antidogmatix: Greeting 2008

Tuesday, 1 January 2008

Greeting 2008

I have no habit of making new year resolutions. New year celebrations always make me brutally aware of the passage of time at a greater speed. I would rather have Time passing slower and slower. But as things are as they are and not as they ought to be as per your wishes, let me greet 2008 with a sceptical optimism that things will definitely improve. I have already been derided by my friend for being obsessed with the fear of the unknown. She is right to a certain extent. I hope I can change this obsession. I also hope that the causes of my fear will vanish in the course of time.

1 comment:

Chandini Santosh said...: New Year resolutions are a reminder. Nothing awful about them. Time will drain, but new time will bloom on your horizon and it is just a matter of time when you will be amidst the thick of living. Life ahoy!!; 3 January 2008 at 12:03

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Quotes

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. Seneca

If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live. Cicero

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing?Then why call him God? Epicurius

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. Albert Einstein

Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them. Peter Ustinov

Well, rather than declare ourselves “atheists” in opposition to all religion, I think we should do nothing more than advocate reason and intellectual honesty—and where this advocacy causes us to collide with religion, as it inevitably will, we should observe that the points of impact are always with specific religious beliefs—not with religion in general. There is no religion in general. Sam Haris

I am patient with stupidity, but not with those who are proud of it... Edith Sitwell

Good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things. But for good people to do bad things - that takes religion. Steven Weinberg

Like computer viruses, successful mind viruses will tend to be hard for their victims to detect. If you are the victim of one, the chances are that you won't know it, and may even vigorously deny it. Richard Dawkins

...we defend all expressions of opinion including those that revolt us, and that we say that nobody can be forced to practice, or forced to foreswear, any faith. I suppose I would say that this is an inflexible principle, or even a dogma, with me. But who dares to say that's the same as the belief that criticism of religion should be censored or the belief that faith should be imposed? Christopher Hitchens