Nevertheless I know that I am, in spite of myself, exactly what the Christian would call, and, so far as I can see, is justified in calling, atheist and infidel.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Huxley admits he is an atheist despite personal feelings, acknowledging the Christian label fits his actual views.
- In plain terms
- I know I am an atheist even if I don't want to be.
- What can you take from it?
- Self-awareness about one's beliefs is more important than personal preference.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you reconcile feeling one way but thinking another?
- Can you be an atheist by conviction but a believer by culture?
Another view
It oversimplifies the complexity of spiritual identity by reducing it to a binary label.
More from Thomas Henry Huxley
Science has taught... me to be careful how I adopt a view which jumps with my preconceptions, and to require stronger evidence for such belief than for one to …
Permalink to quote #43 'Life is too short to occupy oneself with the slaying of the slain more than once'. One of a series of exchanges when Owen repeated his claims about the Gorill…
Permalink to quote #45 Give me such evidence as would justify me in believing in anything else and I will believe that. Why should I not? It is not half so wonderful as the conservat…
Permalink to quote #42
Related quotes
Wir sein pettler. Hoc est verum.
Martin LutherMartin Luther quote #1 It is not hardness of heart or evil passions that drive certain individuals to atheism, but rather a scrupulous intellectual honesty.
Steve AllenSteve Allen quote #4 'If we are honest-and scientists have to be-we must admit that religion is a jumble of false assertions, with no basis in reality. The very idea of God is a pr…
Paul DiracPaul Dirac quote #5