Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Isaac Asimov on Mysticism


"I wonder how many people go for these mystical, nonsensical things simply because they must go for something, and this is the only thing available.

The same thing bothers me about mysticism that would bother me about con men. It doesn't seem to me to be right to sell a person phony stuff, and take money for it. And this is what mystics are doing. They're selling people phony knowledge, and taking money for it.


Even if people feel good about it; I can well imagine that a person who really believes in astrology is going to have a feeling of security because he knows that this is a bad day, so to stay at home.

But nevertheless, a guy who's got phony stock may look at it, it's nice and shiny, and has scrolls and all gold lettering and stuff, and as long as he doesn't have to do anything with it, he feels real rich looking at it. But that's no excuse; he still has phony stock.


And the person who buys mysticism still has phony knowledge."


(Isaac Asimov)


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