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Agnosticism Quotes

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Agnosticism Quotes

“The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship to the infinite universe that surrounds me? It is impossible for there to be a person with no religion (i.e. without any kind of relationship to the world) as it is for there to be a person without a heart. He may not know that he has a religion, just as a person may not know that he has a heart, but it is no more possible for a person to exist without a religion than without a heart.”

KnowsWorldHeartKindMayPersonsLyingUniverseAnswersImpossibleAtheismEssenceInfiniteSurroundAgnosticismInfinite Universe
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“When it was first said that the sun stood still and world turned round, the common sense of mankind declared the doctrine false; but the old saying of Vox populi, vox Dei [the voice of the people is the voice of God], as every philosopher knows, cannot be trusted in science.”

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Author:Charles Darwin
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“How so many absurd rules of conduct, as well as so many absurd religious beliefs, have originated, we do not know; nor how it is that they have become, in all quarters of the world, so deeply impressed on the minds of men; but it is worthy of remark that a belief constantly inculcated during the early years of life, while the brain is impressionable, appears to acquire almost the nature of an instinct; and the very essence of an instinct is that it is followed independently of reason.”

KnowsMenWorldYearsMindWellsReasonBeliefReligiousBrainAtheismEssenceInstinctWorthyPositive AtheismAbsurdAcquireQuartersImpressedRemarksAgnosticismReligious BeliefYears Of LifeImpressionable
Book:The Descent of Man
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“I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for his existence. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man, until he has been elevated by long-continued culture.”

MenMindPersonsLongDoeHas BeensIdeasSeemsUsedCultureBeliefExistenceAtheismArgumentUniversalCreatorPositive AtheismAriseAgnosticismBelief In God
Book:The Descent of Man: And Selection in Relation to Sex
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“But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created that a cat should play with mice.”

WorldShouldPlaySeemsWishSidesToo MuchAtheismDesignEvolutionEvidenceCatMiserySpeciesPositive AtheismMiceNatural SelectionAgnosticismOmnipotentBeneficence
Book:Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution
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“... The idea of God, as meaning an infinitely intelligent, wise and good Being, arises from reflecting on the operations of our own mind, and augmenting, without limit, those qualities of goodness and wisdom.”

MindIdeasQualityWiseAtheismLimitsGoodnessIntelligentAriseOperationsReflectingAgnosticism
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding ; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh ; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature
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“A celebrated author and divine has written to me that he has gradually learned to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that he created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms, as to believe that he required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of his laws.”

BelieveSelfActionFormLawWrittenAtheismCreationDivineDevelopmentCapableOriginalsNobleConceptionVoidSelf DevelopmentDeitiesAgnosticism
Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
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“I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who denounces them is bound to show why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man as a distinct species by descent from some lower from, through the laws of variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the individual through the laws of ordinary reproduction. The birth both of the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand sequence of events, which our minds refuse to accept as the result of blind chance.”

MenMindShowsLawIndividualNaturalChanceResultsAcceptingAtheismEventsBirthOrdinaryBlindSpeciesBoundsRefusePositive AtheismConclusionSelectionSequenceVariationNatural SelectionAgnosticismReproductionDescentOrigin Of ManSequence Of Events
Book:The Descent of Man and Seletion in Relation to Sex
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“There is nothing more necessary than truth, and in comparison with it everything else has only secondary value. This absolute will to truth: what is it? Is it the will to not allow ourselves to be deceived? Is it the will not to deceive? One does not want to be deceived, under the supposition that it is injurious, dangerous, or fatal to be deceived.”

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Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“The transition from Religion to Scientific contemplation is a violent, dangerous leap, which is not to be recommended. In order to make this transition, art is far rather to be employed to relieve the mind overburdened with emotions. Out of the illogical comes much good. It is so firmly rooted in the passions, in language, in art, in religion, and generally in everything which gives value to life. It is only the naive people who can believe that the nature of man can be changed into a purely logical one. We have yet to learn that others can suffer, and this can never be completely learned.”

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Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“For such is man: a Theological Dogma might be refuted to him a thousand times - provided however, that he had need of it, he would again and again accept it as true. Belief is always most desired, most pressingly needed where there is a lack of will. Fanaticism is the sole "volitional strength" to which the weak and irresolute can be excited, as a sort of hypnotising of the entire sensory-intellectual system.”

