#scepticism

In the pragmatist, streetwise climate of advanced postmodern capitalism, with its scepticism of big pictures and grand narratives, its hard-nosed disenchantment with the metaphysical, 'life' is one among a whole series of discredited totalities. We are invited to think small rather than big – ironically, at just the point when some of those out to destroy Western civilization are doing exactly the opposite. In the conflict between Western capitalism and radical Islam, a paucity of belief squares up to an excess of it. The West finds itself faced with a full-blooded metaphysical onslaught at just the historical point that it has, so to speak, philosophically disarmed. As far as belief goes, postmodernism prefers to travel light: it has beliefs, to be sure, but it does not have faith. ↗

— Terry Eagleton

#belief #capitalism #faith #grand-narratives #islam

Scepticism is never certain of itself, being less a firm intellectual position than a pose to justify bad behavior. ↗

— Fulton J. Sheen

#immorality #scepticism #sin #life

UNA PREGUNTITA: ¿Usted entraría a un sitio donde, bajo una estatua de un tipo desnudo y muerto en un instrumento de tortura, se celebra un ritual cuyo punto culminante es la ingestión simbólica de la carne y la sangre del muerto representado? ↗

— Saurio

#atheism #catolicismo #escepticismo #humor #religion

Scepticism, that dry caries of the intelligence. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#intelligence #scepticism

There's a certain kind of scepticism that can't bear uncertainty. ↗

— Rupert Sheldrake

#certain #kind #scepticism #uncertainty

And here is the point, about myself and my co-thinkers. Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely solely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#belief #faith #principles #reason #religion

The more she rejected us the more convinced I was that she was another version of the real Molly, her disdain for authority, her scepticism that she had to do what the white man told her because it was good for her... She is Molly. ↗

— Phillip Noyce

#authority #because #convinced #disdain #good

What is it you most dislike? Stupidity, especially in its nastiest forms of racism and superstition. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#dislikes #racism #religion #scepticism #stupidity

I always got a bit pissed off with those broadsheet sceptics who make their living being passionately angry about homeopathy, God, synchronicity or whatever, because it's as if they can't get past their emotions, and in their rage they become as faith-driven as the beliefs they criticise. I always said they give scientists a bad name. After all, science has to be about asking unthinkable questions, not closing down debate. ↗

— Scarlett Thomas

#religion #scepticism #sceptics #skepticism #skeptics

The terrible error in the course of human civilization is undoubtedly the defective judgment that allowed religious authorities usurp the foundation of societal morality, in which all collective ethics of humankind must take a cause. This appalling blunder is comparable only to assigning the leper exclusive franchise to run beauty clinics in the society; this can only lead to cycles upon cycles of common infection syndrome. ↗

— Adebowale Ojowuro

#ethics-and-moral-philosophy #freethought #new-book #religion #scepticism