Science proposes something and then does everything it can to disprove it. Religion is not like that. It proposes something and does everything it can to keep it from being disproved.
Roger ScrutonThereโs a real question as to what beauty is and why itโs important to us. Many pseudo-philosophers try to answer these questions and tell us theyโre not really answerable. I draw on art and literature, and music in particular, because music is a wonderful example of something thatโs in this world but not of this world. Great works of music speak to us from another realm even though they speak to us in ordinary physical sounds.
Roger ScrutonFantasy consists in a morbid fascination with unrealities, which secretly transforms itself into a desire to make them real. Imagination is a form of intellectual control, which presents us with the image of unrealities in order that we should understand and feel distanced from them. In imagination we dominate; in fantasy, we are dominated.
Roger ScrutonBeauty can be consoling, disturbing, sacred, profane; it can be exhilarating, appealing, inspiring, chilling. It can affect us in an unlimited variety of ways. Yet it is never viewed with indifference: beauty demands to be noticed; it speaks to us directly like the voice of an intimate friend. If there are people who are indifferent to beauty, then it is surely because they do not perceive it.
Roger ScrutonThere is a crucial distinction to be made between innovation and originality. The second, unlike the first, can never break with what preceded it: to be original, an artist must also belong to the tradition from which he departs. To put it another way, he must violate the expectations of his audience, but he must also, in countless ways, uphold and endorse them.
Roger Scruton