I am spending much of today and tomorrow with my daughter, celebrating her 11th birthday. And on Sunday I’m supporting my partner in her first ‘strong woman’ competition (lifting 55kg sandbags, and even heavier stone blocks, flipping 100-200kg tractor tyres, etc.). As such, I have no time to research and write a post, today (or this weekend), so I thought I’d post a favourite quote from H P Lovecraft that I was caused to remember today.
This quote is elegant in its simplicity and devastating in its implications:
If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences. With such an honest and inflexible openness to evidence, they could not fail to receive any real truth which might be manifesting itself around them.
H P Lovecraft, in ‘Against Religion: The Atheist Writings of H P Lovecraft.’
I said in a prior post that rote-learning was necessary when it came to religious instruction, because you could not derive the contents of the Bible (Qur’an, [insert religious text here]) from personal experience, though you could, if you tried hard enough, explain personal experience in light of the Bible.
If you happen to be a believer, can you argue against this quote in a cogent fashion?
If you are an atheist, what are your thoughts on the quote itself (or Lovecraft himself, if you prefer)?
Have a lovely weekend, all!
Featured image: Amazon