What do you believe? - Big Think

Skip to content

Who's in the Video

Daniel Quinn Mills is the Albert J. Weatherhead, Jr. Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus. His tenure at Harvard lasted from 1976 to 2007. He consults with major corporations and governments[…]

What do you believe?

▸

1 min

—

with

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Religion, Mills says, is the only secure foundation for ethical and moral behavior.

Question: What do you believe?

D. Quinn Mills: Religion plays a very significant role, because what is most important to me about religion is I think it is the only secure a basis for ethical and moral behavior. And I think that as religion decays, ethics and morality decay dramatically, and I think that often happens in history with material prosperity and with lack of danger generally speaking, and I think that is happening again. So, I look not to doctrinaire religion. I am not religious in doctrinaire fashion and the protestism in the Christian church gave us that. So, I read the Bible and the religious classics and I think that what they mean to me and what I think they should mean the other people, and it plays a huge role in my life in that regard.

Recorded on: 9/27/07

Up Next

What is your personal philosophy?

▸

2 min

—

with

Related

Collage of social media icons and pixelated images in a grid layout, featuring Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook logos on a red background.

Internet freedom is fading in the new era of social control

“The evolution of digital media makes stricter regulation of online behavior not only feasible but inevitable,” writes media ecologist Andrey Mir.

Open book with a gradient bar design on the left page and an illustration of founders sharing wisdom around a fire on the right page.

Why founders should fight hardwired “hyperbolic discounting”

Startup success can often hinge on a key lesson derived from behavioral science … and Jerry Seinfeld’s “Night Guy vs. Morning Guy” routine.

Abstract digital art featuring geometric shapes, circuitry patterns, and a central star motif on a blue and red background.

Is this the biggest industrial espionage campaign in history?

The cat-and-mouse game between China and the world’s semiconductor companies is already having enormous consequences.

Animated characters observe a family walking in a snowy scene through a viewing screen, inside a control room.

Everyday Philosophy: Is there such a thing as a “negative emotion”?

There’s little more infuriating in the world than being told to “calm down” when you’re in the midst of a simmering grump.

An open book reveals binary code on the left page, symbolizing AI's complexity, while a silhouette of a person balancing on a tightrope graces the right, bridging precision and creativity in harmony.

Why AI could transform all jobs into BS

Oxford professor of ethics, John Tasioulas, thinks we should consider the loss of opportunity for “striving and succeeding” that AI is likely to bring.