“Although this book deals with the conflict between religion and science, I see this as only one battle in a wider war—a war between rationality and superstition. Religion is but a single brand of superstition (others include beliefs in astrology, paranormal phenomena, homeopathy, and spiritual healing), but it is the most widespread and harmful form of superstition. And science is but one form of rationality (philosophy and mathematics are others), but it is a highly developed form, and the only one capable of describing and understanding reality.”
Source: Faith vs. Fact (2015), p. xii
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Jerry Coyne154
American biologist 1949Related quotes
Martin Luther King, Jr. book Strength to Love
Source: 1960s, Strength to Love (1963), Ch. 1 : A tough mind and a tender heart
Marquis de Sade Philosophy in the Bedroom
Yet Another Effort, Frenchmen, If You Would Become Republicans
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
Markandey Katju (1946) Indian judge
On astrology, as quoted in "Justice Markandey Katju on the role of media in India" http://www.thehindu.com/news/justice-markandey-katju-on-the-role-of-media-in-india/article2600319.ece, The Hindu (5 November 2011)
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher
Context: I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge; this, I take it, is the reason why Christians are distinguished from the rest of the world, not by faith, nor by charity, nor by the other fruits of the Holy Spirit, but solely by their opinions, inasmuch as they defend their cause, like everyone else, by miracles, that is by ignorance, which is the source of all malice; thus they turn a faith, which may be true, into superstition.
Letter 21 (73) to Henry Oldenburg , November (1675)
“A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
#32
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
“There is no conflict between science and religion.”
Georges Lemaître (1894–1966) Belgian scientist and priest
New York Times, February 19, 1933 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A02E7DA1539E033A2575AC1A9649C946294D6CF&nytmobile=0&legacy=true
Carl Sagan book The Demon-Haunted World
Source: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist
"Purely Personal Prejudices"
Strictly Personal (1953)