My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of questioning beliefs and being open-minded about all topics.
Robert Anton Wilson encourages a mindset of generalized agnosticism, which means not just being uncertain about the existence of God, but applying that same critical questioning to all beliefs and knowledge claims. This perspective fosters intellectual curiosity and a willingness to explore diverse viewpoints, rather than accepting dogmas without scrutiny.
In practice
During a debate about religion, you could use this quote to advocate for questioning all beliefs rather than accepting them blindly.
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.
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.
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.
The abandoned infant's cry is rage, not fear.
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).
If one can only see things according to one's own belief system, one is destined to become virtually deaf, dumb, and blind.
Humanism is the only - I would go so far as saying the final- resistance we have against the inhuman practices and injustices that disfigure human history.
The United States in particular and the West in general should be feeling a little embarrassed about all that lecturing we did to the Third World.
I think the enemy is self-censorship. In a free society the biggest danger is that you're afraid to the point where you censor yourself.
Of the many unforeseen consequences of typography, the emergence of nationalism is, perhaps, the most familiar
I think my worst problem is actually living in the moment and understanding everything that's going on. I feel like I'm in my own bubble.
A new way of thinking has become the necessary condition for responsible living and acting. If we maintain obsolete values and beliefs, a fragmented consciousness and self-centered spirit, we will continue to hold onto outdated goals and behaviors.
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