We humans are more concerned with having than with being.
Freeman denied the claim that he was a “man of God”, saying that “the question of faith is whatever you actually believe is. We take a lot of what we're talking about in science on faith; we posit a theory, and until it's dis-proven we have faith that it's true. If the mathematics work out, then it's true, until it's proven to be untrue.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Faith in science is akin to faith in belief systems; both rely on the acceptance of theories until proven otherwise.
Morgan Freeman's quote explores the concept of faith in relation to both spiritual belief and scientific inquiry. He suggests that just as individuals have faith in their beliefs or in God, scientists operate on a similar principle where they accept hypotheses as true until there is substantial evidence to disprove them. This reflects a deep philosophical inquiry into the nature of belief, knowledge, and the pursuit of truth in both religious and scientific contexts.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the philosophy of science, this quote could help illustrate the parallels between faith in science and spirituality.
More from Morgan Freeman
All quotes →I do know there are a lot of people who seem to be in my corner, and that's, of course, wonderful. I'm really more interested in the nomination than in the award, because I think the nomination just puts you within a group of outstanding actors.
Fatigue, discomfort, discouragement are merely symptoms of effort.
Don't be afraid of what you want. This is your time. The barriers are down.
Donald Trump is the Honey Boo Boo of rich people.
Dr. Martin Luther King is not a black hero. He is an American hero.
Similar quotes
A man making the confession of any creed worth ten minutes' intelligent talk, is always a man who gains something and gives up something. So long as he does both he can create: for he is making an outline and a shape.
As for me, my charter is Jesus Christ, the inviolable charter is His cross and His death and resurrection, and faith through Him.
When the last red man shall have perished from the earth and his memory among the white men shall have become a myth, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe. The white man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless.
A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality.
Those who call themselves anti-Zionists usually insist they are not anti-Semites. But I struggle to see what else to call an ideology that seeks to eradicate only one state in the world - the one that happens to be the Jewish one - while empathetically insisting on the rights of self-determination for every other minority.
At the end of the table, the secretary was reading the decision in some case, but in such a mournful and monotonous voice, that the condemned man himself would have fallen asleep while listening to it. The judge, no doubt, would have been the first of all to do so, had he not entered into an engrossing conversation while it was going on.