Interesting Vonnegut quotes on Science/Religion

I was flipping through some Vonnegut books the other day and I came across some interesting quotes.

"And we would be a lot safer if the Government would take its money out of science and put it into astrology and the reading of palms. I used to think that science could save us, and science certainly tried. But we can't stand any more tremendous explosions, either for or against democracy. Only in superstition is there hope. If you want to become a friend of civilization, then become an enemy of truth and a fanatic for harmless balderdash."

"I beg you to believe the most ridiculous superstition of all: that humanity is at the center of the universe, the fulfiller or frustrateor of the grandest dreams of God Almighty.

If you can do that, and make others believe it, then there might be hope for us. Human beings might stop treating each other like garbage, might begin to treasure and protect one another instead."

"About astrology and palmistry: THey are good because they make people feel vivid and full of possibilities. They are communism at its best. Everybody has a birthday and almost everybody has a palm."

And the kicker:

"A great swindle of our time is the assumption that science has made religion obsolete. All science has damaged is the story of Adam and Eve and the story of Jonah and the Whale. Everything else holds up pretty well, particularly the lessons about fairness and gentleness. People who find those lessons irrelevant in the twentieth century are simply using science as an excuse for greed and harshness."

-All from Address to Graduating Class at Bennington College 1970, as printed in Wampeter, Foma, & Granfalloons.

In another part of the book, he talks about how in Nigeria there aren't any government-run social programs because since the families are so large, everyone has plenty of relatives to turn to in a time of distress. He then says (well technically he has Kilgore Trout write) that perhaps everyone in the US should be randomly assigned to 1,000 or so "families" since it would be quicker at dispersing aid than the government.

I thought these topics might be of interest to our granfalloon.

[ubs]

Great thread! My favorite quote from one of my favorite authors


"Any time I see a person fleeing from reason and into religion, I think to myself, There goes a person who simply cannot stand being so goddamned lonely anymore."

[Kurt Vonnegut Jr., quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt, by James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996]

[lostsheep]

ubs wrote

Great thread! My favorite quote from one of my favorite authors


"Any time I see a person fleeing from reason and into religion, I think to myself, There goes a person who simply cannot stand being so goddamned lonely anymore."

[Kurt Vonnegut Jr., quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt, by James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996]

That reminds me of this quote:
@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.




I don't agree with it, really, but I do like it, nonetheless! It's from Lovecraft, not Vonnegut: but I think there is some relation to the Vonnegut quote, in that some people might choose religious belief and explanations over scientific ones: perhaps they feel more comfortable in their ignorance?

:thumbsup: Nice!

[R and All]

Another brick in the wall wrote

"A great swindle of our time is the assumption that science has made religion obsolete. All science has damaged is the story of Adam and Eve and the story of Jonah and the Whale. Everything else holds up pretty well, particularly the lessons about fairness and gentleness. People who find those lessons irrelevant in the twentieth century are simply using science as an excuse for greed and harshness."

I must have lost the lessons about fairness and gentleness amidst all the smiting.

[Sternwallow]

R and All wrote

I must have lost the lessons about fairness and gentleness amidst all the smiting.

People who find that science has made religion irrelevant still know very well about fairness and gentleness and charity. They no longer have to bury those feelings and that wisdom in a grave of religious doctrine. They can let caring for people shine forth with its own glory.

[Philboid Studge]

Brick wrote

In another part of the book, he talks about how in Nigeria there aren't any government-run social programs because since the families are so large, everyone has plenty of relatives to turn to in a time of distress.

And we all know how swell things are going in Nigeria. Are we in the millions yet -- or still just thousands -- in number of murders between these happy, large families in the past few years?

I think the main reason he became cynical about science was that it made it possible to kill huge numbers of people very easily. However, you don't need advanced science to kill huge numbers of people- just efficient administration. Ghenghis Khan comes to mind.

I think he hoped that knowledge would make us more humane, but history does not bear that out. Change in thought is what makes a society more humane.

I don't have anything to say. He clearly has no reverence for intellectual honesty.

Cynical about science? He appears to be cynical, period. If I want quotes from writers and such, I think I'll stick to H L Mencken and Frank Zappa.

[ubs]

Wakkun wrote

Cynical about science? He appears to be cynical, period. If I want quotes from writers and such, I think I'll stick to H L Mencken and Frank Zappa.

from God Bless You Mr. Rosewater,

"just like a good airline pilot should always be looking for places to land, so should a lawyer always be looking for situations were large amounts of money were about to change hands."

from Breakfast of Champions.

"He had a penis eight hundred miles long and two hundred and ten miles in diameter, but practically all of it was in the fourth dimension."

The man was a genius. There will be no dissing of Vonnegut on this forum.

I meant to limit that comment to quotes regarding religion. No doubt Vonnegut has come out with some blinders on other subjects, but the ones on this thread appear to be pure cynicism. If this is dissing the man, consider him dissed, genius or not. And I think even geniuses may be dissed on this forum.

[ubs]

The thing is Wakkun, he's was such a smart ass, and on top of that he suffered from clinical depression. I have to wonder how often his quotes were taken out of context.

“You can't always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream.” -Frank Zappa

Now there's some insightful words.

[GodlessHeathen]

Don't be a dick, dude. You're not proving anything to us. If you don't like what this thread is saying, then don't come in here.