And so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a skepticism towards belief systems influenced by people and their arguments.
In this quote, Salman Rushdie expresses a sense of doubt and disbelief based on the varying reasons provided by individuals. It suggests that when people present conflicting ideas or arguments, it can lead one to question the validity of belief itself, implying that the nature of belief is complex and can be influenced by the perspectives of others.
In practice
During a philosophical debate about religion, this quote could highlight the conflict in belief systems.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
The laws of physics that we regard_x000D_ as 'sacred,' as immutable, are anything_x000D_ but.
Half the people in Hollywood are dying to be discovered and the other half are afraid they will be.
It's personal freedom, not hundred dollar bills that lights the soul's cigar.
Disgust for the female body is always tinged with anxiety, since the body symbolizes mortality.
I can't think of a more wonderful thanksgiving for the life I've had than that everyone should be jolly at my funeral.
We ... must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow.
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