ATTENTION
“At least two-thirds
of our miseries spring
from human stupidity, human malice
and those great motivators and justifiers
of malice and stupidity: idealism,
“Faith is something very different from belief.
dogmatism and proselytizing zeal
Belief is the systematic taking of unanalyzed words much too
on behalf of religious or political ideas.”
seriously. Paul’s words, Mohammed’s words,
Marx’s words, Hitler’s words—people take them too seriously,
and what happens? What happens is the senseless
ambivalence of history—sadism versus duty,
or (incomparably worse) sadism as duty;
devotion counterbalanced by organized paranoia;
sisters of charity selflessly tending the victims of their own church’s
inquisitors and crusaders. Faith, on the contrary,
can never be taken too seriously.”
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