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Contradictions Quotes

Browse 57 quotes about Contradictions.

Contradictions Quotes

“Each religion makes scores of purportedly factual assertions about everything from the creation of the universe to the afterlife. But on what grounds can believers presume to know that these assertions are true? The reasons they give are various, but the ultimate justification for most religious people’s beliefs is a simple one: we believe what we believe because our holy scriptures say so. But how, then, do we know that our holy scriptures are factually accurate? Because the scriptures themselves say so. Theologians specialize in weaving elaborate webs of verbiage to avoid saying anything quite so bluntly, but this gem of circular reasoning really is the epistemological bottom line on which all 'faith' is grounded. In the words of Pope John Paul II: 'By the authority of his absolute transcendence, God who makes himself known is also the source of the credibility of what he reveals.' It goes without saying that this begs the question of whether the texts at issue really were authored or inspired by God, and on what grounds one knows this. 'Faith' is not in fact a rejection of reason, but simply a lazy acceptance of bad reasons. 'Faith' is the pseudo-justification that some people trot out when they want to make claims without the necessary evidence. But of course we never apply these lax standards of evidence to the claims made in the other fellow’s holy scriptures: when it comes to religions other than one’s own, religious people are as rational as everyone else. Only our own religion, whatever it may be, seems to merit some special dispensation from the general standards of evidence. And here, it seems to me, is the crux of the conflict between religion and science. Not the religious rejection of specific scientific theories (be it heliocentrism in the 17th century or evolutionary biology today); over time most religions do find some way to make peace with well-established science. Rather, the scientific worldview and the religious worldview come into conflict over a far more fundamental question: namely, what constitutes evidence. Science relies on publicly reproducible sense experience (that is, experiments and observations) combined with rational reflection on those empirical observations. Religious people acknowledge the validity of that method, but then claim to be in the possession of additional methods for obtaining reliable knowledge of factual matters — methods that go beyond the mere assessment of empirical evidence — such as intuition, revelation, or the reliance on sacred texts. But the trouble is this: What good reason do we have to believe that such methods work, in the sense of steering us systematically (even if not invariably) towards true beliefs rather than towards false ones? At least in the domains where we have been able to test these methods — astronomy, geology and history, for instance — they have not proven terribly reliable. Why should we expect them to work any better when we apply them to problems that are even more difficult, such as the fundamental nature of the universe? Last but not least, these non-empirical methods suffer from an insuperable logical problem: What should we do when different people’s intuitions or revelations conflict? How can we know which of the many purportedly sacred texts — whose assertions frequently contradict one another — are in fact sacred?”

ReasonPhilosophyScienceEvidenceLogicSacredPhysicsObservationPopeBeliefsScripturesRevelationHoly ScripturesScience Vs ReligionHoly BooksJohn Paul IiContradictionsReligious BooksCircular ReasoningEmpiricalBegging The Question
Author:Alan Sokal
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“It was as if he took the complexity of human beings as a personal affront, the maddening inconsistency of human beings, their contradictions which they made no attempt to wipe out or reconcile, their mixture of idealism and concupiscence, grandeur and pettiness, truth and lies. They were not to be taken seriously any more than a cockroach deserves serious consideration.”

PeopleHumansHumanityHuman BeingsComplexityInconsistencyContradictions
Book:Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
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“How would I know what Jesus would have done? That fella was a mass of contradictions as far as I can see. One minute he says to turn the other cheek, the next minute he's having a big strop and kicking over lads' market stalls. He says blessed are the meek and he goes around shouting and roaring the odds to everyone. He rises from the dead and then shags off a few weeks later and leaves his buddies in the shit.”

ReligionJesusBibleContradictionsWhat Would Jesus Do
Book:The Spinning Heart
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“In truth, the best works of art are by no means the most perfect ones, but rather those whose imperfection bears the most profound witness to their fundamental contradictions. That is why those works, whose success takes its measure from the failure of the world, assume something helpless, frail and disorganized under the gaze of contemporary cultural administration.”

