The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.
Umberto EcoRead
When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that losing faith in God leads to a broader belief system rather than a void of belief.
Umberto Eco's quote reflects the idea that when people abandon traditional religious faith, they do not necessarily become nihilistic or lose their capacity for belief. Instead, they might seek meaning in a diverse array of ideologies, beliefs, or even secular philosophies, suggesting a shift towards a more pluralistic worldview that embraces a multitude of ideas and values.
In practice
During a discussion on spirituality in a philosophy class.
The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.
I think that at a certain age, say fifteen or sixteen, poetry is like masturbation. But later in life good poets burn their early poetry, and bad poets publish it. Thankfully I gave up rather quickly.
But why do some people support [the heretics]?" "Because it serves their purposes, which concern the faith rarely, and more often the conquest of power." "Is that why the church of Rome accuses all its adversaries of heresy?" "That is why, and that is also why it recognizes as orthodoxy any heresy it can bring back under its own control or must accept because the heresy has become too strong.
You die, but most of what you have accumulated will not be lost; you are leaving a message in a bottle.
"Then we are living in a place abandoned by God," I said, disheartened. "Have you found any places where God would have felt at home?" William asked me, looking down from his great height.
The lunatic is all idΓ©e fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars.
The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
Americans are future-minded to the point of obsession. We are impatient at living in the present. Tomorrow is bound to be better... next year, next century, always what might be rather than what is. This trait in us makes for 'progress;' it also makes for a continuing dissatisfaction.
Why were you so old when we met? I answered with the truth: Age isn't how old you are but how old you feel.
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished.
The testimony of scripture is so plain that to add anything were superfluous, were it not that the world is almost now come to that blindness, that whatsoever pleases not the princes and the multitude, the same is rejected as doctrine newly forged, and is condemned for heresy.
The Industrial Age is not sustainable. It's not sustainable in ecological terms, and it's not sustainable in human terms.
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