Sooner or later, false thinking brings wrong conduct.
Interpretation
False beliefs and misconceptions inevitably lead to harmful actions.
Julian Huxley's quote highlights the detrimental effects of misguided thinking on behavior. It emphasizes that when individuals hold onto false beliefs, their actions will likely be misaligned with reality, ultimately resulting in negative consequences. The quote serves as a reminder of the importance of critical thinking and striving for truth, as our thoughts influence our actions and the world around us.
In practice
In a speech about critical thinking, one could illustrate the dangers of false thinking using this quote.
...any belief in supernatural creators, rulers, or influencers of natural or human process introduces an irreparable split into the universe, and prevents us from grasping its real unity. Any belief in Absolutes, whether the absolute validity of moral commandments, of authority of revelation, of inner certitudes, or of divine inspiration, erects a formidable barrier against progress and the responsibility of improvement, moral, rational, and religious.
To speculate without facts is to attempt to enter a house of which one has not the key, by wandering aimlessly round and round, searching the walls and now and then peeping through the windows. Facts are the key.
Today the god hypothesis has ceased to be scientifically tenable, has lost its explanatory value and is becoming an intellectual and moral burden to our thought. It no longer convinces or comforts, and its abandonment often brings a deep sense of relief.
Will our Philosophy to later Life_x000D_ _x000D_ Seem but a crudeness of the planet's youth,_x000D_ _x000D_ Our Wisdom but a parasite of Truth?
The scientific doctrine of progress is destined to replace not only the myth of progress, but all other myths of human earthly destiny. It will inevitably become one of the cornerstones of man's theology, or whatever may be the future substitute for theology, and the most important external support for human ethics.
At the moment of vision, the eyes see nothing.
I'm old fashioned. I'm not one of these young guys who think they are so smart that they can prescribe what humanity ought to do. Humanity never learns any lessons. Prescriptions don't matter. We already know exactly what to do. We just don't do it.
I would say you might encounter many defeats but you must never be defeated, ever. In fact, it might even be necessary to confront defeat. It might be necessary, to get over it, all the way through it, and go on. I would teach her to laugh a lot. Laugh a lot at the - and the silliest things and be very, very serious. I'd teach her to love life, I can bet you that.
Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The most beautiful motion is that which accomplishes the greatest results with the least amount of effort.
I never work just to work. It's some combination of laziness and self-respect.
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