Can any rational person believe that the Bible is anything but a human document? We now know pretty well where the various books came from, and about when they were written. We know that they were written by human beings who had no knowledge of science, little knowledge of life, and were influenced by the barbarous morality of primitive times, and were grossly ignorant of most things that men know today.
Interpretation
This quote questions the divine nature of the Bible, suggesting it is purely a human creation influenced by its historical context.
Clarence Darrow's quote critically examines the origins of the Bible, emphasizing that it is a product of human authors from primitive times, lacking knowledge of modern science and ethics. By asserting that it is shaped by the cultural and moral limitations of its authors, Darrow challenges the idea of its divine authority and invites readers to consider the historical and societal factors that shaped religious texts.
In practice
In a discussion on the historical reliability of religious texts.
With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.
Do I need to argue to Your Honor that cruelty only breeds cruelty? That hatred only causes hatred; that if there is any way to soften this human heart which is hard enough at its best, if there is any way to kill evil and hatred and all that goes with it, it is not through evil and hatred and cruelty; it is through charity, and love, and understanding?
Chase after the truth like all hell.
No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.
Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man. She will have nothing from him who will not give her all. She knows that his pretended love serves but to betray. But when once the fierce heat of her quenchless, lustrous eyes have burned into the victim's heart, he will know no other smile but hers.
The trouble with law is lawyers.
Nothing is more natural than grief, no emotion more common to our daily experience. It's an innate response to loss in a world where everything is impermanent.
There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong.
When tradition is thought to state the way things really are, it becomes the director and judge of our lives; we are, in effect, imprisoned by it. On the other hand, tradition can be understood as a pointer to that which is beyond tradition: the sacred. Then it functions not as a prison but as a lens.
God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.
I can't imagine myself outside any kind of social or political involvement.
Become the director, producer, choreographer of your own story
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.