Which famous atheist made this statement?

Question

"I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently I assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. Most ignorance is invisible ignorance. We do't kow because we don't want to know. The philosopher who finds meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem of pure metaphysics; he is concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he should not do as he wants to, or why his friends should not seize power and govern in a way that is most adavantageous to themselves...For myself the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation being political, economic and sexual. I thought this was the most honest quote I have read by any atheist. Any thoughts?

LOL Slave I am assuming you mean Mr. and not Dr.

i could picture Spock saying smething in that manner.

Something. My typos will be my undoing. Just about the time I became proficient on a keyboard I switched to a laptop. I love it but hate the keyboard.

Edit to Rafiki: I am not an atheist. What I found honest was his admission that he had motives for wanting what he wanted to be true. Most people aren't that honest or even aware of their own hidden motives. It reminds me of a man a number of years ago who said he was rotten to his wife so that she got angry and left. deep down e knew what he was doing but it took him several years to face up what jerk he had been.

Most of us are not honest enough of in soe cases aware of our hidden motives yet on another level I think we are.

It was Aldous Huxley(grandson of Darwins Bulldog Thomas Henry Huxley) in his book ends and means.

Answer 1

Sir Julian Huxley

Answer 2

Sounds like G H Hardy. I've not read his apologia, but his thesis that mathematics should exist purely per se as opposed to satisfying any means or end would be broadly the thrust of this quote.
Oh well wrong again!..but I still do not see how seeking 'meaning' from philosophy is in any way related to religious belief or its negation

Answer 3

I read his book called the future of Man. I would suggest Huxley for anyone interested in this kind of reading.

Edit: I may have been confusing Julian for Aldous. The whole family were great thinkers and writers.

Answer 4

Not everyone has an agenda. Sometimes, people do their research, make a choice, and then develop an agenda. The trick is to know the difference. There are an awful lot of people out there - and in here - working on someone else's agenda without realizing it.

Answer 5

the story is going that this formulation replaced into one created by way of Leonhard Euler, by way of request from Catherine the total after Denis Diderot (French reality seeker and atheist) replaced into traveling Russia and inflicting his atheism on her contributors of courtroom. Euler, conscious that Diderot knew no longer something approximately arithmetic 'stumbled on' a formulation for info that God existed and proceeded to humiliate him infront of the courtroom of Catherine the total, to that end forcing Diderot to leave in embarrassment. whether, this is maximum possibly fiction as Diderot replaced right into a able Mathematicican who had printed many books on the priority. in my opinion, i think of this is no longer suitable no remember if this tale has any reality. faith is perception which relies upon thoroughly on faith. there's no longer absolute info of a 'God' or ideally suited being whether there'll continually be billions of individuals who have self belief for one reason or yet another, this is a human reality, and the differing religions are regarded as social truths. Maths is regarded as an absolute reality, algebra is a typical language wherein enormously plenty something you % to coach could be completed so. technology is, to the uneducated ideas a typical reality additionally, whether the truths interior technology are continually changing as predicted by way of Karl Poppers falsification concept. this is, that something is deemed as reality till shown to be fake.

Answer 6

Yes when it is boiled down to English, it is the story of my former life which consisted of making up my own reality. Then naming myself as god of that fantasy. That way at least mentally and intellectually I could justify my sin and ease the pain of my separation from GOD and base reality.
That is why so many of these great thinkers spend so much time "finding themselves" they are admitting they are lost and don't even know it. Is this metaphysics? Or psychosis?

Answer 7

Once it is understood that atheism is merely the absence of belief in any gods, it becomes evident that agnosticism is not, as many assume, a “third way” between atheism and theism.

Answer 8

Honest, maybe, but a pretty poor justification for not believing. There are much more objective reasons to not believe and many atheists (such as myself) are not particularly attached to their disbelief - they just think it is most logical.

Answer 9

Aldous Huxley

I agree that the philosophy of meaninglessness is (rather ironically) liberating. One would expect such a discovery to be vastly and overwhelmingly depressing, but it is actually quite exciting and grants a certain measure of release and the slightest smile.

"When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky." ~ Buddha

Answer 10

Eh! could you send a copy of that to that infamous atheist,Richard Dawkins.