Michael H. Hart: Perspectives on History, Religion, and Culture
Michael H. Hart is an American astrophysicist and author, best known for his book “The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History.” While he is not known for producing numerous memorable quotes, here are a few that reflect some of his perspectives:
- The question of whether there exists a supernatural creator, a God, is one of the most important that we have to answer. I think that it is a scientific question. My feeling is that, when you analyze the argument, you find that atheism is a far more comfortable belief than theism.
- It is often difficult to tell which of the two groups is more oppressive. As far as Western women are concerned, the so-called male chauvinists are undoubtedly less oppressive than the feminists.
- When I started in the late 1960s, I was a Marxist, but over time I realized that socialism didn’t work and that free enterprise was more efficient.
There’s no question that Europe will remain the center of world civilization for centuries to come.
- The rise of Western civilization is entirely due to its acceptance of certain values.
- The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex of order and freedom, culture and peace, can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within.
As long as the Quran exists, Islam will continue to be a powerful force.
- Judaism has contributed significantly to Western civilization and that’s why it ranks so highly on my list.
- The people who write about the Holocaust have been almost exclusively Jewish.
- One of the best ways to measure the relative worth of various civilizations is to compare their respective rates of scientific progress.
All we can say with certainty is that Christianity and Islam are very important, and that they will continue to affect human history for the foreseeable future.
- The main cause of Western superiority was that in the Christian West, there was a tradition of rationalism and scientific inquiry.
- Europe will remain the dominant culture and civilization for centuries to come.
- The influence of the Prophet Muhammad is enormous.
- The two most important developments of the past millennium were the rise of the West and the rise of Islam.
The decline of the West is due in large part to its abandonment of the values that made it great.
- Islam has been much more successful in preserving its traditional culture than the West.
- Europeans will continue to dominate the world for centuries to come.
- The decline of the West is due to its abandonment of the values that made it great.
- The values of the West are superior to those of any other civilization.
- The West will remain dominant for centuries to come.
- The Islamic civilization will remain a powerful force for centuries to come.