Friday, April 18, 2008

Seeking truth...




Photo by - Endevourme


Some selected quotes by Richard Dawkins -
(I personally recommend to read "Devils Chaplain" by Dawkins. Must read for all!)

It's been suggested that if the supernaturalists really had the powers they claim, they'd win the lottery every week. I prefer to point out that they could also win a Nobel Prize for discovering fundamental physical forces hitherto unknown to science. Either way, why are they wasting their talents doing party turns on television?

I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.

The popularity of the paranormal, oddly enough, might even be grounds for encouragement . I think that the appetite for mystery, the enthusiasm for that which we do not understand, is healthy and to be fostered. It is the same appetite which drives the best of true science, and it is an appetite which true science is best qualified to satisfy.
You don't have to be a scientist - you don't have to play the bunsen burner - in order to understand enough science to overtake your imagined need and fill that fancied gap. Science needs to be released from the lab into the culture.

One of the things that is wrong with religion is that it teaches us to be satisfied with answers which are not really answers at all.

Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.

Isn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be part of it?

By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.

Personally, I rather look forward to a computer program winning the world chess championship. Humanity needs a lesson in humility.

The world and the universe is an extremely beautiful place, and the more we understand about it the more beautiful does it appear. It is an immensely exciting experience to be born in the world, born in the universe, and look around you and realize that before you die you have the opportunity of understanding an immense amount about that world and about that universe and about life and about why we're here. We have the opportunity of understanding far, far more than any of our predecessors ever. That is such an exciting possibility, it would be such a shame to blow it and end your life not having understood what there is to understand.

....& the last one is so much true in my own case! and when you realize this naa, you feel all the pain was worth it...life rocks really :D!!

11 comments:

AG said...

heyaaa

well said

soem of the lines written in the post r really true n makes u think.

piercing this post :)

cheers

Junius said...

#aditi "jiggs"
hey i m still posting!!!
anywayz...thank yu!

the pic was taken in pune...some not so particular plant :D!!

Gunjan Aylawadi said...

u seem so high on life today!:)

Junius said...

#gunj
/-u seem so high on life today!:)
today? lol
nope i am quite like this most of the times nowadays :D!!

Anonymous said...

Everyday is a new day..seeing things the way they are needs to be way of life and not something because someone else told us that is IS the way..in a sense, tells me what I feel everyday..:)

Junius said...

#anu
/-seeing things the way they are needs to be way of life and not something because someone else ...
bingo! exactly!!!
ya we should try to be 'normal' and not 'average' :D!!

Seema said...

Now your turn to rock life ! Get it on!

Junius said...

#seema
hey! thanks da :D!!

Gill said...

I usually don't discuss at length either politics or religion. But, I must agree with you here.
I am all for God and not for religion. Science is continually fascinating me. I am all for keeping an open mind too.
xo

Anonymous said...

Can you give a little synopsis of what this book is about? I love the second last quotation.

Junius said...

#Gillian
/-I usually don't discuss at length either politics or religion
me too either hehe :D!!

#Shama
after long time haa?

these are short essays related to pseudoscience, genetic determinism, memetics, terrorism, religion and creationism.

its a real good book its really worth :D