Quotes – Ryan Chapin's Website

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Posted on September 15, 2006January 22, 2021 by rchapin

— Helen Keller

Social responsibility above the level of family, or at most of tribe, requires imagination – devotion, loyalty, all the higher virtues – which a man must develop himself; if he has them forced down him, he will vomit them out.

Posted on February 25, 2006January 23, 2021 by rchapin

An interesting quote from "Starship Troopers", Robert A. Heinlein 1959. The movie that came out in 1997 seems to have very little in common with the book; an excellent discussion of the true meaning of citizenship and the scarcity of honor and self-sacrifice among the human race.

Click the "READ MORE" link for more information and links about this book.

An exellent website that discusses the book and the 1997 movie (of the same name but with very little else similar)

Here’s a very interesting paper discussing the The Nature of "Federal Service" in Rober A. Heinlein’s "Starship Troopers": Gifford, James. 1996.

Gifford’s Heinlein Home Page

The Internet Book List Heinlein Page with a list of all of his works

I Believe There is No God, by Penn Jillette

Posted on November 21, 2005January 23, 2021 by rchapin

NPR has resurrected the "This, I Believe" series of essays and today, I think I heard the best one yet.

This one is from Pen Jillette and details his belief on the absense of god and the richness of his life . . .
I believe that there is no God. I’m beyond
Atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy
— you can’t prove a negative, so there’s no work to do. You can’t
prove that there isn’t an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You
sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did
I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word "elephant"
includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire?

So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start
with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to
search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the
people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching
stage. The Atheism part is easy.

But, this "This I Believe"
thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that
helps one see life’s big picture, some rules to live by. So, I’m
saying, "This I believe: I believe there is no God."

Having
taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I’m not greedy. I
have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be
enough. It has to be enough, but it’s everything in the world and
everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the
invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the
family I’m raising now is enough that I don’t need heaven. I won the
huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day.

Believing there’s
no God means I can’t really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty
memories. That’s good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have
to try to treat people right the first time around.

Believing
there’s no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from
all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can
agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I’m wrong. We can all
keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don’t travel in circles
where people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing
you can say or do can shake my faith." That’s just a long-winded
religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC
likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was
brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you
can ever say or do." So, believing there is no God lets me be proven
wrong and that’s always fun. It means I’m learning something.

Believing
there is no God means the suffering I’ve seen in my family, and indeed
all the suffering in the world, isn’t caused by an omniscient,
omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn’t bothered to help or is just
testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with
in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the
future.

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief
in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o and all the other
things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever
have.

Click Here to read the article on NPR’s site