Friday, January 14, 2011

Friday Quote

"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion."

- Steven Weinberg

9 comments:

Balu said...

what is good and bad is better analysed and discussed, if it is not bound by scriptures.

Anonymous said...

Out of due respect:-)
Religion is a conjecture for great thinkers.
For others its a framework to criticize, live, yell, sink or whatever...
All scientists/mathematicians/atheists who hate religion(rather than disprove it) is just not thinkers enough.

Geetha said...

@ Anonymous

I would say, Religion is for real but god is a conjecture...(if you take conjecture to mean 'inference based on incomplete evidence')

next sentence - ok...what does sink in religious framework mean? whatever...

last sentence - How so? What does thinking enough mean? Stopping just short of questioning the existence of god, is it?

Anonymous said...

Religion is for those folks who think/believe they do good and who wish to do it better. What is good or bad is left to each one's perception though.....

Quoting a wise man - "Religion is the manifestation of perfection already in man"

To say "Religion is an insult to human dignity" is a desperate act of provocation...

Geetha said...

@ Anonymous

Do you really believe that but for your religion, you will not be good or strive to be better?
That is a very impoverished view of life as Richard Dawkins likes to say...


And by the way, you have got your aphorisms mixed. Vivekananda said, "Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man. Religion is the manifestation of divinity already in man."

Balu said...

@anonymous
“Religion is an insult to human dignity” is certainly a desperate act of provocation.
Why desperate? Because religion is not doing what it is suppose to do but the contrary.
What provocation? “An healthy discussion”, whether do we really need a religion to be good.
If someone thinks that it is a loser’s desperation and provocation of anger and also gets angry, then they have certainly become a prey to what the religion has been all the way actually doing.
“what is good or bad is left to each one’s perception though …..” then what is religion going to tell, who’s perception?
Yes I accept if you say religion gives hope to many, but should we not realize we human are not hopeless creatures.
Who are these wise men, great thinkers? Every human has their own reasoning and those were also like you and me, they were contemplating the issues. And said what they felt right at that point of time and situation, mind it ‘what they felt’. Is it not our right to rethink and get convinced with our own reasoning with the help of knowledge accumulated?
“rather than disprove it…” I always fail to understand this, to my knowledge ‘disprove’ is opposite of ‘prove’. When will one disprove? after someone proves and presents the proof. Isn’t it?

Anonymous said...

1. This is just to identify myself - Im the "Anonymous" who commented on Jan 17 and not the same one who has commented on Jan 15. I see things got mixed up here...

2. @Blogger:

a. "Your religion"?? - I dont follow any religion. I just admire them.

b. I will not strive to be good/better without my family. For some it is their religion that helps. In fact for some, religion might be more personal than the family itself. Doesn't necessarily have to be an impoverished view of life...(Though for some it might be...I don't know)

c. Oops...I DIN'T mean to quote the Swamy.....Just that another "wise man" mixed up the words....which made more sense to me...

3. @Balu

a. Whoa...I never thought a tiny observation from a first time visitor to the blog will cause such a big reaction..

b. Sorry, I din't get your point...

c. Hoping that "healthy discussions" continue in future...

d. Nice blog....hoping to see more original posts like "story time"..

Geetha said...

@ Anonymous

Sorry for the mix up.
Well, the evils of religion far outweigh whatever good it might do. Moreover there is no evidence whatsoever for god.

And thanks for your encouragement.

prema -just sharing my thoughts said...

I think in Indian context today religion is a fantastic, excuse of the politician , by the politician , for the politician's welfare and all round wellbeing and a fantastic tool used to divert the interest of the people from major scams .