because, when you were at the Cul de sac at Paris, he appeared to me to be almost as much your boy as mine. ...As to the decision of your author, though I wish to see the book {Flourens’s Experiments on the functions of the nervous system in vertebrated animals}, I look upon it as a mere game at push-pin. Incision-knives will never discover the distinction between matter and spirit, or whether there is any or not. That there is an active principle of power in the universe, is apparent; but in what substance that active principle resides, is past our investigation. The faculties of our understanding are not adequate to penetrate the universe. Let us do our duty, which is to do as we would be done by; and that, one would think, could not be difficult, if we honestly aim at it. Your university is a noble employment in your old age, and your ardor for its success does you honor; but I do not approve of your sending to Europe for tutors and professors. I do believe there are sufficient scholars in America, to fill your professorships and tutorships with more active ingenuity and independent minds than you can bring from Europe. The Europeans are all deeply tainted with prejudices, both ecclesiastical and temporal, which they can never get rid of. They are all infected with episcopal and presbyterian creeds, and confessions of faith. They all believe that great Principle which has produced this boundless universe, Newton’s universe and Herschel’s universe, came down to this little ball, to be spit upon by Jews. And until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world. I salute your fireside with best wishes and best affections for their health, wealth and prosperity. {Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 22 January, 1825}”

“The real difference is this: the Christian says that he has knowledge; the Agnostic admits that he has none; and yet the Christian accuses the Agnostic of arrogance, and asks him how he has the impudence to admit the limitations of his mind. To the Agnostic every fact is a torch, and by this light, and this light only, he walks. The Agnostic knows that the testimony of man is not sufficient to establish what is known as the miraculous. We would not believe to-day the testimony of millions to the effect that the dead had been raised. The church itself would be the first to attack such testimony. If we cannot believe those whom we know, why should we believe witnesses who have been dead thousands of years, and about whom we know nothing? The Agnostic takes the ground that human experience is the basis of morality. Consequently, it is of no importance who wrote the gospels, or who vouched or vouches for the genuineness of the miracles. In his scheme of life these things are utterly unimportant. He is satisfied that “the miraculous” is the impossible. He knows that the witnesses were wholly incapable of examining the questions involved, that credulity had possession of their minds, that 'the miraculous' was expected, that it was their daily food.”

“A culture that has a moral compass which always points toward the elite’s conception of good—or a society’s default conceptions of “good”—has a broken moral compass. Compasses have value because they point toward a single magnetic North, not a moving position.”

“We will bring humanity across the vast Saharas of emptiness between the stars and create a dynamic, perpetually advancing empire that spans galaxies, universes, and realities. Just as our ancestors wove fabric from organic matter, our descendants will weave the fabric of reality. Humanity’s descendants will be entities beyond our wildest conceptions of the divine. Omnipotence and the ability to create universes will be the least of their powers. Whether they are good or evil—whether they even come to be at all—is up to us. In that sense, we have even more power than they do.”

“People who see themselves as “good” are much more likely to do “evil” things. This is because believing you are the “good guy” allows you to define your actions as good because you are the one doing them. This is why many successful cultures frame humans as intrinsically wretched. It can seem harsh to raise a child to believe deeply in their own wretchedness, but doing so helps them remember to always second-guess themselves by remembering their lesser, selfishly motivated instincts. Instincts that run counter to your morality and values have every bit as much access to your intelligence as “the better angels” of your consciousness and will use your own knowledge and wit to justify their whims. You can’t outreason your worst impulses without stacking the deck in your favor. Coming from a culture that anticipates bad impulses and steels you against them can do that. That said, cultures will no doubt develop different, less harsh mechanisms for achieving the same outcome.”

“The human brain evolved to work within a strict cultural framework. Our brains and cultural/religious mechanisms co-evolved to work together. Operating our brains in a cultural/religious vacuum is like trying to run a machine without any grease—it will start fritzing and fall to pieces at a much faster rate. When individuals cast off their ancestral cultural/religious frameworks or make up new ones out of whole cloth without carefully investigating the instrumental roles cultural practices play, is it any surprise that they find themselves barely holding it together mentally by their mid-30s while desperately searching for community and purpose? Instead of taking the winding road to their destination, they decided to just beeline their car (brain) straight through muddy fields and, in the process, damage their car.”

“Throughout history, as humans developed social environments we had not biologically evolved to handle (such as early cities). Through the selective pressures on cultures, we evolved social technologies that permitted relatively rapid adaptation. Unfortunately, from the internet to megacities, the rate of change humans encounter today has become so rapid and momentous that even social evolution may not have time to act before permanent damage is inflicted. We may have reached a point in human history at which we must intentionally engineer cultural solutions to ensure a prosperous future for our species.”

