Talk:Doubt

Edit dispute
I restored the following quote, which had previously been restored by another editor, because I agree with the implicit statement of the relevance of the quote here as a significant quote on the subject of doubts about a significant entity and significant faiths:


 * Is God fair? The Christians say that God damns forever anyone who is skeptical about truth of bunkistic religion as revealed unto the holy haranguers. What this means is that a God, if any, punishes a man for using his reason. If there is a God in existence, reasons should be available for his existence. Assuming that such a precious thing as a man's eternal future depends on his belief in a God, then the materials for that belief should be overwhelming and not at all doubtful. Yet here is a man whose reason makes it impossible for him to believe in a God. He sees no evidence of such an entity. He finds all the arguments weak and worthless. He doubts and he denies. Then is a God fair in visiting upon such a skeptic the penalty for his inevitable intellectual attitude? The intelligent man refuses to believe fairy tales. Can a God blame him? If so, then a God is not as fair as an ordinarily decent man. And fairness, we think, is more important than piety.
 * E. Haldeman-Julius, The Meaning of Atheism

I believe it clearly also could be place on the pages for God, Atheism, Faith and Skepticism, as touching significantly on all these matters, but I do believe it probably belongs here as well, whether or not it is placed on any of those. ~ ♞☤☮♌Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 15:47, 3 May 2013 (UTC) + tweaks
 * Since two heads know better than one, I humbly succumb to your wishes. However, I don't believe people are religious because religion is logical but rather for other reasons such as they wish to see deceased loved ones in the afterlife, they hope for a life better than this one, they want to feel community or they want to mentally empower themselves. (These are the reasons I could come up with.) It is like arguing against superstition. In other words, it does not make much sense. Just my two cents. --Spannerjam (talk) 16:31, 3 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Whether you agree with a quotation or not is not a criteria for whether it should be included in Wikiquote. ~ Robin Lionheart (talk) 19:13, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

Unsourced

 * An all encompassing uncertainty on the part of any individual is either a sign of utter stupidity or extreme intelligence. Only the not so dumb, or the not so smart, are ever certain about anything.
 * Derek R. Audette


 * Christianity has done its utmost to close the circle and declare even doubt to be a sin. One is supposed to be cast into belief without reason, by a miracle, and from then on to swim in it as in the brightest and least ambiguous of elements: even a glance towards land, even the thought that one perhaps exists for something else as well as swimming, even the slightest impulse of our amphibious nature - is sin! And notice that all this means that the foundation of belief and all reflection on its origin is likewise excluded as sinful. What is wanted are blindness and intoxication and an eternal song over the waves in which reason has drowned.
 * Friedrich Nietzsche


 * Doubt everything. Find your own light.
 * Last words of Gautama Buddha, in Theravada tradition


 * There is order in chaos, and certainty in doubt. The wise are guided by this order and certainty.
 * Zhuangzi


 * 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


 * I respect faith, but doubt is what gives you an education.
 * Wilson Mizner


 * If you cannot examine your thoughts, you have no choice but to think them, however silly they may be.
 * Richard Mitchell


 * It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
 * Epictetus


 * It is the things for which there is no evidence that are believed with passion. Nobody feels any passion about the multiplication table or about the existence of Cape Horn, because these matters are not doubtful. But in matters of theology or political theory, where a rational man will hold that at best there is a slight balance of probability on one side or the other, people argue with passion and support their opinions by physical slavery imposed by armies and mental slavery imposed by schools.
 * Bertrand Russell


 * Men become civilized not in proportion to their willingness to believe but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.
 * H. L. Mencken


 * The believer is happy; the doubter is wise.
 * Hungarian proverb


 * The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom.  Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom.  The modern world is the child of doubt and inquiry, as the ancient world was the child of fear and faith.
 * Clarence Darrow


 * Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.
 * Ralph Waldo Emerson


 * "Doubt fucks everything. Take a foundation, no matter how strong, sprinkle generously with doubt, and watch it crumble. Me? I'm unfuckwithable. Not this knee, not bad weather, and certainly not the many men that wish bad intentions on me can stop me."
 * Phil Brooks