Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.
Thomas NagelRead
Perhaps the belief in God is the belief that the universe is intelligible, but not to us.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that belief in God is linked to the idea that the universe has an understandable nature, even if humans cannot fully comprehend it.
Thomas Nagel's quote implies that faith in God may stem from the conviction that the universe possesses a logical structure that is, however, beyond human understanding. It reflects on the limits of human cognition and the possibility that a divine or higher intelligence exists that makes sense of our reality, even if we are unable to grasp its full essence.
Themes
BeliefUniverseIntelligibilityGodUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about faith and science, this quote serves as a bridge to explore the unknown aspects of existence.
More from Thomas Nagel
All quotes βTo look for a single general theory of how to decide the right thing to do is like looking for a single theory of how to decide what to believe.
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It is prima facie highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together with the mechanism of natural selection. We are supposed to abandon this naΓ―ve response, not in favor of a fully worked out physical/chemical explanation but in favor of an alternative that is really a schema for explanation, supported by some examples. What is lacking, to my knowledge, is a credible argument that the story has a nonnegligible probability of being true.
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There is a tendency to seek an objective account of everything before admitting its reality.
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Altruism itself depends on a recognition of the reality of other persons, and on the equivalent capacity to regard oneself as merely one individual among many.
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Once we see an aspect of what we or someone else does as something that happens, we lose our grip on the idea that it has been done and that we can judge the doer and not just the happening.
Thomas NagelRead
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