Pragmatic acceptance of the facts is the only way to deal with evil. Hatred is the admission of ultimate defeat, allowing your foe to preoccupy and control you.
Tag: culture
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Exemplars
I completely disagree with Descartes, Pascal and Kant about the existence of God. I think their conclusions that God exists were a desperate resort to wishful thinking. And yet they gave more to my atheism than anyone who came after them denying the existence of God. They gave me an example of intellectual courage and a method of systematic doubt.
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Poetry
In the rare cases when they don’t rely on knee-jerk sentimentality, bad poets make you think: ‘these feelings are much stranger and stronger than what I feel, it must be what deep feelings are like and what I am supposed to feel…’ Good poets make you think: ‘this is exactly how I feel when I have no words to describe it…’ Brilliant poets make you think: ‘Huh? What? Why? Wow!’
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Freedom of Religion
I consider freedom of thought and belief essential for the functioning of a society I want to live in and, therefore, I am for the people’s freedom to practice their religion. Unfortunately, most religions violently disagree.
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Insanity
Insanity is not a sign of a broken mind – it is a side effect of normal brain function in combination with collective cultural delusions. Our brains normally function by fitting reality into the framework of our predictions. Our cultures constitute a collective framework of assumptions underlying those predictions. If our predictions override reality in a way that differs from everyone else’s, it constitutes madness.
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The art of stating the obvious
The only way to achieve the impossible is to start doing it. You may not achieve it that way, but there is no other way to achieve it.
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Arrow Slits
Arrow slits have to be narrow to protect the defenders of the castle.
Any wider and they will be exposed to dangers from outside.
Being narrow is what they are for.
I am a person who…
I see the world through the arrow slit of my self-definition.
Relevant images and metaphors draw my eye.
A living wood turns into Golgotha
with dead trees supporting crucifixions.
The fewer the parameters – the more important they become.
If all I know about myself is that I am a Christian,
I would be willing to die for it.
Or kill for it.
After all,
arrow slits are
for shooting out of. -
The Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire
As imarets
transform to minarets,
and rigid ideologies prevail –
states fail.
