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Even in this secular country, the threat posed by religious fundamentalists is never very far away. Every major religious text exhorts the same principles - that of unyielding obedience to a supernatural being, and renunciation of the intellect and personal aspirations.

Andrew Bernstein

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Andrew Bernstein
Age: 65
Born: 1959
Born: June 6
Author
Philosopher
University Teacher
Religious
Obedience
Posed
Away
Intellect
Fundamentalists
Country
Majors
Renunciation
Even
Major
Aspirations
Every
Threat
Supernatural
Never
Atheism
Text
Personal
Secular
Principles
Aspiration
Unyielding

More quotes by Andrew Bernstein

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Throughout history, independent minds have carried mankind forward. Whether they identified how to make fire or manufacture tools, develop rational philosophy or create man-glorifying art, pioneer scientific knowledge or invent the electric light, independent thinkers have created the goods on which human life and prosperity depend.
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During the financial crisis, I worked with hundreds of executives who struggled as a result of their thoughts about job security. When their beliefs changed, so did their emotional experience - and they were then able to focus on the task at hand more effectively.
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Stress is never a given. There are people who get divorced amicably. There are people who pack up and move with no emotional toll. There is no stressor 'out there' in the world. We experience stress - or we don't - depending on what we believe.
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We all enjoy pushing ourselves to accomplish our objectives. But we don't need stress to get there.
Andrew Bernstein
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A hero holds purposes appropriate to man and is, therefore, a thinker.
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The less you think counterfactually, the less you experience stress. Stress, in this light, isn't a bad thing. It's simply a warning system telling you that your mind has lost touch with what's real.
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Stress is the negative whirlwind of emotions that gets imposed on top of our stimulation and engagement.
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When a friend is sick, I see the situation for what it is, not what it isn't, and I offer to help as much as she wants, not as much as I want.
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Remember that stress doesn't come from what's going on in your life. It comes from your thoughts about what's going on in your life.
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People around the world now complain about stressors everyday, and the word shows up throughout professional and lay literature. But in reality there is no such thing as a stressor. Why not? Because nothing has the inherent power to provoke stress.
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Some people are so used to experiencing stress that they don't remember what life was like without it.
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Many argue that Christianity is different from other religions - that it is primarily about love of one's fellow man. The Crusades, The Inquisition, Calvin's Geneva all prove that this is not the case. These events were pre-eminently about obedience to authority.
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The elusive truth is that there is nothing stress-producing in the physical world. Things simply are. Molecules move. Light and sound appear.
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Look closer at the stress in your own life and you can identify that negative emotions are always built on counterfactual statements.
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Statism – the subordination of the individual to the state - leads inevitably to the most hideous oppression.
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Altruism demands that an individual serve others, but doesn’t stipulate whether those others should be one’s family, or the homeless, or society as a whole. Collectivism states that, in politics, society comes first and the individual must obey. Collectivism is the application of the altruist ethics to politics.
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Stress is not the spice of life any more than arsenic is. And without it, you won't feel bored.
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... statism systematically violates the rights of individuals and is, therefore, immoral. Because it suppresses the mind and violates men's rights, it thereby causes abysmal poverty and is utterly impractical.
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To believe that your husband, wife, parents, kids, boss, job, bank account, or body is even partly responsible for your emotions, to think that there are bullets 'out there' that you have to contend with, that there are stressful life events to overcome, is to miss something vital.
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Stress is a byproduct of subconscious beliefs you have about the world. You can't choose not to believe something. You believe it because you think it's true. To eliminate stress, you must learn to challenge these beliefs so that you see them differently.
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