“One of our goals with this book is to recruit new participants for what we call the Index: A “cultural reactor” that catalogs intentionally constructed family cultures and monitors their outcomes intergenerationally while distributing said information in a way that allows all participating cultures to improve at a faster rate than that of a non-cultivated society. We want to make it possible for cultures in the network to improve faster than normal intergenerational memetic evolutionary powers would allow through a system analogous to horizontal gene transfer in gene therapy or lateral gene transfer in bacteria.”

“In the field of biology, “superbugs” evolve when a bacterium, fungus, or virus is put in a low-stakes setting where it can both thrive and test itself against a panoply of our best defenses (like antibiotics). Hospitals present one such setting in that they serve as gathering points for already-infected individuals (many of whom are immunocompromised, making them “easy mode” for viruses, fungi, and bacteria) and are packed with antivirals, antifungal, and antibiotic medications. . . . Our modern social landscape has created a similar environment, enabling cultural viruses to evolve. These viruses cannot survive and reproduce independently and must parasitize healthy cultural ecosystems, rewriting healthy cultures' internal machinery to carry out their life cycles.”

“Atheists are the most honest of the human race. These people are unable to live a double life; they are unable to lie to themselves. Of course it's an evolutionary handicap, and if that handicap was widespread, our species would run the risk of extinction”

“Don't create unbelief or doubt in people's minds. When you do so you ruin their lives and you have nothing to give them in its place. It's ok if people delude themselves; those delusions keep their day running.”

LifeGodReligionFaithSpiritualityHopeBeliefHeavenReligiousExistenceDoubtAtheismHonestyMoralityIntegrityRespectEthicsAtheistBelieverDebateFaith QuotesFaithfulParadiseMeaning Of LifeSelf RespectExistentialismHopefulHeavenlyDelusionMaterialismHopelessSincerityAfterlifeGoddessFaith In GodSpirituality QuotesAgnosticGodsHopelessnessHope QuotesFaithfulnessReligious FaithBelief QuotesHeavenly FatherHeaven And HellThere Is No GodAgnosticismHeaven QuotesDoubtfulUnbeliefAtheisticNaturalismReligion And PhiloshophyBelief In GodReligion SpiritualityFaith In YourselfHopesDeludedHopeful And EncouragingHeaven On EarthDelusionalUnbelieversThe Great Pearl Of WisdomBelievingHope And DespairHonesty QuotesSpirituality Vs ReligionDoubtersHonesty IntegrityDoubtsBangambikiHope For Each DayFalse GodsIntegrity QuotesAtheistsHopeful QuotesBelief SystemAtheist QuotesHeavensAtheism QuotesParadise QuotesBeliefs QuotesHopingFear Of GodDespair HopeDoubting MindFaith ReasonHeavenly RewardsDoubtingAtheist ArgumentDespair QuotesReligion Vs ScienceDoubts QuotesFaith Vs ReasonAgnosticsHonesty Integrity RelationshipHabyarimana BangambikiParadisesDespair And AttitudeSupernaturalismUnbelieverDoubtfulnessSecular EthicsAtheism DefinedDoubtful ThoughtsFalse GodAtheist ArgumentsAtheistic PhilosophyHonesty Friendship TruthAgnostic QuotesAgnostic AtheismAgnostic QuoteAtheist PhilosophersAtheistic ReligionDespairingAgnostic PrayerAtheist ClaimsAtheist ClubHonesty Integrity WordsUnbelieve QuotesHonesty From WithinIntegrity Of A SalesmanDelusional PeopleLose HopeDelusions QuotesDelusional FeelingsDeludeDeluding Oneself
Book:Pearls Of Eternity

“There is nothing behind the curtains of religions, people put there whatever their imaginations can fathom”

“Once you believe that god is not a private property of anybody, you are on your way to becoming a new messiah. Maybe your own if not the world's”

