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Dogmatic Quotes

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Dogmatic Quotes

“Atheism is a conclusion reached by the most reasonable methods and one which is not asserted dogmatically but is explained in its every feature by the light of reason. The atheist does not boast of knowing in a vainglorious, empty sense. He understands by knowledge the most reasonable and clear and sound position one can take on the basis of all the evidence at hand. This evidence convinces him that theism is not true, and his logical position, then, is that of atheism. We repeat that the atheist is one who denies the assumptions of theism. he asserts, in other words, that he doesn't believe in a God because he has no good reason for believing in a God. That's atheism -- and that's good sense.”

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Book:The meaning of atheism
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“It is my conviction that, with the spread of true scientific culture, whatever may be the medium, historical, philological, philosophical, or physical, through which that culture is conveyed, and with its necessary concomitant, a constant elevation of the standard of veracity, the end of the evolution of theology will be like its beginning—it will cease to have any relation to ethics. I suppose that, so long as the human mind exists, it will not escape its deep-seated instinct to personify its intellectual conceptions. The science of the present day is as full of this particular form of intellectual shadow-worship as is the nescience of ignorant ages. The difference is that the philosopher who is worthy of the name knows that his personified hypotheses, such as law, and force, and ether, and the like, are merely useful symbols, while the ignorant and the careless take them for adequate expressions of reality. So, it may be, that the majority of mankind may find the practice of morality made easier by the use of theological symbols. And unless these are converted from symbols into idols, I do not see that science has anything to say to the practice, except to give an occasional warning of its dangers. But, when such symbols are dealt with as real existences, I think the highest duty which is laid upon men of science is to show that these dogmatic idols have no greater value than the fabrications of men's hands, the stocks and the stones, which they have replaced.”

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Book:The Evolution Of Theology: An Anthropological Study
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“{From Luther Burbank's funeral. He was loved until he revealed he was an atheist, then he began to receive death threats. He tried to amiably answer them all, leading to his death} It is impossible to estimate the wealth he has created. It has been generously given to the world. Unlike inventors, in other fields, no patent rights were given him, nor did he seek a monopoly in what he created. Had that been the case, Luther Burbank would have been perhaps the world's richest man. But the world is richer because of him. In this he found joy that no amount of money could give. And so we meet him here today, not in death, but in the only immortal life we positively know--his good deeds, his kindly, simple, life of constructive work and loving service to the whole wide world. These things cannot die. They are cumulative, and the work he has done shall be as nothing to its continuation in the only immortality this brave, unselfish man ever sought, or asked to know. As great as were his contributions to the material wealth of this planet, the ages yet to come, that shall better understand him, will give first place in judging the importance of his work to what he has done for the betterment of human plants and the strength they shall gain, through his courage, to conquer the tares, the thistles and the weeds. Then no more shall we have a mythical God that smells of brimstone and fire; that confuses hate with love; a God that binds up the minds of little children, as other heathen bind up their feet--little children equally helpless to defend their precious right to think and choose and not be chained from the dawn of childhood to the dogmas of the dead. Luther Burbank will rank with the great leaders who have driven heathenish gods back into darkness, forever from this earth. In the orthodox threat of eternal punishment for sin--which he knew was often synonymous with yielding up all liberty and freedom--and in its promise of an immortality, often held out for the sacrifice of all that was dear to life, the right to think, the right to one's mind, the right to choose, he saw nothing but cowardice. He shrank from such ways of thought as a flower from the icy blasts of death. As shown by his work in life, contributing billions of wealth to humanity, with no more return than the maintenance of his own breadline, he was too humble, too unselfish, to be cajoled with dogmatic promises of rewards as a sort of heavenly bribe for righteous conduct here. He knew that the man who fearlessly stands for the right, regardless of the threat of punishment or the promise of reward, was the real man. Rather was he willing to accept eternal sleep, in returning to the elements from whence he came, for in his lexicon change was life. Here he was content to mingle as a part of the whole, as the raindrop from the sea performs its sacred service in watering the land to which it is assigned, that two blades may grow instead of one, and then, its mission ended, goes back to the ocean from whence it came. With such service, with such a life as gardener to the lilies of the field, in his return to the bosoms of infinity, he has not lost himself. There he has found himself, is a part of the cosmic sea of eternal force, eternal energy. And thus he lived and always will live. Thomas Edison, who believes very much as Burbank, once discussed with me immortality. He pointed to the electric light, his invention, saying: 'There lives Tom Edison.' So Luther Burbank lives. He lives forever in the myriad fields of strengthened grain, in the new forms of fruits and flowers, plants, vines, and trees, and above all, the newly watered gardens of the human mind, from whence shall spring human freedom that shall drive out false and brutal gods. The gods are toppling from their thrones. They go before the laughter and the joy of the new childhood of the race, unshackled and unafraid.”

