Editing J. B. S. Haldane (section)

== Quotations ==
[[File:Inordinate fondness for beetles display.jpg|thumb|[[Oxford University Museum of Natural History]] display dedicated to Haldane and his reply when asked to comment on the mind of the [[Creator deity|Creator]]]]

* He is famous for the (possibly [[apocryphal]]) response that he gave when some theologians asked him what could be inferred about the mind of the Creator from the works of His Creation: "an inordinate fondness for beetles",<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hutchinson |first=G. Evelyn |s2cid=26401739 |author-link=G. Evelyn Hutchinson |year=1959 |title=Homage to Santa Rosalia or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Animals? |journal=[[The American Naturalist]] |volume=93 |issue=870 |pages=145–159 |doi=10.1086/282070 |jstor=2458768|bibcode=1959ANat...93..145H }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Cain, A.J. |year=1993 |journal=The Linnean |volume=9 |issue=1 |publisher=The Linnean Society of London |title=[no title cited]}}</ref> or sometimes he would respond: "an inordinate fondness for stars and beetles".<ref>[https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/06/23/beetles/#:~:text=God%20has%20an%20inordinate%20fondness%20for%20stars%20and,2018%20the%20bibliographic%20style%20was%20switched%20to%20numeric. God has an inordinate fondness for stars and beetles.] ''quoteinvestigator.com'', accessed 31 October 2020</ref>
* "My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we ''can'' suppose."<ref name=Haldane1932>{{cite book |author=Haldane, J.B.S. |title=Possible Worlds, and Other Essays |orig-year=1927 |publisher=Chatto and Windus |place=London, UK |year=1932 |edition=reprint}}{{rp|286}} Emphasis in the original.</ref>
* "It seems to me immensely unlikely that mind is a mere by-product of matter. For if my mental processes are determined wholly by the motions of atoms in my brain I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true. They may be sound chemically, but that does not make them sound logically. And hence I have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms."<ref name=Haldane1932/>{{rp|209}}
* "[[Teleology]] is like a mistress to a biologist: he cannot live without her but he's unwilling to be seen with her in public."<ref>{{cite book |author=Hull, D. |title=Philosophy of Biological Science |series=Foundations of Philosophy Series |publisher=Prentice–Hall |place=Englewood Cliffs, N.J. |year=1973}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Mayr, Ernst |year=1974 |title=Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science |volume=XIV |pages=91–117}}</ref>
* "I had [[gastritis]] for about fifteen years until I read [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] and other writers, who showed me what was wrong with our society and how to cure it. Since then I have needed no [[periclase|magnesia]]."<ref>{{cite book |last=Haldane |first=J.B.S. |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=John Maynard |title=On being the right size and other essays |year=1985 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-286045-3 |page=151 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AbITAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA151 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
* "I suppose the process of acceptance will pass through the usual four stages: (i)&nbsp;This is worthless nonsense; (ii)&nbsp;This is an interesting, but perverse, point of view; (iii)&nbsp;This is true, but quite unimportant; (iv)&nbsp;I always said so."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Haldane |first=J.B.S. |department=Book review |title=The Truth about Death: The Chester Beatty Research Institute Serially Abridged Life Tables, England and Wales, 1841–1960 |journal=Journal of Genetics |year=1963 |volume=58 |issue=3 |page=464 |doi=10.1007/bf02986312 |s2cid=8921536 |url=http://www.ias.ac.in/jarch/jgenet/58/450.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222033748/http://www.ias.ac.in/jarch/jgenet/58/450.pdf |archive-date=22 February 2014 }}</ref>
* "Three hundred and ten species in all of India, representing two hundred and thirty-eight genera, sixty-two families, nineteen different orders. All of them on the [[Noah's Ark|Ark]]. And this is only India, and only the ''birds''."<ref name=botting>{{cite book |title=The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/orwellianworldof0000bott |chapter-url-access=registration |year=1984 |page=xvi |author=Botting, Gary |chapter=Preface|publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-2537-1 }}</ref>
* "The stupidity of the ''[[mynah]]'' shows that in birds, as in men, linguistic and practical abilities are not very highly correlated. A student who can repeat a page of a text book may get first class honours, but may be incapable of doing research."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Majumder |first=Partha P. |date=1 February 2016 |title=A Humanitarian and a Great Indian |url=|journal=Genome Biology and Evolution |language=en |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=467–469 |doi=10.1093/gbe/evw012 |issn=1759-6653 |pmc=4779617 |pmid=26837547}}</ref>
* When asked whether he would lay down his life for his brother, Haldane, presaging [[Hamilton's rule]], supposedly replied, "two brothers or eight cousins".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dugatkin |first1=L.A. |title=Inclusive fitness theory from Darwin to Hamilton |journal=Genetics |year=2007 |volume=176 |issue=3 |pages=1375–80 |doi=10.1093/genetics/176.3.1375 |pmid=17641209 |url=http://www.genetics.org/content/176/3/1375.full |pmc=1931543 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150324230626/http://www.genetics.org/content/176/3/1375.full |archive-date=24 March 2015 }}</ref>