LifeGodReligionFaithSpiritualityHopeBeliefHeavenReligiousExistenceDoubtAtheismHonestyMoralityIntegrityRespectEthicsAtheistBelieverDebateFaith QuotesFaithfulParadiseMeaning Of LifeSelf RespectExistentialismHopefulHeavenlyMaterialismHopelessSinceritySaviorAfterlifeGoddessFaith In GodSpirituality QuotesAgnosticGodsHopelessnessHope QuotesFaithfulnessReligious FaithBelief QuotesHeavenly FatherHeaven And HellThere Is No GodAgnosticismHeaven QuotesDoubtfulMessiahUnbeliefAtheisticNaturalismReligion And PhiloshophyBelief In GodReligion SpiritualityFaith In YourselfHopesHopeful And EncouragingHeaven On EarthUnbelieversThe Great Pearl Of WisdomBelievingHope And DespairHonesty QuotesSpirituality Vs ReligionDoubtersHonesty IntegrityDoubtsBangambikiHope For Each DayFalse GodsIntegrity QuotesAtheistsHopeful QuotesBelief SystemAtheist QuotesHeavensAtheism QuotesParadise QuotesBeliefs QuotesHopingFear Of GodDespair HopeDoubting MindFaith ReasonHeavenly RewardsDoubtingAtheist ArgumentDespair QuotesReligion Vs ScienceDoubts QuotesFaith Vs ReasonAgnosticsHonesty Integrity RelationshipHabyarimana BangambikiParadisesDespair And AttitudeSavior QuotesSupernaturalismUnbelieverDoubtfulnessMessiah QuotesSecular EthicsAtheism DefinedDoubtful ThoughtsFalse GodAtheist ArgumentsAtheistic PhilosophyHonesty Friendship TruthAgnostic QuotesAgnostic AtheismAgnostic QuoteAtheist PhilosophersAtheistic ReligionDespairingAgnostic PrayerAtheist ClaimsAtheist ClubHonesty Integrity WordsUnbelieve QuotesHonesty From WithinIntegrity Of A SalesmanLose Hope
Book:Pearls Of Eternity

“Why doesn't the pope convert to Calvinism? Why doesn't the Dalai Lama, convert to Christianity, why doesn't Billy Graham convert to Islam, Why doesn't the Ayatollahs convert to Buddhism, Why isn't Buddhism swept away? Religious leaders know that all religions are equal; they know that no one of them has the monopoly to the knowledge of God. They know that each religion is trying to find the hidden God and that no one religion can claim to have found him beyond doubt. That's why they remain where they are and respect each other.”

LifeGodReligionFaithSpiritualityHopeBeliefHeavenReligiousExistenceChristianityDoubtAtheismHonestyMoralityIntegrityRespectEthicsIslamAtheistBelieverDebateFaith QuotesFaithfulParadiseMeaning Of LifeSelf RespectExistentialismHopefulHeavenlyMaterialismHopelessSincerityAfterlifeGoddessFaith In GodSpirituality QuotesPopeAgnosticGodsHopelessnessHope QuotesFaithfulnessReligious FaithBelief QuotesHeavenly FatherHeaven And HellThere Is No GodAgnosticismHeaven QuotesDoubtfulUnbeliefAtheisticNaturalismReligion And PhiloshophyBelief In GodReligion SpiritualityFaith In YourselfHopesHopeful And EncouragingHeaven On EarthUnbelieversThe Great Pearl Of WisdomBelievingHope And DespairHonesty QuotesSpirituality Vs ReligionDoubtersHonesty IntegrityDoubtsBangambikiHope For Each DayFalse GodsIntegrity QuotesAtheistsHopeful QuotesBelief SystemAtheist QuotesHeavensAtheism QuotesParadise QuotesBeliefs QuotesHopingFear Of GodDespair HopeDalai LamaDoubting MindFaith ReasonHeavenly RewardsDoubtingAtheist ArgumentDespair QuotesReligion Vs ScienceDoubts QuotesFaith Vs ReasonAgnosticsHonesty Integrity RelationshipHabyarimana BangambikiParadisesDespair And AttitudeSupernaturalismUnbelieverDoubtfulnessSecular EthicsAtheism DefinedDoubtful ThoughtsFalse GodAtheist ArgumentsAtheistic PhilosophyHonesty Friendship TruthAgnostic QuotesAgnostic AtheismAgnostic QuoteAtheist PhilosophersAtheistic ReligionDespairingAgnostic PrayerAtheist ClaimsAtheist ClubHonesty Integrity WordsUnbelieve QuotesHonesty From WithinIntegrity Of A SalesmanLose HopeBudhism QuotesPope QuotesIslam Quotesmbudhism
Book:Pearls Of Eternity

“An atheist is someone who is disappointed in his search of god. He is a man who strongly needed god but couldn't find him. Atheism is a cry of despair”

“God has not yet revealed himself to no one in no unclear terms. Religions are attempts to find him; on that level they are all equal”

Book:Pearls Of Eternity