ArtContradictions
Book:Towards a Theory of Musical Reproduction: Notes, a Draft and Two Schemata
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“Now there are some, and I don't just mean Communists like you, but thinking men of all political parties, who think that not many of these gods actually exist. Some believe that none of them exist. There's just us and an ocean of darkness around us. I'm no philosopher or poet, how would I know the truth? It's true that all these gods seem to do awfully little work - much like our politicians - and yet keep winning reelection to their golden thrones in heaven, year after year. That's not to say I don't respect them, Mr. Premier! Don't you ever let that blasphemous idea into your yellow skull. My country is the kind where it pays to play it both ways: the Indian entrepreneur has to be straight and crooked, mocking and believing, sly and sincere, at the same time.”

GodEntrepreneurContradictionGodsContradictions
Book:The White Tiger
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“The lecture halls of the world are filled with senior citizens who seek greater knowledge and wisdom. The explanatory drive that was there when they were babies is still there now. Wisdom at this phase of life is the ability to see the connections between things. It’s the ability to hold opposite truths—contradictions and paradoxes—in the mind at the same time, without wrestling to impose some linear order. It’s the ability to see things from multiple perspectives.”

WisdomAgeKnowledgeLearningAgingOld AgeContradictionsSeniorsParadoxesSenior Citizens
Book:How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
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“When people want to win they will go to desperate extremes. However, anyone that has already won in life has come to the conclusion that there is no game. There is nothing but learning in this life and it is the only thing we take with us to the grave—knowledge. If you only understood that concept then your heart wouldn’t break so bad. Jealousy or revenge wouldn’t be your ambition. Stepping on others to raise yourself up wouldn’t be a goal. Competition would be left on the playing field, and your freedom from what other people think about you would light the pathway out of hell.”

LoveLifeMindHeartPhilosophyFeelingsTruthHappinessFaithChoicesFoundWinningLostJusticeFreedomCompassionFamilyVisionCareersKindnessLearningPlansIgnoranceFriendsConfidenceSelf LoveEvolutionIntegrityLivingPerceptionDignityOvercomingTransformationCompetitionExtremesGoalsHelping OthersClarityJealousyArroganceSelf RespectInsecurityAgendasSpiritual GrowthHeritageSuperiorityIntrospectionSpeculationLife PurposeQuality Of LifeFamiliesHoustonGod S PlanFreemanWrong ChoicesStayingpositiveu ComBad ChoicesCaring Too MuchContradictionsCommonsenseGuardian AngelsLife DirectionLife StoriesConclusionsHidden AgendasMisleadingLack Of IntegrityWhite PathSelf Esteem 101BakersfieldComeback StoriesPlaying FieldCarrFreno
Author:Shannon L. Alder
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“Embrace contradictions for they make up all of life: You will eternally be looking for yourself and seeking ways to lose yourself.”

LifeDifferentSelfCharacterTruthRememberFoundLostLife QuotesForgetExistenceConsciousnessIdentityAcceptanceBalanceEgoEternalOppositesEmbraceSeekingContrarySurrenderAcknowledgeOppositionParadoxYourselfContradictoryLet GoKamandKojouriKamand KojouriLoseSeekSearchFindLookAcceptMakeSearchingLookingYin And YangFind YourselfContradictionsOpposeGive InYin YangLose YourselfContradiction QuotesEternally
Author:Kamand Kojouri
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“The reason a lot of women can't move on from a relationship or people they love is because they need to know why. Why did this happen? Why did you do this? Why don't you care? Why did you hurt me? Why do you believe this about me? Why did you send me mixed signals? Why are these other people in your life acting like you care? Men have it all wrong. Insecurity is not why a lot of women don't let go. Women have a difficult time letting go because men don't communicate why at the level that women require. They don't back up their words with actions that are not confusing or could be misinterrupted as something else. Until, men learn that their actions and their friends and families reactions can create a questionable doubt about how they feel, they will forever have to deal with the drama they create for themselves.”

