Quotes About Belief

Until the eighteenth century, religions considered death and its aftermath central to the meaning of life.

Daca vrei sa-i determini pe oameni sa creada in enitati imaginare precum zeii si natiunile, ar trebui sa-i faci sa sacrifice ceva de pret.

What's undeniable is that monotheists have a hard time dealing with the Problem of Evil.

The Knowledge Illusion: We think we know a lot even though individually we know very little because we treat knowledge in the mind of others as if it were our own.

Today in Nepal, devotees of the goddess Gadhimai celebrate her festival every five years in the village of Bariyapur. A record was set in 2009 when 250,000 animals were sacrificed to the goddess. A local driver explained to a visiting British journalist that 'If we want anything, and we come here with an offering to the goddess, within five years all our dreams will be fulfilled.'26

The average Christian believes in the monotheist God, but also in the dualist Devil, in polytheist saints, and in animist ghosts. Scholars of religion have a name for this simultaneous avowal of different and even contradictory ideas and the combination of rituals and practices taken from different sources. It's called syncretism. Syncretism might, in fact, be the single great world religion. The

El sincretismo, en realidad, podría ser la gran y única religión del mundo.

Cognitive dissonance is often considered a failure of the human psyche. In fact, it is a vital asset. Had people been unable to hold contradictory beliefs and values, it would probably have been impossible to establish and maintain any human culture. If, say, a Christian really wants to understand the Muslims who attend that mosque down the street, he shouldn't look for a pristine set of values that every Muslim holds dear.

secular education does not mean a negative indoctrination that teaches kids not to believe in God and not to take part in any religious ceremonies. Rather, secular education teaches children to distinguish truth from belief, to develop compassion for all suffering beings, to appreciate the wisdom and experiences of all the earth's denizens, to think freely without fearing the unknown, and to take responsibility for their actions and for the world as a whole.

Most people presume that reality is either objective or subjective, and that there is no third option. Hence once they satisfy themselves that something isn't just their own subjective feeling, they jump to the conclusion it must be objective.

Two lawyers who have never met can nevertheless combine efforts to defend a complete stranger because they both believe in the existence of laws, justice, human rights – and the money paid out in fees.

El invento del politeísmo es favorable a una tolerancia religiosa de mucho alcance. Puesto que los politeístas creen, por un lado, en un poder supremo y completamente desinteresado, y por otro, en muchos poderes parciales y sesgados, no hay dificultad para que los devotos de un dios acepten la existencia y eficacia de otros dioses. El politeísmo es intrínsecamente liberal, y raramente persigue a «herejes» o «infieles».

All societies are based on imagined hierarchies, but not necessarily on the same hierarchies. What accounts for the differences

El libre albedrío existe únicamente en los relatos imaginarios que los humanos hemos inventado.

Modern culture has nevertheless been willing to embrace ignorance to a much greater degree than has any previous culture. One of the things that has made it possible for modern social orders to hold together is the spread of an almost religious belief in technology and in the methods of scientific research, which have replaced to some extent the belief in absolute truths.

los humanos poseen una maravillosa capacidad para creer en contradicciones. De manera que no debería ser ninguna sorpresa que millones de piadosos cristianos, musulmanes y judíos consigan creer a la vez en un Dios omnipotente y en un Diablo independiente.

Paradoxically, the more sacrifices we make for an imaginary story, the stronger the story becomes, because we desperately want to give meaning to these sacrifices and to the suffering we have caused.

Homo sapiens can speak about things that don't really exist, and believe six impossible things before breakfast.

Meaning is created when many people weave together a common network of stories.

no debería ser ninguna sorpresa que millones de piadosos cristianos, musulmanes y judíos consigan creer a la vez en un Dios omnipotente y en un Diablo independiente.

Más de un siglo después de que Nietzsche afirmara que Dios había muerto, parece que Dios ha vuelto.

La red comercial global de hoy en día se basa en nuestra confianza en entidades ficticias como el dinero, los bancos y las corporaciones

An objective phenomenon exists independently of human consciousness and human beliefs. Radioactivity, for example, is not a myth. Radioactive emissions occurred long before people discovered them, and they are dangerous even when people do not believe in them.

Like a child thinking that his parents are fighting because of him, the monotheist is convinced that the Persians are fighting the Babylonians because of him.