Words on Doubt

[m_the0ry]

...Before Dawkins and before Harris...



[ QUOTE ]
"I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here. I don't have to know the answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell. It doesn't frighten me."

- Richard Feynman

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived, and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic ... Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. [...] Move on from the reassuring repetition of stale phrases to a new, difficult, but essential confrontation with reality."

-John F. Kennedy


[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
William James used to preach the 'will to believe.' For my part, I should wish to preach the 'will to doubt.' ... What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

- Bertrand Russell


[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

"Doubt everything. Find your own light."

- Last words of Gautama Buddha, in Theravada tradition

[/ QUOTE ]