#dam

An unexamined faith is not worth having, for fundamentalism and uncritical certitude entail the rejection of one of the great human gifts: that of free will, of the liberty to make up our own minds based on evidence and tradition and reason. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#certitude #entail #evidence #faith #free

The more we can do to support and promulgate the intellectual traditions of the Abrahamic faiths - of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - the better armed we will be to fight fundamentalism. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#better #christianity #faiths #fight #fundamentalism

Among the many problems with taking the Bible literally is it reduces the most mysterious and complex of realities to simple - even simplistic - terms. Yes, scripture speaks of fire and damnation and eternal bliss, but the Bible is the product of human hands and hearts, and much of the imagery is allegorical, not meteorological. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#among #bible #bliss #complex #damnation

The American system of political spending is so unregulated that it might make Adam Smith rethink free markets. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#american #free #free markets #make #markets

The bringing-about of order is the first and fundamental task of government. We accept limits on our rights for the sake of a larger social compact all the time. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#compact #first #fundamental #government #larger

He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it. ↗

— Herman Melville

#been #burst #chest #down #felt

Let's not burn the universities yet. After all, the damage they do might be worse. ↗

— H. L. Mencken

#burn #damage #might #universities #worse

I fundamentally believe that politics is counterintuitive. The left think they're helping working people by providing more rights, but all that actually happens is you create poverty and despair, because jobs go to your competitors who have fewer rights for workers. ↗

— Louise Mensch

#because #believe #competitors #create #despair

Money may not buy happiness, but it can damn well give it! ↗

— Freddie Mercury

#damn #give #happiness #may #money

Disease and ill health are caused largely by damage at the molecular and cellular level, yet today's surgical tools are too large to deal with that kind of problem. ↗

— Ralph Merkle

#cellular #damage #deal #disease #health