LoveLifeInspirationalMindGodDeathJoyReligionHateHumanityEnergyForceHeavenChangeWealthFreedomCourageHellRichFireAcceptancePromiseElementsLaughterEternityTheologyImmortalityInfinityCowardiceThinkLovingGodsSuperstitionEulogyBribeRewardBettermentDogmaticBenefitMythicalTheologiansThomas EdisonEdisonLuther BurbankBurbankTom Edison
Author:Ben Lindsey
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“I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person's life. God is in everyone's life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else - God is in this person's life. You can - you must - try to seek God in every human life.”

IfsTryingHumansPersonsHas BeensDrugVicesDisasterDestroyedCertaintyHuman LifeDogmaticCertainty In Life
Book:My Door Is Always Open: A Conversation on Faith, Hope and the Church in a Time of Change
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“The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice. If you take your children for a picnic on a doubtful day, they will demand a dogmatic answer as to whether it will be fine or wet, and be disappointed in you when you cannot be sure.”

IfsMenChildrenScienceNatureNaturalAnswersFineDemandIntellectualOur ChildrenVicesCertaintyYour ChildrenDisappointedWetNeverthelessDoubtfulDogmaticPicnicsDisappointed In You
Book:Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68
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“No country or people who are slaves to dogma and the dogmatic mentality can progress, and unhappily our country and people have become extraordinarily dogmatic and little-minded”

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Book:Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: Advisory Board: M. Chalapathi N. Y. Sharada Prasad, and B. R. Nanda;general Editor: S. Gopal
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“Do not feed children on a maudlin sentimentalism or dogmatic religion; give them nature. Let their souls drink in all that is pure and sweet. Rear them, if possible, amid pleasant surroundings ... Let nature teach them the lessons of good and proper living, combined with an abundance of well-balanced nourishment. Those children will grow to be the best men and women. Put the best in them by contact with the best outside. They will absorb it as a plant absorbs the sunshine and the dew.”

IfsMenGivingWellsChildrenSoulGrowsWalksTeachJourneySweetWalkingDrinkLessonsPureMen And WomenPlantContactWanderPleasantAbundanceBeing The BestSunshineHikingBalancedSurroundingsDewNourishmentTrekkingStrollingSaunteringDogmatic
Author:Luther Burbank
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“Under the desert sun, in the dogmatic clarity, the fables of theology and the myths of classical philosophy dissolve like mist. The air is clean, the rock cuts cruelly into flesh; shatter the rock and the odor of flint rises to your nostrils, bitter and sharp. Whirlwinds dance across the salt flats, a pillar of dust by day; the thornbush breaks into flame at night. What does it mean? It means nothing. It is as it is and has no need for meaning. The desert lies beneath and soars beyond any possible human qualification. Therefore, sublime.”

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Author:Edward Abbey
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“Tormented by conflicting feelings, I appealed to reason ; and it is reason which, amid so many dogmatic contradictions, now forces the hypothesis upon me. A priori dogmatism, applying itself to God, has proved fruitless: who knows whither the hypothesis, in its turn, will lead us? I will explain therefore how, studying in the silence of my heart, and far from every human consideration, the mystery of social revolutions, God, the great unknown, has become for me an hypothesis, I mean a necessary dialectical tool.”

KnowsHumansHeartMeanReasonFeelingsTurnsForceSocialSilenceStudyMysteryRevolutionMy HeartToolsContradictionConsiderationHypothesisDogmaticDogmatismSocial RevolutionGreat Unknown
Book:System of Economical Contradictions: Or, The Philosophy of Misery
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“Agnosticism is a perfectly respectable and tenable philosophical position; it is not dogmatic and makes no pronouncements about the ultimate truths of the universe. It remains open to evidence and persuasion; lacking faith, it nevertheless does not deride faith. Atheism, on the other hand, is as unyielding and dogmatic about religious belief as true believers are about heathens. It tries to use reason to demolish a structure that is not built upon reason.”

TryingDoeReasonUseHandsUniverseBeliefReligiousAtheismPositionEvidenceBuiltUltimatePhilosophicalRemainsStructureBelieverNeverthelessLackingPersuasionRespectableAgnosticismReligious BeliefDogmaticTrue BelieverHeathenUltimate TruthUnyieldingDemolish
Book:Pieces of Eight Pa
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“Philosophy, beginning in wonder, as Plato and Aristotle said, is able to fancy everything different from what it is. It sees the familiar as if it were strange, and the strange as if it were familiar. It can take things up and lay them down again. It rouses us from our native dogmatic slumber and breaks up our caked prejudices.”

IfsSaidDifferentPhilosophyAbleWonderBreakStrangePrejudiceLaysFamiliarFancyNativePlatoSlumberDogmaticPlato And Aristotle
Book:William James: Essays and Lectures
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“I do indeed disbelieve that we or any other mortal men can attain on a given day to absolutely incorrigible and unimprovable truth about such matters of fact as those with which religions deal. But I reject this dogmatic ideal not out of a perverse delight in intellectual instability. I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly.”

