To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.
Fanaticism is the danger of the world, and always has been, and has done untold harm. I might almost say that I was fanatical against fanaticism.
3rd Earl Russell of Kingston
There is a holy, mistaken zeal in politics, as well as in religion. By persuading others, we convince ourselves.
There are some people who are so partisan that they do not live in the word the rest of us are in.
As a rule, all heroism is due to a lack of reflection, and thus it is necessary to maintain a mass of imbeciles. If they once understand themselves the ruling men will be lost.
Nothing is more dangerous in practice, than an obstinate, unbending adherence to a system.
Entrenched scriptural literalism is, in my opinion, completely out of touch with reality.
Fanatics, as a class, have far more zeal than intellect and are fanatics only because they have. There can be no fanaticism but where there is more passion than reason; and hence, in the nature of things, movements originating in it run down in a short time by their folly and extravagance.
I think a misconception among many non-religious people is that anyone with a strong faith is, in all ways and at all times, blindly consistent, unwavering, unquestioning.
Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding.
To 'choose' dogma and faith over doubt and experience is to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid.
The eyes of some of the fans at Davis Cup matches scare me. There's no light in them. Fixed emotions. Blind worship. Horror. It makes me think of what happened to us long ago.
The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.
Patriotism is as fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone, and irrational as a headless hen.
A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.
The totally convinced and the totally stupid have too much in common for the resemblance to be accidental.
If men were but to read the New Testament with the same tone and emphasis, with which they do other books, and were to keep out of mind the idea of its being sacred, they would be disgusted with the credulity, and the want of intellect, reason and judgment, that is apparent in it.
The ordinary scientific man is strictly a sentimentalist. He is a sentimentalist in this essential sense, that he is soaked and swept away by mere associations.
Blind adoration, in the age of action, is perfectly valueless, is often embarrassing and, equally, often painful.
… blind followers …
Idolatry is in a man's own thought, not in the opinion of another.
I actually think that one of the most dangerous phenomena is the bowing to expertise, whether it's in international relations or how to use technologies.
I recognize the person that wanted to help people, working hard - naively maybe - to make the world a better place. But I don't recognize the person who was drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid.
