In a 1989 interview reported in the Norwegian periodical magazine litteraire, author Umberto Eco revealed that he had built his 1989 novel Foucault's Pendulum upon a statement by G. K. Chesterton that "Those who cease to believe in God do not believe in nothing; they believe in anything!" [
I'm looking for that quote, by the way. I would've thought I could find it in "The Suicide of Thought" in Orthodoxy, but I couldn't. Any leads?
3 comments:
This is one of those funny quotes that both is and isn't a Chesterton quote. The words come from Chesterton, but they weren't written as one quote.
They come from two different Father Brown stories, from the Incredulity of Father Brown collection. I forget which two stories. I don't know who took the two quotes and combined them into the single quote, or when. People quote it all the time, however.
More information on the famous non-quotation:
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=135
They believe in anything...that they want to. ;)
The freedom is exhilarating, but it doesn't lead to nihilism unless you are a stupid and/or overwhelmingly pessimistic person, and it doesn't lead to evil unless you are an evil person.
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