O senseless man who cannot possibly make a worm,
and yet makes Gods by the dozen.
Michael Egyem de Montaigne - French essayist 1533 - 92
Pascal's Wager
Expresses the conviction that belief in God is rational; if God does not exist,
one stands to lose nothing by believing in him, while if he does exist, one
stands to lose everything by not believing.
The society which scorns excellence in plumbing
because plumbing is a humble vocation and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy
because it is an exhaulted vocation will have neither good plumbing nor good
philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.
John W. Gardner
St. Foy was martyred as a young girl for refusal to
worship idols. A fine romanesque church was erected at Conques to house relics
and a golden idol of St. Foy.
Man errs as long as he strives.
Goethe
I've never seen a butterfly display its truest
beauty
when not allowed to flutter by and carry out its duty.
exerpted from the works of Johnny Pokerface
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Einstein
I'd rather seek my fortune on a sea of uncertainty
than be dry-docked in dogma.
If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing
Where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger.
Thomas Henry Huxley
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself
But talent instantly recognizes genius.
Arthur Conan Doyle in the Valley
of Fear
If there were gods, how could I endure it not to be
a god.
Nietzsche
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very
short one.
"O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous" and God granted it.
Voltaire
If God made us in His image, we have certainly
returned the
compliment. Voltaire
I would never die for my beliefs because I might be
wrong.
Bertrand 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.
Bertrand Russell
A new scientific truth does not triumph by
convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its
opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with
it.
Max Planck 1858-1947
The contemplation of nature can give rise to some
curious reflexions. There is a famous (possibly apocryphal) story about the
great biologist J.B.S. Haldane. At a major British public occasion, Haldane was
sitting next to an Anglican bishop, who asked him what biology had shown him
about the designs and predilections of the Creator. Haldane is supposed to have
replied "An inordinate fondness for beetles."
The biggest advantage to believing
in God is you don't have to understand anything, no physics, no biology. I
wanted to understand. . . . I think
the morality comes from human nature. I think we were born to care for one
another. . . . It gives people pleasure to help each other.
Nobel Laureate James Watson
The improver of natural knowledge absolutely
refuses to acknowledge authority. For him skepticism is the highest of duties,
blind faith the one unpardonable sin.
Thomas Henry Huxley
Logical consequences are scarecrows of fools and
beacons of wise men.
Thomas Henry Huxley
The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
Thomas Henry Huxley
I wouldn't want to be the God of any religion that
would have me as its Diety.
Groucho Marx
You do not need the Bible to justify love,
But no better tool has been devised to justify hate.
Richard A. Weatherwax
The church says the earth is flat, but I know it is
round for I have seen its shadow on the moon and I have more faith in a shadow
than the church.
Magellan
A man's ethical behaviour should be based
effectually on sympathy, education and social ties; no religious basis is
necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear
of punishment and hope of reward after death.
Albert Einstien
Belief in the absence of compelling evidence is
called faith. Belief after acquiring compelling evidence is called knowledge.
Carl Sagan
Thus we have given to man a pedigree of prodigious
length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality. The world, it has often been
remarked, appears as if it had long been preparing for the advent of man and
this, in one sense, is strictly true, for he owes his birth to a long line of
progenitors. If any single link in this chain had never existed, man would not
have been exactly what he now is. Unless we wilfully close our eyes, we may,
with our present knowledge, approximately recognize our parentage: nor need we
feel ashamed of it. The most humble organism is something much higher than the
inorganic dust beneath our feet; and no one with an unbiased mind can study any
living creature, however humble, without being struck with enthusiasm at its
marvellous structure and properties.
Charles Darwin . . . in The Descent of Man
There was a young lady named Bright,
Whose speed was much faster than light.
She started one day in a relative way,
and returned home the previous night.
A. H. Reginald Buller
'la Republique n'a pas besoin des savants' . . .
remarked upon the despatch of Lavoisier to the guillotine
The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history
may be the hijacking
of morality by religion.
Arthur C. Clarke
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but
to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and
diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell
than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Sir Isaac Newton