"when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion."
-Robert Pirsig
2007-02-10 09:53:23 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
this mans IQ was 170 at the age of 9! (wikipedia)
2007-02-10 09:59:01 · update #1
truth hurts?
2007-02-10 10:02:52 · answer #1 · answered by judy_r8 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Agreed.
What constitutes truth? Is it fact or opinion? At what point do the number of opinions turn into truth?
For example, say you have a $5 bill in your pocket. Pretty much anyone you show it to will agree that it is a $5 bill, and can compare its worth to say, less than a $10 bill, 20 quarters, five ones, etc.
Is the value given to that $5 bill truth, opinion, or fact?
Now take your money to a tribe in New Guinea, and see if you can get THEM to agree on its worth. Can you buy anything with it, or is it just a pretty parchment to them? What is the value of your money to a people that doesn't need it? The truth you knew about your money before (as well as all the opinions of those who agreed with you) are now meaningless.
Does that nullify the value of the $5 everywhere, or just everywhere but America? What is the TRUTH about the value of your money?
And so, just because someone believes in God, is surrounded by those that also believe as they do, and they can all reach a unanimous consensus, does that still mean that their sheer numbers make God real? What is the value of God to those that do not need Christianity?
2007-02-10 18:11:38 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a simple expression of bigotry.
Why take such a person seriously? Here is a list of people who are generally considered hateful because they generalize about entire groups of people for the purpose of belittling them:
Nazis
Aryan Nations
Neo-Nazis
Muslim extremists
Ku Klux Klan
White supremicists
Robert Pirsig has just entered their ranks. He has only to kill one of us to be initiated.
Intelligent people have far more capability of reason and accommodation and can consider rationally the beliefs of others without simple-minded generalization.
(So how can a man with an IQ of 170 fail so miserably in the area of common sense?)
2007-02-10 17:59:40 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
If Robert Pirsing does and/ or did practise the opposite to the 10 commandment, then he is absolutely right, otherwise his statement will be paradoxical and he is one heck of a hypocrite dude.
2007-02-10 18:02:59 · answer #4 · answered by Aadel 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That Robert Pirsig is/was a smart dude
2007-02-10 17:56:49 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
It could possibly apply to some religions. One would have to define delusion, of course.
2007-02-10 17:56:56 · answer #6 · answered by Mr Ed 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
What do you think of this quote?
Charles Darwin, toward the end of his life when asked about evolution he said
"I give a cold shudder at the fact that i may have been chasing after pure fantasy"
2007-02-10 19:31:34 · answer #7 · answered by Theoretically Speaking 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
And God, will catch the wise in their own cunning, as the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
2007-02-10 18:05:26 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
His IQ can be 1000, but his itelligence is not better than a donkey ***.
2007-02-10 18:15:41 · answer #9 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
smart gut, that Pirsig fellow
2007-02-10 17:58:58 · answer #10 · answered by Romantic Raven 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
it's brilliant but you know who else was a very good philosopher friedrich wilhelm nietzsche in my opinion anyway and there are many others as well
2007-02-10 17:59:06 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