The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.
Umberto EcoRead
When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that losing faith in God leads to a broader belief system rather than a void of belief.
Umberto Eco's quote reflects the idea that when people abandon traditional religious faith, they do not necessarily become nihilistic or lose their capacity for belief. Instead, they might seek meaning in a diverse array of ideologies, beliefs, or even secular philosophies, suggesting a shift towards a more pluralistic worldview that embraces a multitude of ideas and values.
Themes
BeliefFaithPhilosophyMeaningIdeology
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on spirituality in a philosophy class.
More from Umberto Eco
All quotes βI think that at a certain age, say fifteen or sixteen, poetry is like masturbation. But later in life good poets burn their early poetry, and bad poets publish it. Thankfully I gave up rather quickly.
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But why do some people support [the heretics]?" "Because it serves their purposes, which concern the faith rarely, and more often the conquest of power." "Is that why the church of Rome accuses all its adversaries of heresy?" "That is why, and that is also why it recognizes as orthodoxy any heresy it can bring back under its own control or must accept because the heresy has become too strong.
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You die, but most of what you have accumulated will not be lost; you are leaving a message in a bottle.
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"Then we are living in a place abandoned by God," I said, disheartened. "Have you found any places where God would have felt at home?" William asked me, looking down from his great height.
Umberto EcoRead
The lunatic is all idΓ©e fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars.
Umberto EcoRead
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I was anti-everything and everyone. I didn't want people around me. This aversion was not some big crippling anxiety; merely a mature recognition of my own psychological vulnerability and my lack of suitability as a companion. Thoughts jostled for space in my crowded brain as i struggled to give them some order which might serve to motivate my listless life.
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For John was running, and this was terrible. Because if you ran, time ran. You yelled and screamed and raced and rolled and tumbled and all of a sudden the sun was gone and the whistle was blowing and you were on your long way home to supper. When you weren't looking, the sun got around behind you! The only way to keep things slow was to watch everything and do nothing! You could stretch a day to three days, sure, just by watching!
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Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
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