MenLoveGamesLetting GoDirectConfusionBeing In LoveWhyRelationships 101Hanging OnContradictionsMixed SignalsStraight ForwardWishy WashyRaising MenPoor CommunicatorsRaising GentlemenThrough Kindness
Author:Shannon L. Alder
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“You claim that the evidentiary miracle is present and available, namely, the Koran. You say: 'Whoever denies it, let him produce a similar one.' Indeed, we shall produce a thousand similar, from the works of rhetoricians, eloquent speakers and valiant poets, which are more appropriately phrased and state the issues more succinctly. They convey the meaning better and their rhymed prose is in better meter. … By God what you say astonishes us! You are talking about a work which recounts ancient myths, and which at the same time is full of contradictions and does not contain any useful information or explanation. Then you say: 'Produce something like it'‽”

PoetryMiracleIslamMythQuranContradictionsKoran
Author:Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi
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“The many contradictions in our lives – such as being home while feeling homeless, being busy while feeling bored, being popular while feeling lonely, being believers while feeling many doubts – can frustrate, irritate, and even discourage us. They make us feel that we are never fully present. Every door that opens for us makes us see how many more doors are closed. But there is another response. These same contradictions can bring us into touch with a deeper longing, for the fulfillment of a desire that lives beneath all desires and that only God can satisfy. Contradictions, thus understood, create the friction that can help us move toward God.”

GodLongingParadoxContradictions
Book:Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith
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“[Patricia Highsmith] was a figure of contradictions: a lesbian who didn't particularly like women; a writer of the most insightful psychological novels who, at times, appeared bored by people; a misanthrope with a gentle, sweet nature.”

PeopleWritingWomenNatureSweetInsightPsychologicalBoredGentleWriterInsightfulLesbianNovelsLikeMisanthropeContradictions
Book:Patricia Highsmith, ζωή στο σκοτάδι
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“With satire the critique of social reality is performed, the immanent contradictions between expectation and reality are distinguished and judged; it is the artistic or literary form of conscious display of the mockful and/or distorted image of reality, during which not only does it want to cause laughter, but also to be understood seriously.”

RealityLaughterSatireSatiricalContradictionsMocking
Book:Kaznena reakcija u Srbiji: 7 deo
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“We saw this contradiction in action in Marx's analysis of struggles over the length of the working day. Individual capitalists, we there discovered, each of them acting in his or her own self-interest and locked in competitive struggle with each other, can produce an aggregative result which goes against their class interest seen as a whole. By their individual action they can endanger the basis for accumulation. And since accumulation is the means whereby the capitalist class reproduces itself, they can endanger the basis for their own reproduction. They are then forced to constitute themselves as a class — usually through the agency of the state — and to put limits upon their own competition. But in so doing they are forced to intervene in the exchange process — in this instance in the labour market -- and thereby to offend the rules of individuality and freedom in exchange.”

CapitalismCapitalContradictionsExchange
Book:The Limits to Capital
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“The passage that he had found in the book had been riddled with ambiguities and contradictions only reserved for those most valiant in overriding their legalistic forbearance into a necessary frenzy that would allow them to suitably work up a case for one side or the other on how the Law, without the possibility of misinterpretation, states If ABC, then DEF—or for the sake of acknowledging the counterargument first as a courtroom tactic, the case might also be made that the Law states the antithesis of the aforementioned If ABC, then DEF, but gives allowance within reasonable parameters for a provisional XYZ to be granted in exceptional cases. And thus, it was a matter not so much of making one’s case in a clear and logical sense, but one for the lawyers to battle out in the arena of pathos, as it was clearly the emotional pleas that could evoke a sense of sympathy in the courtroom and overturn otherwise painstaking endeavors at using the tools at hand to make pleas based upon incontrovertible facts.”

Common GoodPathosMisinterpretationLaw And JusticeContradictionsMoral RelativismAshim ShankerAmbiguitiesIncontrovertibleHollow Systems Of JurisprudenceLegalistic Forbearance
Book:Don't Forget to Breathe
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“Their quarry had been cornered in his defenses and their bloodlust was such that they were likely to pay top Julep to watch him escape, so that he might be brutalized and killed before their very eyes, as this was much more gratifying to them than simply watching justice be enacted. They, too, understood that societal constructs for justice were moderate gratification, at best, as they were empty and subject to contradictions and compromises steeped in moral relativism and an unconditional dependence upon overblown semantics that made the law a mockery of itself. As for the ideologies that these hollow systems of jurisprudence sought to define and uphold: these could easily be subjugated through a meticulous analysis of the trivial components of one statute or another. The rule of law had failed them. What the people wanted, in its stead, was rather simple: moral absolutes. Good versus evil. And evil was not to be simply prevailed over. Evil was to be dominated and effectively eliminated, because as long as it was able to while away the time somewhere—in some sweaty prison cell, far away, staring out the barred window with a wry smile, as it plotted its next offensive on the Common Good, a sense of wholeness could not be achieved.”

