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14 April 2020

Quote for the day -- a fettering of the free intelligence

"We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world — its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is and be not afraid of it.  Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it.  The whole conception of God is a conception derived from the ancient Oriental despotisms.  It is a conception quite unworthy of free men.  When you hear people in church debasing themselves and saying that they are miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptible and not worthy of self-respecting human beings.  We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages.  A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.  It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence.  It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time toward a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create."

-- Bertrand Russell (found here)
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10 comments:

  1. Sixpence Notthewiser14 April, 2020 03:45

    This:
    "We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages."
    The idea that all time past was better/worse does nothing for the future. Nothing.

    XOXO

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  2. Debra She Who Seeks14 April, 2020 05:04

    Agreed!

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  3. Anonymous14 April, 2020 08:53

    Thank you for today's blog. At 80 yr. old I am still learning. This is beautiful to me, and comes at a good time. So glad I found your blog recently.

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  4. Mike14 April, 2020 09:39

    Nicely said, Bertrand.

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  5. Ole Phat Stu14 April, 2020 11:32

    Yes, his mind was seriously blown when he read Goedel's proof ;-)

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  6. Infidel75314 April, 2020 11:52

    Sixpence: The vast majority of the past was much worse than the present in the vast majority of ways. He's talking about the idiocy of modern people treating holy books as ultimate sources of wisdom and authority when the people who wrote those books, because they lived so long ago, knew so much less than modern science does. It's a pretty airtight point.

    Debra: Yes!

    Regina: Welcome aboard! Looking forward to seeing what you think.

    Mike: He always had a way with words.

    Ole: If that's this, it's too pitifully stupid to blow the mind of a gnat. So I assume you're being sarcastic.

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  7. Mary14 April, 2020 15:27

    Excellent quote!

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  8. Victor14 April, 2020 19:17

    I've always loved the great Bertrand Russell!

    What understanding I have of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, I learned from reading a book about it by him.

    He also wrote several books about philosophies - his own, and earlier ones.

    Thanks, Infidel, for this little taste of him and his thoughts.

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  9. Oblio15 April, 2020 16:23

    What he said... thanks!

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  10. Infidel75316 April, 2020 00:15

    I should use him more often for these. He had a lot of good observations.

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