My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
Belief Systems contradict both science and ordinary "common sense." B.S. contradicts science, because it claims certitude and science can never achieve certitude: it can only say, "This model"- or theory, or interpretation of the data- "fits more of the facts known at this date than any rival model." We can never know if the model will fit the facts that might come to light in the next millennium or even in the next week.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Belief systems are often rigid and dogmatic, conflicting with the evolving nature of scientific understanding.
This quote by Robert Anton Wilson highlights the inherent conflict between belief systems and scientific inquiry. Belief systems often provide absolute certainties, whereas science is a dynamic process that continuously adapts to new data and interpretations, embracing uncertainty and the possibility of change. Wilson emphasizes that science is not about claiming infallibility but about finding models that best fit current evidence, suggesting that our understanding of the universe is always provisional and subject to revision.
Themes
Belief SystemsScienceCertaintyKnowledgeTruth
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker discussing the nature of science in a seminar on critical thinking could use this quote to emphasize the importance of skepticism.
More from Robert Anton Wilson
All quotes →There is no governor anywhere. You are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped. If anybody could go into dhyana at will, nobody could be controlled - by fear of prison, by fear of whips or electroshock, by fear of death, even. All existing society is based on keeping those fears alive, to control the masses. Ten people who know would be more dangerous than a million armed anarchists.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
I see anarchism as the theoretical ideal to which we are all gradually evolving to a point where everybody can tell the truth to everybody else and nobody can get punished for it. That can only happen without hierarchy and without people having the authority to punish other people.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
To work for libertarianism - to oppose the growth of government and aid the liberation of the individual - used to be an idealistic choice taken for purely idealistic reasons. Now it is an act of intelligent and almost desperate self-defense.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
The abandoned infant's cry is rage, not fear.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
The only way to stave off boredom, in a complex domesticated primate like humankind, is to increase one's intelligence. This is not appealing to the average primate, who instead invents emotional games (soap opera and grand opera dramatics).
Robert Anton WilsonRead
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