We need to let our children grow up to face the world armed with knowledge, with much more knowledge than we ourselves had at their age. It is scary, but the alternative is worse.
Daniel DennettRead
Religion is defined as social systems whose participants avow a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought.
Interpretation
Religion involves social systems where participants believe in supernatural beings and seek their approval.
Daniel Dennett's quote defines religion as a societal construct where individuals acknowledge and engage with supernatural entities. It emphasizes the communal aspect of religious belief, highlighting that religion is not just a personal experience but a collective one, where group dynamics and social expectations play significant roles in how people perceive and seek approval from these higher powers.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of religion in society during a community meeting.
We need to let our children grow up to face the world armed with knowledge, with much more knowledge than we ourselves had at their age. It is scary, but the alternative is worse.
Philosophers are never quite sure what they are talking about - about what the issues really are - and so often it takes them rather a long time to recognize that someone with a somewhat different approach (or destination, or starting point) is making a contribution.
Words have a genealogy and it's easier to trace the evolution of a single word than the evolution of a language.
The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.
Some philosophers can't bear to say simple things, like "Suppose a dog bites a man." They feel obliged instead to say, "Suppose a dog d bites a man m at time t," thereby demonstrating their unshakable commitment to logical rigor, even though they don't go on to manipulate any formulae involving d, m, and t.
As every scuba diver knows, panic is your worst enemy: when it hits, your mind starts to thrash and you are likely to do something really stupid and self-destructive.
Buddhism teaches us not to try to run away from suffering. You have to confront suffering. You have to look deeply into the nature of suffering in order to recognize its cause, the making of the suffering.
It is strange people should be so greedy, when they are alone in the world.
There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong.
The basis of the self is not thought but suffering, which is the most fundamental of all feelings. While it suffers, not even a cat can doubt its unique and uninterchangeable self. In intense suffering the world disappears and each of us is alone with his self. Suffering is the university of ego-centrism.
And how am I to face the odds Of man's bedevilment and God's? I, a stranger and afraid In a world I never made.
People have so much pain inside them that they're not even aware of.
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