We need to let our children grow up to face the world armed with knowledge, with much more knowledge than we ourselves had at their age. It is scary, but the alternative is worse.
Daniel DennettRead
Religions have depended on the relative isolation and ignorance of their flocks, forever and this is all breaking down.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Religions thrive on the ignorance of their followers, which is now being challenged by awareness and knowledge.
In this quote, Daniel Dennett reflects on how religions have traditionally relied on the naivety and isolation of their followers to maintain authority and control. However, as information becomes more accessible and awareness spreads, the structures that support blind faith are being questioned and disrupted, leading to a profound transformation in how individuals relate to religion and belief systems.
Themes
ReligionIgnoranceAwarenessKnowledgeControlTransformation
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the relationship between science and religion, this quote could illustrate the evolving perception of faith.
More from Daniel Dennett
All quotes βPhilosophers are never quite sure what they are talking about - about what the issues really are - and so often it takes them rather a long time to recognize that someone with a somewhat different approach (or destination, or starting point) is making a contribution.
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Words have a genealogy and it's easier to trace the evolution of a single word than the evolution of a language.
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The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.
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Some philosophers can't bear to say simple things, like "Suppose a dog bites a man." They feel obliged instead to say, "Suppose a dog d bites a man m at time t," thereby demonstrating their unshakable commitment to logical rigor, even though they don't go on to manipulate any formulae involving d, m, and t.
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As every scuba diver knows, panic is your worst enemy: when it hits, your mind starts to thrash and you are likely to do something really stupid and self-destructive.
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It's strange how the human mind swings back and forth, from one extreme to another. Does truth lie at some point of the pendulum's swing, at a point where it never rests, not in the dull perpendicular mean where it dangles in the end like a windless flag, but at an angle, nearer one extreme than another? If only a miracle could stop the pendulum at an angle of sixty degrees, one would believe the truth was there.
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I have outlasted all desire, My dreams and I have grown apart; My grief alone is left entire, The gleamings of an empty heart. The storms of ruthless dispensation Have struck my flowery garland numb, I live in lonely desolation And wonder when my end will come. Thus on a naked tree-limb, blasted By tardy winter's whistling chill, A single leaf which has outlasted Its season will be trembling still.
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What is this word that broke through the fence of your teeth, Atreides?
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Before, I wandered as a diversion. Now I wander seriously and sit and read as a diversion.
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A beggar's book outworths a noble's blood.
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Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.
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