And so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a skepticism towards belief systems influenced by people and their arguments.
In this quote, Salman Rushdie expresses a sense of doubt and disbelief based on the varying reasons provided by individuals. It suggests that when people present conflicting ideas or arguments, it can lead one to question the validity of belief itself, implying that the nature of belief is complex and can be influenced by the perspectives of others.
In practice
During a philosophical debate about religion, this quote could highlight the conflict in belief systems.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
What is the sound of one hand?
The injuries that befall us unexpectedly are less severe than those which are deliberately anticipated.
It is time, therefore, to abandon the superstition that natural science cannot be regarded as logically respectable until philosophers have solved the problem of induction. The problem of induction is, roughly speaking, the problem of finding a way to prove that certain empirical generalizations which are derived from past experience will hold good also in the future.
It's a privilege to serve the poor, to be servants of noble Africans, but I better belong in the rehearsal room or in the studio with my band. That's where I want to be and I still wake up in the morning with melodies in my head.
If language is lost, humanity is lost. If writing is lost, certain kinds of civilization and society are lost, but many other kinds remain - and there is no reason to think that those alternatives are inferior.
If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
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