{"id":149,"date":"2008-11-18T15:37:59","date_gmt":"2008-11-18T20:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/?p=149"},"modified":"2008-11-18T15:37:59","modified_gmt":"2008-11-18T20:37:59","slug":"menckens-creed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/18\/menckens-creed\/","title":{"rendered":"Mencken’s Creed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Too good to pass up…<\/p>\n

I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind — that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.<\/p>\n

I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious…<\/p>\n

I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.<\/p>\n

I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech…<\/p>\n

I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.<\/p>\n

I believe in the reality of progress.<\/p>\n

But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.<\/p>\n

– H. L. Mencken’s Creed, cited by George Seldes in Great Thoughts<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

With appreciation to the Freedom From Religion Foundation<\/a> for bringing this quote to my attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Too good to pass up… I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind — that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking. I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mencken’s Creed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[353,513,682,826],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-freedom","tag-mencken","tag-religion","tag-truth","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}