#rationality

Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful. ↗

— Martin Amis

#atheism #dignity #irrationality #reason #religion

The sexual mechanisms of the two genders are just not compatible, that’s the horrible truth of it. (...) This is a truth we dare not acknowledge these days - because sameness is our religion and heretics are no more welcome now than they ever were - but I’m going to acknowledge it, because I’ve always felt that humility before the facts is the only thing that keeps a rational man together. Be humble in the face of facts, and proud in the face of opinions, as George Bernard Shaw once said. He didn’t, actually. I just wanted to put some authority behind this observation of mine, because I know you’re not going to like it. ↗

— Hugh Laurie

#rationality #sex #religion

I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives. ↗

— Jane Austen

#double-standards #empowerment #equality #feminism #flattery

Your strength as a rationalist is your ability to be more confused by fiction than by reality. If you are equally good at explaining any outcome, you have zero knowledge. ↗

— Eliezer Yudkowsky

#rationality #reality #thinking #equality

Since knowledge, thinking, and rational action are properties of the individual, since the choice to exercise his rational faculty or not depends on the individual, man’s survival requires that those who think be free of the interference of those who don’t. Since men are neither omniscient nor infallible, they must be free to agree or disagree, to cooperate or to pursue their own independent course, each according to his own rational judgment. Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man’s mind. A rational mind does not work under compulsion; it does not subordinate its grasp of reality to anyone’s orders, directives, or controls; it does not sacrifice its knowledge, its view of the truth, to anyone’s opinions, threats, wishes, plans, or “welfare.” Such a mind may be hampered by others, it may be silenced, proscribed, imprisoned, or destroyed; it cannot be forced; a gun is not an argument. (An example and symbol of this attitude is Galileo.) It is from the work and the inviolate integrity of such minds—from the intransigent innovators—that all of mankind’s knowledge and achievements have come. (See The Fountainhead.) It is to such minds that mankind owes its survival. (See Atlas Shrugged.) ↗

— Ayn Rand

#individual #rationality #attitude

When it is not in our power to determine what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable. ↗

— René Descartes

#rationality #truth #wisdom #logic

You can't distinguish your group by doing things that are rational and believing things that are true. If you want to set yourself apart from other people you have to do things that are arbitrary and believe things that are false. ↗

— Paul Graham

#rationality #religion #religion

Education levels are highly and negatively correlated to religious belief. In other words, ignorance is bliss. ↗

— Cesar Nascimento

#atheism #belief #rationalism #rationality #religion

I suppose if you look back to your early childhood you accept everything people tell you, and that includes a heavy dose of irrationality - you're told about tooth fairies and Father Christmas and things. ↗

— Richard Dawkins

#accept #back #childhood #christmas #dose

If one devalues rationality, the world tends to fall apart. ↗

— Lars von Trier

#fall #rationality #tends #world