Origin
by Dan Brown
(New York, Doubleday, 2017)
Historically, the most dangerous men on earth were men of God … especially when their gods became threatened.
Page 5.
It is in hearing the voice of the devil that we can better appreciate the voice of God.
Page 6.
Freestanding bookshelves jutted out of the walls like ribs, interspersed wit cat-iron radiators that clanged and hissed, giving the room the eerie sense that it was alive.
Page 8.
In modern art … masterpieces are often more about the idea than the execution.
Page 37.
Human creation and human destiny. They are the universal mysteries.
Page 53.
Scientists and spiritualists often use different vocabularies to describe the exact same mysteries of the universe. The conflicts are frequently over semantics, not substance.
Pages 53-54.
The timeline of human development is compressing; the space that separates ‘ancient’ and ‘modern’ is shrinking to nothing at all
Page 98.
We comfort or physical bodies in hopes our souls will follow.
Page 192.
Humor cannot be programmed … it must be learned.
Page 218.
Forgiveness is not the only path to salvation.
Page 263.
Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs.
Page 290.
To permit ignorance is to empower it.
Page 291.
Not until we purge our species of superstitious thinking can we embrace all that our minds have to offer.
Page 291.
The most self-righteous in life become the most fearful in death.
Page 295.
For all of us, Christianity remains a work in progress.
Page 314.
One of the perils of inexperienced gun users was their tendency to fire by mistake.
Page 331.
There has never been an intellectual advancement that has not included God.
Page 342.
Observing your own g4rain in a bowl, you would not say, ‘That object is me.’ We are the sum of the interactions taking place within the mechanism.
Page 373.
The most transformative discoveries in history have all resulted in revised models of the universe - breakthroughs like Pythagoras’s rejection of the flat-earth model, Copernican heliocentrism, Darwin’s theory of evolution, and Einstein’s discovery of relativity - all of which drastically altered humankind’s view of their world and updated our current model of the universe.
Page 373.
If you’re looking for some kind of invisible force that creates order in a chaotic universe, there are far simpler answers than God.
Page 393.
Matter self-organizes in an effort to better disperse energy. … Nature - in an effort to promote disorder - creates little pockets of . These pockets are structures that escalate the chaos of a system, and they thereby increase entropy.
Page 397.
The laws of physics created mechanisms to disperse energy.
Page 397.
To efficiently create chaos … requires some order.
Page 397.
What does entropy have to do with the origins of life? … As it turns out, is an exceptionally effective tool for dissipating energy.
Page 397.
I believe life not only obeys the laws of physics, but that life began because of those laws.
Page 398.
The entire operating system of the cosmos could be summed up by a single overriding command: spread energy!
Page 398.
Life is not the point of the universe. Life is simply what the universe creates and reproduces in order to dissipate energy.
Page 400.
Kirsch’s claim of a “Godless origin” was both arrogant and blasphemous; it would have a ruinous effect on the human desire to aspire to a higher ideal and emulate the god who created us in His image.
Page 401.
If we can establish a pattern, a computer can tell us where that pattern will lead in the future.
Page 404.
Today, we are witnessing the Cambrian Explosion of the Technium. New species of technology are being born daily, evolving at a blinding rate, and reach new technology becomes a tool to create other new technologies.
Page 409.
Human beings are evolving into something different …. We are becoming a hybrid species - a fusion of biology and technology. The same tools that today live outside our bodies - smartphones, hearing aids, reading glasses, most pharmaceuticals - in fifty years will be incorporated onto our bodies to such an extent that we will no longer be able to consider ourselves Homo sapiens.
Page 411.
New technologies like cybernetics, synthetic intelligence, cryonics, molecular engineering, and virtual reality will forever change what it means to be human.
Page 411.
Uncertainty is always a precursor to sweeping change; transformation is always preceded by upheaval and fear.
Page 412.
The growing community of atheists enjoys nothing more than casting the Church in the role of the villain.
Page 416.
There is nothing more damaging for children than the loss of hope.
Page 416.
Fear of being judged by an omniscient deity always helps inspire benevolent behavior.
Page 420.
Human intellect has always evolved by rejecting outdated information in favor of new truths. … In Darwinian terms, a religion that ignores scientific facts and refuses to change its beliefs is like a fish stranded in a slowly drying pond and refusing to flip to deeper water because it doesn’t want to believe its world haw changed.
Page 421.
It is quite common for humans to sentimentalize their relationships with synthetic intelligences.
Page 422.
Love is from another realm. We cannot manufacture it on demand. Nor can we subdue it when it appears, Love is not our choice to make.
Page 427.
History has proven repeatedly that lunatics will rise to power again and again on tidal waves of aggressive nationalism and intolerance, even in places where it seems utterly incomprehensible.
Page 428.
Tyranny and oppression are no match for compassion.
Page 428.
For me the question of God lies in understanding the difference between codes and patterns.
Page 435.
A pattern is any distinctly organized sequence.
Page 435.
Codes are special … . Codes, by definition, must carry information. They must do more than simply form a pattern - codes must transmit data and convey meaning.
Page 435.
Codes do not occur naturally in the world. Musical notation does not sprout form trees, and symbols do not draw themselves in the sand. Codes are the deliberate inventions of intelligent consciousnesses.
Page 435.
Codes don’t appear organically, they must be created.
Page 436.
When I witness the precision of mathematics, the reliability of physics, and the symmetries of the cosmos, I don’t feel like I’m observing cold science; I feel as if I’m seeing a living footprint … the shadow of some greater force that is just beyond our grasp.
Page 436.
Love is not a finite emotion.
We don’t have only so much to share.
Our hearts create love as we need it. …
It can be generated spontaneously out of nothing at all.
Page 438.
Love is a private thing; the world does not need to know every detail.
Page 441.
Dialogue is always more important than consensus.
Page 442.
Nothing cemented people’s belief faster than a human being dying for his cause. … Martyrdom is at the heart of all religion.
Page 446.
Humans don’t learn by obeying commandments, they learn by example.
Page 451.
There is only one way Christianity will survive the coming age of science. We must stop rejecting the discoveries of science. We must stop denouncing provable facts. We must become a spiritual partner of science, using our vast experience - millennia of philosophy, personal inquiry, meditation, soul-searching - to help humanity build a moral framework and ensure that the coming technologies will unify, illuminate, and raise us up … rather than destroy us.
Page 455.