We should never rush into folly just because other nations are practicing it.
Leon KassRead
As bad as it might be to destroy a creature made in God's image, it might be very much worse to be creating them after images of one's own.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote warns against the consequences of creating life in our own flawed image rather than respecting the divine creation.
Leon Kass reflects on the moral implications of creation, suggesting that while it is wrong to destroy living beings seen as created in God's image, it may be even more troubling to create beings in our own imperfect likeness. This raises profound questions about the nature of creation, ethics, and the responsibilities of those who have the power to create.
Themes
CreationEthicsDivineResponsibilityImperfect
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on the ethics of genetic engineering, one might quote Kass to emphasize the importance of considering the nature of what is being created.
More from Leon Kass
All quotes βOne should proceed with caution. We may simply not be wise enough to do some of the kinds of engineering things that people are talking about doing.
Leon KassRead
There's an ancient tension between wanting to savor the world as it is and wanting to improve on the world as given.
Leon KassRead
It's a short step from the belief that every child should be wanted to the belief that a child exists to satisfy our wants.
Leon KassRead
Sexuality itself means mortality - equally for both man and woman.
Leon KassRead
Human life without death would be something other than human; consciousness of mortality gives rise to out deepest longings and greatest accomplishments.
Leon KassRead
Similar quotes
We are far too willing to reject the belief that much of what we see in life is random.
Daniel KahnemanRead
Imagination is a danger thus every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination to keep on conjouring and proposing alternative futures to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.
Walter BrueggemannRead
Our dreams prove that to imagine - to dream about things that have not happened - is among mankind's deepest needs.
Milan KunderaRead
So much is not known about disability and so much feared. I can understand that because if we're not everywhere, if access and attitudes means we don't get to mingle and be in the same places as everyone else, then how do you know who we are?
Liz CarrRead
A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
That which exists possesses identity; he could keep it out of existence by refusing to identify it.
Ayn RandRead