MenNeedsMightBeliefAcceptingAtheismNeededThousandIntellectualWeakExcitedSoleDogmaAgain And AgainFanaticismTheologicalAgnosticismSensory
Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“... superstitions, which, being unable to defend themselves on fair ground, raise these intangling brambles to cover and protect their weakness. Chased from the open country, these robbers fly into the forest, and lie in wait to break in upon every unguarded avenue of the mind, and overwhelm it with religious fears and prejudices. ... The idea of God, as meaning an infinitely intelligent, wise and good Being, arises from reflecting on the operations of our own mind, and augmenting, without limit, those qualities of goodness and wisdom.”

MindIdeasCountryLyingWaitingReligiousQualityBreakWiseAtheismProtectLimitsGoodnessWeaknessFairsPrejudiceIntelligentRaisesAriseForestsOperationsSuperstitionsReflectingAvenuesAgnosticismRobbers
Book:An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion
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“..when, in my philosophical disquisitions, I deny a providence and a future state, I undermine not the foundations of society, but advance principles, which they themselves, upon their own topics, if they argue consistently, must allow to be solid and satisfactory.”

IfsStatesPrinciplesAtheismPhilosophicalFoundationDenyArguingProvidenceConsistentlyTopicsAgnosticism
Book:Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects
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“Writer Somerset Maugham, after his parents deaths, spent a few stultifying years in his uncle's vicarage. Later, in his teens at a boarding-school, having lost his belief in the existence of God said: "The whole horrible structure, based not on the love of God, but on the fear of hell, tumbled down like a house of cards."”

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Author:Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon
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“Anyone who feels that they're in some way plugged into a meaningful, cosmic system is given a greater psychological balance as a result-whether or not they believe it contains a god-like figure at the control panels. Lots of people have this beneficial sense of being plugged into something bigger, even if they're not religious in the going-to-church-regularly sense.”

PeopleIfsWayFeelsBelieveGivenChurchReligiousResultsGreaterFiguresBalanceBiggerMeaningfulPsychologicalCosmicBeneficialAgnosticismGoing To Church
Book:Families and how to survive them
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“This deep agnosticism is more than the refusal of conventional agnosticism to take a stand on whether God exists or whether the mind survives bodily death. It is the willingness to embrace the fundamental bewilderment of a finite, fallible creature as the basis for leading a life that no longer clings to the superficial consolations of certainty.”

MindCreaturesBasesFundamentalsEmbraceCertaintyWillingnessConventionalSuperficialConsolationFiniteRefusalAgnosticismGod ExistsBewildermentWhether God Exists
Book:Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
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“Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

AbleReligionAtheismWillingAtheistSecularAgnosticSkepticalThere Is No GodAgnosticismGod ExistsOmnipotentOmnipotenceIf There Is A GodReligion GodFounding Fathers Anti ReligionTheistFounding Fathers AtheistAnti ReligiousThere Being No GodGod Is AbleNon BelieverFaith ReligionReligion In SocietyAnti GodProof That God ExistsSubtle AtheistProof God ExistsProblem Of EvilEpicureanEvil GodCriticism Of Religion
Author:Epicurus
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“I don't know whether God exists or not. ... Some forms of atheism are arrogant and ignorant and should be rejected, but agnosticism—to admit that we don't know and to search—is all right. ... When I look at what I call the gift of life, I feel a gratitude which is in tune with some religious ideas of God. However, the moment I even speak of it, I am embarrassed that I may do something wrong to God in talking about God.”

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Author:Karl Popper
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“I've sworn off agnosticism, which I now call cowardly atheism. I've come to the position that in the complete absence of any supporting data whatsover for the persistence of the individual in some spiritual form, it is necessary to operate under the provisional conclusion that there is no afterlife and then be ready to amend that if I find out otherwise.”

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Author:James Cameron
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“Death makes me realize how deeply I have internalized the agnosticism I preach in all my books. I consider dogmatic belief and dogmatic denial very childish forms of conceit in a world of infinitely whirling complexity. None of us can see enough from one corner of space-time to know "all" about the rest of space-time.”

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Book:Tsog: The Thing That Ate the Constitution
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