Atheist Quotes Home
‘I had motive for not wanting the world to have a
meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any
difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who
finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in
pure metaphysics, he is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason
why he personally should not do as he wants to do, or why his friends should not
seize political power and govern in the way that they find most advantageous to
themselves. … For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an
instrument of liberation, sexual and political.’
- Aldus Huxley, Huxley, A., Ends and
Means, pp. 270 ff.
‘A religion is essentially an attitude to the
world as a whole. Thus evolution, for example, may prove as powerful a principle
to coordinate men’s beliefs and hopes as God was in the past. Such ideas
underlie the various forms of Rationalism, the Ethical movement and scientific
Humanism.’
‘Humanism: An outlook that places man and his concerns at the centre of
interest. Modern Humanism, which does away with traditional Christianity, is
characterised by its faith in the power of human beings to create their own
future, collectively and personally.’
- Growth of Ideas. The evolution of
thought and knowledge. Ed. Sir Julian Huxley, 1965, pp. 99, 336