Quotes for the day
posted by Infidel753 at 2:24 AM
03 June 2016
About Me
- Name: Infidel753
- Location: Portland, Oregon, United States
Individualist, pro-technology, pro-democracy, anti-religion. I speak only for myself and not for any ideology, movement, or party. It has been my great good fortune to live my whole life free of "spirituality" of any kind. I believe that evidence and reason are the keys to understanding reality; that technology rather than ideology or politics has been the great liberator of humanity; and that in the long run, human intelligence is the most powerful force in the universe.
Previous Posts
- Squeezing Dâ'ish
- Link round-up for 29 May 2016
- Video of the day -- a history of politicized fetus...
- Some observations on libertarianism and anarchism
- Video of the day -- the Empire, what is it good for?
- Link round-up for 22 May 2016
- Poll-tergeist
- Spreading the word
- Link round-up for 15 May 2016
- Video of the day -- whiny little bitch
God doesn't exist
Evolution happened
Global warming is real
Homosexuality is normal
Aging is a curable disease
The election was not stolen
Everything "spiritual" is a lie
Free speech is for everybody
Humans do not have "souls"
Men can't become women
Fetuses are not persons
Words are not violence
Taiwan is a nation
Pluto is a planet
6 Comments:
Love all of these. I miss Jon Stewart.
All of them can be applied to the reasons for today's political and religious madness.
Good collection. Makes me realize how mu ch I miss ny blogging buddies.
Some good quotes. My thoughts on some of them:
The Howard Zinn one - Yes, it's true that many terrible things have resulted from obedience. I often wonder how many of the people who push it as one of the supreme virtues realize just where it can lead. How many of them, for example, will insist that we never question the rules (because they obviously "exist for a reason"), and then ask, in all sincerity, questions like, "Why didn't the Germans disobey Hitler when he told them to kill the Jews?" Do they ever notice the contradiction in their thinking?
The Sarita Gupta one - I figure this one should serve as a warning for us here in Australia too, given that our version of the Republicans seem hellbent on enacting policies that'll drive down wages for most people (despite the fact that such policies were one of the main reasons they got kicked out of office the last time). One of our country's more odious plutocrats, a truly loathsome woman called Gina Rinehardt, has also come out in support of lowering the minimum wage (after spouting all the usual libertarian-style nonsense about how if people aren't as rich as her, it's because they simply don't work hard enough - I can't see how lowering wages is going to help there).
The Neil deGrasse Tyson one - I remember I too was once struck by the absurdity of the Bible's claims that the end of the world will be heralded by the stars falling from the sky. I remember also once hearing of some ludicrous prophecy (supposedly made by an apparition of the Virgin Mary) which claimed that disaster would befall humanity when a certain comet crashed into the sun. As someone astutely remarked, anyone with even a passing knowledge of astronomy would realize how ridiculous such a prophecy was.
The Lord Byron one reminded me of a great line from the movie Dune: "Fear is the mindkiller". How true that is!
Agi: He's needed more than ever, with the rise of Trump.
Shaw: Emerson certainly foresaw the whiny, offended-at-everything mentality of modern religionists.
Leslie: Always hoping you'll come back.....
Zosimus: Trump also said, early in the campaign, that the minimum wage is already too high. Everybody's forgotten that, but I'm sure Hillary will put it in an ad at some point.
Aristarchus of Samos had already rendered the Bible's version of astronomy obsolete before Christianity was even invented, yet the modern Catholic Church still insists on nonsense like the Sun leaving its place and plummeting toward the Earth at Fatima.
I was happy to see the Taslima Nasreen quote. She demonstrated so much bravery in challenging Islam and patriarchy in her native Bangladesh.
As for Lord Byron's quote, I have encountered many mental slaves who dare not question their fundamentalist beliefs, sadly. It constricts their lives, but they refuses to see it.
Post a Comment
<< Home