Isaac Asimov was arguably one of the greatest science fiction writers of the 20th century. Yet the words he spoke when he was alive rings true in today's day and age. I have collected a few below as well as my thoughts on them.
"I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, the details, the true architecture, I got out of the public library". For an impoverished child whose family could not afford to buy books, the library was the open door to wonder and achievement, and I can never be sufficiently grateful that I had the wit to charge through that door and make the most of it.
"Now, when I read constantly about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that the door is closing and that American society has found one more way to destroy itself."
As someone who also grew up in a working class family, I always found books to be a safe haven away from the drug use and violence of the projects. The library (or rather any place that had plentiful books) was always and forever shall be my haven.
"If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul. I would also want a God who would not allow a Hell. Infinite torture can only be a punishment for infinite evil, and I don't believe that infinite evil can be said to exist even in the case of Hitler. Besides, if most human governments are civilized enough to try to eliminate torture and outlaw cruel and unusual punishments, can we expect anything less of an all-merciful God? I feel that if there were an afterlife, punishment for evil would be reasonable and of a fixed term. And I feel that the longest and worst punishment should be reserved for those who slandered God by inventing Hell."
I do not like religion. All of them. At all. I find the concept of a god existing to be rather... strange to be exact. I like the way Asimov justifies his thinking on Hell and God. If only most religious people could think this way.
"Inspect every piece of pseudoscience and you will find a security blanket, a thumb to suck, a skirt to hold. What does the scientist have to offer in exchange? Uncertainty! Insecurity!"
Science was and always has been a method of figuring things out. This is why I like science so much. You learn something new every time you apply it. Pseudoscience is the opposite of science, which is a detriment to not only to our society but every society worldwide.
"Happiness is doing it rotten your own way."
Self explanatory, really.
