Quote by David Brin

...where were answers to the truly deep questions? Religion promised those, though always in vague terms, while retreating from one line in the sand to the next. Don't look past this boundary, they told Galileo, then Hutton, Darwin, Von Neumann, and Crick, always retreating with great dignity before the latest scientific advance, then drawing the next holy perimeter at the shadowy rim of knowledge.

...where were answers to the truly deep questions? Religion

Summary

This quote criticizes religion for offering vague answers to profound questions and constantly shifting boundaries as scientific discoveries advance. It suggests that religion promises to provide insights into deep inquiries but consistently falls short by retreating and establishing new boundaries as scientific knowledge expands. The quote references various thinkers like Galileo, Hutton, Darwin, Von Neumann, and Crick, who pushed the boundaries of knowledge and were met with resistance from religious institutions. The implication is that religion fails to provide satisfactory and conclusive answers to the profound questions that humanity seeks to unravel.

Topics

Religion Science Knowledge Questions Scientists

Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations

As a man has no right to kill one of his children if it is d

As a man has no right to kill one of his children if it is diseased or insane, so a man who has made the gradual and conscious expression of his personality in literature the aim of his life, has no right to suppress himself any carefully considered work which seemed good enough when it was written. Suppression, if it is deserved, will come rapidly enough from the same causes that suppress the unworthy members of a man's family.

Authors & Writing

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

Except in very narrow cases, where there's breakthrough scie

Except in very narrow cases, where there's breakthrough science that needs patent production, worrying about competitors is a waste of time. If you can't out iterate someone who is trying to copy you, you're toast anyway.

My real fantasy if I was to drop out would be to live in a m

My real fantasy if I was to drop out would be to live in a mobile home and be a hippie and drive around festivals and have millions of children - children with dreadlocks and nose rings - and play the flute.

Life is to be entered upon with courage.

Life is to be entered upon with courage.

Alexis de Tocqueville

The destruction of the poor is their poverty.

The destruction of the poor is their poverty.

I will make action movies, I think, for a few more years, an

I will make action movies, I think, for a few more years, another five years.

One fails forward toward success.

One fails forward toward success.

Charles Kettering

And write what you love - don't feel pressured to write seri

And write what you love - don't feel pressured to write serious prose if what you like is to be funny.

Cassandra Clare

That which is now called natural philosophy, embracing the w

That which is now called natural philosophy, embracing the whole circle of science, of which astronomy occupies the chief place, is the study of the works of God, and of the power and wisdom of God in his works, and is the true theology.

Wisdom Life Work Power Science Philosophy Places Circles

Our young people have come to look upon war as a kind of ben

Our young people have come to look upon war as a kind of beneficent deity, which not only adds to the national honor but uplifts a nation and develops patriotism and courage.

Rebecca Harding Davis

Our love grows soft if it is not strengthened by truth, and

Our love grows soft if it is not strengthened by truth, and our truth grows hard if it is not softened by love.

John R.W. Stott

Truth God Love Grace