It is a virtue to admit ignorance when you don't know, but not to wallow in ignorance as an end in itself._x000D_ _x000D_ People say if we don't believe god is watching over us, we abandon morality. Are they right?
Interpretation
Admitting ignorance can be a strength, but it should lead to learning rather than remaining uninformed.
This quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing one's own ignorance as an opportunity for growth and knowledge. While it is commendable to admit when we do not know something, the quote warns against the danger of complacency in ignorance, suggesting that one should strive to seek understanding instead of accepting ignorance as a final state.
In practice
During a discussion about ethics where someone expresses uncertainty about their moral stance.
No educated person believes the Adam and Eve myth nowadays, but it's surprising how many parents think that it's somehow fun to pass on this falsehood to their children...I would want to argue that the truth of evolution is more interesting and more poetic
If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worst than ignorant, they are the deluded to the point of perversity.
The population of the U.S. is nearly 300 million, including many of the best educated, most talented, most resourceful, humane people on earth. By almost any measure of civilised attainment, from Nobel prize-counts on down, the U.S. leads the world by miles.
When you make machines that are capable of obeying instructions slavishly, and among those instructions are 'duplicate me' instructions, then of course the system is wide open to exploitation by parasites.
Even if not a single fossil has ever been found, the evidence from surviving animals would still overwhelmingly force the conclusion that Darwin was right.
The bitter hatreds that now poison Middle Eastern politics are rooted in the real or perceived wrong of the setting up of a Jewish State in an Islamic region. In view of all that the Jews had been through, it must have seemed a fair and humane solution. Probably deep familiarity with the Old Testament had given the European and American decision-makers some sort of idea that this really was the historic homeland of the Jews.
It's almost a blessing when we meet people who naturally want to do the sort of things that are in high demand in society. What a gift to do that, as opposed to other people who would say, 'I want to be a novelist but actually I have to be an accountant.'
Anger is a signal that you're distracted by judgmental or punitive thinking, and that some precious need of yours is being ignored.
Solvitur ambulando . . . it is solved by walking.
Foul cankering rust the hidden treasure frets, but gold that's put to use more gold begets.
Solving problems should be a joy, a welcome challenge to our creativity.
We should strive for steadiness, and for a commitment to God that does not ebb and flow with the years or the crises of our lives.
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