An Abundance of Quotes: Part 19, The Believing Brain

"Our mother has been absent ever since we founded Rome, but there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home." - The Mountain Goats


Section 3 of The Believing Brain ("Belief in Things Unseen") includes chapters on the afterlife, God, aliens, and conspiracies. I skimmed the majority of it, having heard most of the arguments on Shermer's side of things before.


However, the chapter on the afterlife included these gems of quotes:

"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen

"I intend to live forever. So far, so good." - Steven Wright 

An interesting definition of God:

"God is the ultimate pattern."

Then there are Einstein's thoughts on God...which are a bit confusing, but also both fascinating and beautiful.

"I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, but not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and doings of mankind."

"I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being."

Some of my favorite quotes are from Einstein, but here is one from the work of another genius whom I also admire that applies to him well.

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." - As You Like It

And on that note (segue win), I've just returned from a staging of said play interwoven with Star Wars. I won't say anything else about it, since I believe the premise speaks for itself. (In short: Be jealous. I'm still laughing.)