On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the inevitable.
Emma GoldmanRead
The conception of gods originated in fear and curiosity. Primitive man, unable to understand the phenomena of nature, and harassed by them, saw in every terrifying manifestation some sinister force expressly directed against him; and as ignorance and fear are the parents of all superstition, the troubled fancy of primitive man wove the God idea.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote explores how ancient humans attributed their fears and uncertainties to the concept of gods.
Emma Goldman's quote reflects on the origins of religious beliefs, suggesting that ancient humans, faced with the overwhelming forces of nature they could not comprehend, created gods as explanations for their fears and uncertainties. This conception, born from ignorance and fear, indicates that the idea of deities was a means for primitive man to cope with a chaotic world, as he projected his emotions and experiences onto these imagined beings.
Themes
GodsFearCuriositySuperstitionNatureIgnorance
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the origins of religion, this quote can illustrate how humanity's early fears shaped belief systems.
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To the indefinite, uncertain mind of the American radical the most contradictory ideas and methods are possible. The result is a sad chaos in the radical movement, a sort of intellectual hash, which has neither taste nor character.
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John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities?
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Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man's subordination.
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If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.
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