JusticePrisonGood And EvilBrutalityCommon GoodNatural LawContradictionsMoral RelativismQuarryJurisprudenceBloodlustCompromisesDualitiesHollow Systems Of JurisprudenceMoral AbsolutesOverblown SemanticsSocietal Contructs For JusticeSubjugation Of Law
Book:Don't Forget to Breathe
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“We preach body confidence, but we live in a culture that doesn’t quite know what to do with a woman who actually likes the way she looks. It’s considered arrogant and even unfeminine. Think of the recent hit One Direction song that made the claim that a woman was beautiful precisely because she didn’t know she was beautiful. We need to question a culture that tells women they must be beautiful to be loved, but that they shouldn’t actually feel beautiful or we’ll find them conceited.”

FeminismContradictionsShamingWomen S StudiesMixed MessagesBeauty Culture
Book:Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women
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“I walked around those places, pious child that i was, thinking that my goodness was proof negative. "Look at me!" I wanted to shout. I wanted to be a living theorem, a Logos. Science and math had already taught me that if there was many exceptions to a rule, then the rule was not a rule. Look at me. This was all so wrongheaded, so backward, but I didn't know how to think any differently. The rule was never a rule, but I had mistaken it for one. I took me years of questioning and seeking to see more than my little piece, and even now I don't always see it.”

RacismContradictionsInstitutionalized Racism
Book:Transcendent Kingdom
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“For I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the scorned one. I am the whore and the holy one. I am the wife and the virgin. I am (the mother) and the daughter. I am the members of my mother... I am the silence that is incomprehensible and the idea whose remembrance is frequent. I am the voice whose sound is manifold and the word whose appearance is multiple. I am the utterance of my name.”

PhilosophySpiritualityMysteryParadoxDivine FeminineContradictionsMother Goddess
Author:The Thunder, Perfect Mind
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“It is an amazing contradiction: a society that frowns on a woman going out without a man; that forces you to use separate entrances for universities, banks, restaurants, and mosques; that divides restaurants with partitions so that unrelated males and females cannot sit together; that same society expects you to get into a car with a man who is not your relative, with a man who is a complete stranger, by yourself and have him take you somewhere inside a locked car, alone.”

EqualityDrivingDriversWomen S RightsSegregationSaudi ArabiaContradictionsSaudi WomenRight To DriveWomen To Drive
Book:Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman's Awakening
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“Does the person report having had the experience of meeting people she does not know but who seem to know her, perhaps by a different name? Often, those with DID are thought by others to be lying because different parts will say different things which the host has no knowledge of.”

LyingMental IllnessDissociative Identity DisorderStigmaMultiple Personality DisorderLiarDissociativeDissociative AmnesiaContradictionsPathological LiarFakingAlter Personalites
Book:Understanding and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder
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“During the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution human fantasy created gods in man's own image, who, by the operations of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate to influence, the phenomenal world. Man sought to alter the disposition of these gods in his own favor by means of magic and prayer. The idea of God in the religions taught at present is a sublimation of that old concept of the gods. Its anthropomorphic character is shown, for instance, by the fact that men appeal to the Divine Being in prayers and plead for the fulfillment of their wishes. Nobody, certainly, will deny that the idea of the existence of an omnipotent, just, and omnibeneficent personal God is able to accord man solace, help, and guidance; also, by virtue of its simplicity it is accessible to the most undeveloped mind. But, on the other hand, there are decisive weaknesses attached to this idea in itself, which have been painfully felt since the beginning of history. That is, if this being is omnipotent, then every occurrence, including every human action, every human thought, and every human feeling and aspiration is also His work; how is it possible to think of holding men responsible for their deeds and thoughts before such an almighty Being? In giving out punishment and rewards He would to a certain extent be passing judgment on Himself. How can this be combined with the goodness and righteousness ascribed to Him? (Albert Einstein, Science, Philosophy, and Religion, A 1934 Symposium published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941; from Einstein's Out of My Later Years, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1970, pp. 26-27.)”

MagicEvolutionInventionManAccountabilitySuperstitionContradictionsEarly Man
Author:Albert Einstein
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