Anarchy Evolution Quotes

“We should enjoy and make the most of life, not because we are in constant fear of what might happen to us in a mythical afterlife, but because we have only one opportunity to live.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“It's my firm conclusion that human meaning comes from humans, not from a supernatural source. After we die, our hopes for an afterlife reside in the social networks that we influenced while we were alive. If we influence people in a positive way -- even if our social web is only as big as our nuclear family -- others will want to emulate us and pass on our ideas, manners, and lifestyle to future generations. This is more than enough motivation for me to do good things in my life and teach my children to do the same.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“As I’ve said, I’ve never believed in God, which technically makes me an atheist (since the prefix “a” means “not” or “without”). But I have problems with the word “atheism.” It defines what someone is not rather than what someone is. It would be like calling me an a-instrumentalist for Bad Religion rather than the band’s singer. Defining yourself as against something says very little about what you are for.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“If there is no destiny, there is no design. There's only life and death. My goal is to learn about life by living it, not by trying to figure out a cryptic plan that the Creator had in store for me.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“Life is never static. Despite catastrophic tragedies, life has persisted in evolving new varieties of unimaginable forms. I find comfort in the narrative of evolutionary history.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“Life is an act of endless creativity. With all its simmering tragedy and occasional catastrophe, a human life is an amazing thing to contemplate and experience. None of us had any special plan laid out for us when we were born. By abandoning the idea that an intelligent designer created us, we can wake with each dawn and say, "What's done is done. Now how can I make the best of the here and now?”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“The creativity inherent in life is the counterbalance to tragedy. it affirms our belief that life is a good thing and provides a rich potential source of human meaning.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“For me, the existence of nonexistence of God is a nonissue.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“When I create, I feel that I am a participant in the grand pageant of life, a part of the ongoing creative engine of the universe. I don't know if that feeling is enough to replace the solace of religion in the lives of most people, but it is for me.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“Creativity is a challenge. It requires us to be fully human -- autonomous yet engaged, independent yet interdependent. Creativity bridges the conflict between our individualistic and our sociality. It celebrates the commonality of our species while simultaneously setting us apart as unique individuals.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“At the very least, an understanding of evolution can offer a basis for coming together as rational beings to agree on the answers to difficult question.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“People need to understand the basics of evolution if they are going to reject it—otherwise, they are not contributing anything productive to modern society.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“Either harming other people is wrong, in which case God is unnecessary, or harming other people is acceptable, in which case God's admonitions are misguided.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“I don't believe, for instance, that evolutionary biology or any scientific endeavor has much to say about love. I'm sure a lot can be learned about the importance of hormones and their effects on our feelings. But do the bleak implications of evolution have any impact on the love I feel for my family? Do they make me more likely to break the law of flaunt society's expectations of me? No. I simply does not follow that human relationships are meaningless just because we live in a godless universe subject to the natural laws of biology.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“By demonstrating in our laws and policies that nature is a process, not a thing to be exploited, we will say to future generations that we have learned something from the study of natural science and that we care about something greater than our own selfish needs. And then we will be remembered by later generations for our wisdom rather than our rapacity.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“Evolution does not tend toward perfection. It depends as much--if not more--on cooperation and random chance as on competition. Evolution does not have a direction. It is anarchic, yet out of this anarchy have come biological entities of great sophistication and beauty.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“Evolution happens when populations of organisms take advantage of what, seen in retrospect, are tremendous and usually unexpected opportunities.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science and Bad Religion in a World Without God.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“other”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“Love is not a fact. It's an ongoing gamble.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

“The polarity of the atheist/theist debate prevents this harmonious social activity.”
― Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God