"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description... If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism." - Albert Einstein
Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.
Thomas Grey
"It is not disbelief that is dangerous to our society, it is belief." (G.B.Shaw)
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." (Chinese proverb)
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." (Mark Twain)
"It is likely that unlikely things should happen." (Aristotle)
Last edited by bindeweede; 5th October 2007 at 09:44 PM.
"The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt." (Bertrand Russell).
"If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing". (Anatole France).
Last edited by bindeweede; 5th October 2007 at 09:51 PM.
"I have a photographic memory, but once in a while I forget to take off the lens cap". (Milton Berle).
Bertrand RussellI say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.
More from the same source -
Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.
And, of course, there is the classic from Russell.......
"Keeping an open mind is a virtue, but not so open that your brains fall out."
But then there is this, also from Russell...
"Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones."
Last edited by bindeweede; 5th October 2007 at 11:00 PM.
Sorry, Mr Lippi. I didn't notice your signature:-\
"Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light." - Plato
"The only true wisdom comes from knowing that you know nothing"
Socrates.
"All we are is dust in the wind, dude."
Ted Theodore Logan.
"Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true." - Demosthenes, 384-322 BC.
"There are two kinds of people: Those who say to God, 'Thy will be done', and those to whom God says, 'All right then, have it your way.'" - C S Lewis.
"When you eat fish, you don't eat the bones. You eat the flesh. Take the Bible like that." - Robert R Moton.
"In the middle ages people were tourists because of their religion, whereas now they are tourists because tourism is their religion." - Robert Runcie.
"We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?" - Jean Cocteau.
"Experience - a comb life gives you after you lose your hair." - Judith Stern.
"The really frightening thing about middle-age is the knowledge that you'll grow out of it." - Doris Day.
"Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs. Therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity." - Socrates.
"When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, 'Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?"
Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp, one of the people on my list to meet in heaven and have a conversation with. Amazing man.
Have you read...... Manners from Heaven: A Divine Guide to Good Behaviour By Quentin Crisp, John Hofsess
Directs mischievous wit toward proper etiquette for the eighties by caustically detailing the many facets of being polite in an impolite society.
"As soon as I stepped out of my mother's womb...
I realized that I had made a mistake, " Quentin Crisp
To be rational is to look the universe in the face and not flinch.
Anonymous
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