It's all too easy to dismiss the future. People confuse what's impossible today with what's impossible tomorrow.
George M. ChurchRead
Anytime you see somebody keeping a secret, that's symptomatic that something's wrong with the society around them. That means there's discrimination or worse.
Interpretation
Secrets often indicate deeper societal issues, such as discrimination or injustice.
This quote by George M. Church suggests that when individuals feel the need to keep secrets, it reflects broader systemic problems within society. The act of hiding information typically arises from a fear of discrimination or other negative consequences, highlighting the importance of transparency and open communication in a healthy society.
In practice
Use this quote in a discussion about the importance of transparency in governance.
It's all too easy to dismiss the future. People confuse what's impossible today with what's impossible tomorrow.
You can't just hoard your ideas inside the ivory tower. You have to get them out into the world.
Clearly, we are a species that is well connected to other species. Whether or not we evolve from them, we are certainly very closely related to them. A series of mutations could change us into all kinds of intermediate species. Whether or not those intermediate species are provably in the past, they could easily be in our future.
We have a love affair with the idea of the 'natural,' even though we, as a species, are about as unnatural as you can imagine.
At some point, someone will come up with an airtight argument as to why they should have a cloned child. At that point, cloning will be acceptable.
Most people are excited about themselves. Personal genome will deliver for inexpensively something about science to which you can relate. Just like computers are becoming something to which you can relate. It should be even easier to relate to your own biology, and I hope that will be one of the ways we get broader literacy in science.
I hope that George doesn't internalize her scare tactics. I want to argue with her, tell her that "sins of the flesh" is just a control mechanism -- if you demonize a person's pleasure, then you can control his or her life. I can't say how many times this tool has been wielded against me, in a variety of forms. But I see no sin in a kiss. I only see sin in the condemnation.
Bodies do not produce sensations, but complexes of elements (complexes of sensations) make up bodies.
It is necessary, in this world, to be made of harder stuff than one's environment.
Perhaps it is of more value to infuriate philosophers than to go along with them.
We must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day had been.
If you would test the character of anything, you only need to enquire whether that thing leads you to God or away from God.
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