#agnosticism

The problem I want to talk to you about tonight is the problem of belief. What does it mean to believe? We use this word all the time, and I think behind it lurk some really extraordinary taboos and confusions. What I want to argue tonight is that how we talk about belief- how we fail to criticize or criticize the beliefs of others, has more importance to us personally, more consequence to us personally and to civilization than perhaps anything else that is in our power to influence. ↗

— Sam Harris

#atheism #belief #ethics #humanism #religion

Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved? ↗

— Carl Sagan

#humility #science #skepticism #truth #science

What we do in every other area of our lives (other than religion), is, rather than respect somebody's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons. ↗

— Sam Harris

#atheism #belief #ethics #humanism #religion

As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods. ↗

— Bertrand Russell

#agnosticism #atheism #atheist #philosophy #equality

I oscillate between agnosticism and atheism. ↗

— Brad Pitt

#atheism #between #i

Interviewer: "Didn't [Sagan] want to believe?" Druyan: "He didn't want to believe. He wanted to know. ↗

— Ann Druyan

#astronomy #atheism #carl-sagan #science #science

Objection, evasion, joyous distrust, and love of irony are signs of health; everything absolute belongs to pathology. ↗

— Friedrich Nietzsche

#absolution #agnosticism #distrust #evasion #health

Science is agnostic when it comes to God - not atheistic, as some people prefer to read that laden word wrongly - just agnostic. ↗

— Eric Chaisson

#atheism #belief #religion #science #age

He didn't like religion, hadn't liked it for years, but he adored churches, loved them like old scientific instruments whose time is long past but are nevertheless fascinating and strange. ↗

— Bruce Robinson

#architecture #atheism #buildings #churches #religion

The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#agnosticism #mortality #religion #death