Some quotesFollow

Though there's a definate theme to these quotes, there's no real point I'm attempting to make here. This is a collection of my favorite quotes which I'd like to share, perhaps because the boundaries between science and religion have taken up so much meaning in my life.

(To those who have flamed) To settle the recent flames, which are apparently about this having no content.. this wasn't meant to be something great. It's just a bunch of quotes I like and I'm sharing. There's no deeper purpose in doing this, nor is there some great conspiracy going on. They're just quotes by other people. Take it easy.

"The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action."
-Albert Einstein

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
-Buddha


"Shake off all fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God, because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blind faith."
-Thomas Jefferson


"'And don't tell me God works in mysterious ways,' Yossarian continued. 'There's nothing mysterious about it, He's not working at all. He's playing. Or else He's forgotten all about us. That's the kind of God you people talk about, a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed. Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of Creation? What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatalogical mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements? Why in the world did He ever create pain?'"
-Joseph Heller, Catch22

"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
-H. L. Mencken

"But here steps in Satan, the eternal rebel, the first free-thinker and emancipator of worlds. He makes man ashamed of his bestial ignorance and obedience; he emancipates him, stamps upon his brow the seal of liberty and humanity, in urging him to disobey and eat of the fruit of knowledge."
-Mikhail A. Bakunin

"I cannot then believe in this concept of an anthropomorphic God who has the powers of interfering with these natural laws. ... In essence, my religion consists of a humble admiration for this illimitable superior spirit that reveals itself in the slight details that we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds."
-Albert Einstein

"I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls."
-Albert Einstein

"You can safely say that you have made God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."
-Reverend Robert Cromey

"The fundamentalists, by 'knowing' the answers before they start, and then forcing nature into the straitjacket of their discredited preconceptions, lie outside the domain of science --or any honest intellectual inquiry."
-Stephen J. Gould

"If God has created us in His image, we have more than returned the compliment."
-Voltaire

"Satan hasn't a single salaried helper; the Opposition employ a million."
-Mark Twain

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
-Voltaire

"Men never do evil so cheerfully and so completely as when they do so from religious conviction."
-Blaise Pascal

"Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think."
-Arthur Shopenhauer

"Faith: not wanting to know what is true."
-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
-Galileo Galilei

Edited, Sat May 13 03:05:42 2006 by ReofblMobile

Probably should've put that part in a different font or something?

Anyhow, they're just some quotes I'm glad I have, so I'm sharing them for any others who may be interested in reading them. It's nice to have some intellectual stimulation now and then.

Edited, Sat May 13 00:21:27 2006 by ReofblMobile

Nope, believe me, I read the entire post, I just still don't see why you felt the need to put them up here?

What was your motivation? Boredom? Wanting to share your intellectual prowess with the Asylum?

Serously!? I remember a very enlightened debate about negative refraction and the such.

Daily news stories discussed seriously with jokes thrown in here and there.

Pharming to the billionth power.

Who says there's a lack of activity on this forum? And if there is, I'd say that's due to one of those pesky things we call "a life".

As I said, part of me was hoping it would trigger some kind of debate, not that these quotes are some kind of holy grail of all of man kind's woes which will cause a golden era to rain down from the heavens.

Take it easy and quit assuming so much.

Most of ReofrblMobile's posts seem to be an attempt to get someone to comment on how intellectual he/she is. I think it's cute.



You contribute nothing new though, you see? There's no basis for debate when you just copy and paste some words. There's no basis for discussion, even, and thus the head-scratching going on at your thread. The way it works is you state your opinion on subject, then the next poster follows. I guess we could have had a great quote-off or something, but that's sorta tedious, don't you think? Or would it be a quote-down?

I totally googled that.

The quotes are nice, aren't they? That's it. Sorry I'm not complaining about my kid failing an estimation class or whining about a trip to the doctor's office.

This is the post, and that's it. I'm tired of defending it. Flame on.

Long-winded rant sort, he doesn't like collections without some kind of personal analysis and he's mad at me for not putting my own spin on it.

Googling something and telling us something we already know is not a contribution. Like everyone is trying to tell you; maybe adding your own thoughts to this would of sparked the debate you are looking for, but just throwing in random quotes from "intellectuals" doesn't really offer anything to the community. but here is a quote for you...

"You are a pimple on societies ***. You should kill yourself now."
-Bender