MenMatterFactsGivenLosesDealsDoubtLoversIntellectualIdealsDelightMortalsRejectsDisorderRationalityMatter Of FactPretensionInstabilityDogmaticIncorrigible
Book:The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature
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“The most offensive egotist is he that fears to say "I" and "me." "It will probably rain" - that is dogmatic. "I think it will rain" - that is natural and modest. Montaigne is the most delightful of essayists because so great is his humility that he does not think it important that we see not Montaigne. He so forgets himself that he employs no artifice to make us forget him.”

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Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)
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“If one takes pleasure in calling the gold standard a "barbarous relic," one cannot object to the application of the same term to every historically determined institution. Then the fact that the British speak English - and not Danish, German, or French - is a barbarous relic too, and every Briton who opposes the substitution of Esperanto for English is no less dogmatic and orthodox than those who do not wax rapturous about the plans for a managed currency.”

IfsFactsSpeakTermPleasurePlansObjectsCallingStandardsGoldInstitutionsBritishDeterminedOrthodoxApplicationCurrencyDogmaticRelicsSpeak EnglishSubstitutionDanishGold StandardBritonsEsperanto
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“Science tells us what we can know but what we can know is little and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive of many things of very great importance. Theology, on the other hand induces a dogmatic belief that we have knowledge where in fact we have ignorance and by doing so generates a kind of impertinent insolence towards the universe. Uncertainty in the presence of vivid hopes and fears is painful, but must be endured if we wish to live without the support of comforting fairy tales.”

IfsKnowsKindLittlesFactsHandsUniverseBeliefWishForgetSupportIgnoranceImportancePainfulTheologyTalesUncertaintyFairyFairy TaleComfortingVividDogmaticInsensitiveHopes And FearsInsolence
Book:History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition
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“This sort of behavior is left to the psychotic, dogmatic, fundamentalist believers you see on your TV everyday letting off bombs and killing people in the name of God. Beliefs are dangerous. Beliefs allow the mind to stop functioning. A non-functioning mind is clinically dead. Believe in nothing.”

PeopleMindBelieveNamesBeliefLeftAtheismDangerousTvsBehaviorKillingEverydayPositive AtheismBelieverBombsFundamentalistBelief In GodPsychoticDogmatic
Author:Maynard James Keenan
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“Where the subject lies so far beyond our reach, the difference between the highest and the lowest of human understandings may indeed be calculated as infinitely small; yet the degree of weakness may perhaps be measured by the degree of obstinacy and dogmatic confidence.”

HumansMayLyingUnderstandingDifferencesHistorySubjectsDegreesHighestWeaknessLowestRoman EmpireDogmaticObstinacy
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind is also rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.”

MindPhilosophyUniverseImaginationAnswersKnownGreatnessHighestCapableIntellectualUnionsSakeBeing TrueConceptionContemplatingDefiniteDiminishAssuranceSpeculationDogmatic
Book:The Problems of Philosophy
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“We should all oppose - as Darwin did - views manifestly in conflict with the evidence, such as creationism... But we shouldn't set up this debate as 'religion v science'; instead we should strive for peaceful coexistence with at least the less dogmatic strands of mainstream religions, which number many excellent scientists among their adherents.”

ShouldViewsNumbersConflictEvidenceScientistStriveDebatePeacefulExcellentMainstreamStrandsDogmaticCoexistenceCreationismPeaceful Coexistence
Author:Martin Rees
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“One of the great unresolved psychological enigmas of the modern western world is the question of what or who has persuaded us to accept as virtually axiomatic a self-view and a world-view that demand we reject out of hand the wisdom and vision of our major philosophers and poets in order to imprison our thought and our very selves in the materialist, mechanical and dogmatic torture-chamber devised by purely quantitative and third-rate scientific minds.”

WorldMindSelfHandsOrderViewsAcceptingVisionModernPoetDemandMajorsThirdsWesternRatePhilosopherPsychologicalTortureRejectsOur ThoughtsChamberWestern WorldWorld ViewDogmaticEnigma
Book:Human image, world image: the death and resurrection of sacred cosmology
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“All over Europe the organs that represent dogmatic interests are in permanent opposition to the progressive tendencies around them, and are rapidly sinking into contempt. In every country in which a strong political life is manifested, the secularisation of politics is the consequence. Each stage of that movement has been initiated and effected by those who are most indifferent to dogmatic theology, and each has been opposed by those who are most occupied with theology.”

Has BeensCountryPoliticalLife IsStrongInterestAtheismStageMovementConsequenceEuropePositive AtheismTheologyTendenciesPermanentOppositionProgressiveContemptOrgansIndifferentSinkingDogmaticPolitical Life
Book:History of the rise and influence of the spirit of rationalism in Europe
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