05 February 2011

A quote

I'm doing homework right now (boatloads of it), and found a quote that I thought was particularly interesting in the midst of my philosophy reading. I like it because it reminds me of many people in the world today, who become attached to a belief and refuse to acknowledge that anything else might be true.

The passage I was reading is from an essay titled "The Ethics of Belief" by British philosopher and mathematician William K Clifford (1845-1879), originally published in Contemporary Review, 1877.  

"If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call into question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it- the life of that man is one long sin against mankind..."

just something to think about on this chilly saturday afternoon :)

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