Almost nobody believes anymore that infants are insensate blobs. It seems both mad and evil to deny experience and feeling to a laughing, gurgling creature.
Paul BloomRead
If you look within the United States, religion seems to make you a better person. Yet atheist societies do very well - better, in many ways, than devout ones.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that while religion may improve individuals, secular societies can also thrive remarkably.
Paul Bloom's quote explores the relationship between religion and moral behavior, indicating that while religious belief is often associated with positive personal attributes, there are secular societies that demonstrate high levels of well-being and morality. This raises questions about the sources of virtue and the variety of ways in which human societies can achieve success and goodness without a religious framework.
Themes
ReligionAtheismMoralitySocietyEthics
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on morality, you might reference this quote to argue that ethical behavior does not solely arise from religious beliefs.
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I want to convince you that humans are, to some extent, natural born essentialists. What I mean by this is we don't just respond to things as we see them or feel them or hear them. Rather, our response is conditioned on our beliefs, about what they really are, what they came from, what they're made of, what their hidden nature is.
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We benefit, intellectually and personally, from the interplay between different selves, from the balance between long-term contemplation and short-term impulse. We should be wary about tipping the scales too far. The community of selves shouldn't be a democracy, but it shouldn't be a dictatorship, either.
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Enjoying fiction requires a shift in selfhood. You give up your own identity and try on the identities of other people, adopting their perspectives so as to share their experiences. This allows us to enjoy fictional events that would shock and sadden us in real life.
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A sympathetic parent might see the spark of consciousness in a baby's large eyes and eagerly accept the popular claim that babies are wonderful learners, but it is hard to avoid the impression that they begin as ignorant as bread loaves.
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