Sort by:
Newest First
|
Rating
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #7505
If the future begins where the past ends, when does the past actually end and where exactly does the future begin? Think about it.
Source (click to close)
Contribution #7317
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Website
Brainy Quote
Brainy Quote
"
Richard P. Feynman Quotes"
http://Richard P. Feynman Quotes
Viewed on January 31, 2013
Contribution #7303
In order to swim with the sharks, you must learn how to survive underwater. Which will only lead to being cold-blooded.
The reason why so many stars exist, is so that light can be shed within the darkness.
Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Website
Heart Quotes
Earl Gray Stevens
Contribution #6978
Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #6771
Skepticism is forever whispering in your ears, 'You’re very new at this. You may be mistaken. You’ve been wrong before.
Source (click to close)
Freethought Festival 2012
Contribution #6763
Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #6757
Organized religion is sane and not silly when read as myth and poetry rather than science and law. Religion speaks nonsense when taken literally, but reveals some of the deepest truths of humankind when understood mythically, poetically, and even allegorically—that is when it is read with an active and creative imagination.
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunk man is happier than a sober one.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #6421
The problem is we're looking for something that doesn't exist. We're looking for authenticity. There is no such thing as authenticity. There is either good art or bad art. Art is never about its content. It's about its scaffolding.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Website
The Writer's Almanac
Garrison Keillor
"
TUESDAY Dec. 27, 2011 "
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
Viewed on December 27, 2011
Contribution #6387
It is my belief that the writer, the free-lance author, should be and must be a critic of the society in which he lives. It is easy enough, and always profitable, to rail away at national enemies beyond the sea, at foreign powers beyond our borders who question the prevailing order. But the moral duty of the free writer is to begin his work at home; to be a critic of his own community, his own country, his own culture. If the writer is unwilling to fill this part, then the writer should abandon pretense and find another line of work: become a shoe repairman, a brain surgeon, a janitor, a cowboy, a nuclear physicist, a bus driver.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #6371
Religion has taught us unnecessarily to love some less and hate others more: we love our fellow believers unnecessarily and hate others equally unnecessarily.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #6344
Religion is a typical type of cogwheel where followers assemble together for two purposes: to run their own tempo and stop others’.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #6343
Religion is the biggest discovery of man on earth. But religion is his most failed concept as it has divided people more than it has united them by creating a boundary where followers stop at and throw stones at others.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #6342
Science adjusts its views based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Website
Storm
Tim Minchin
"
Storm"
http://www.stormmovie.net/
Viewed on December 12, 2011
Contribution #6310
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Website
google.ca
Friedrich Nietzsche
Contribution #6036
Is free will god`s greatest gift, or his worst?
Source (click to close)
My own words
Contribution #6009
Take the path less beaten.
Source (click to close)
Unknown
Contribution #5985
Widespread, free, public education has been with humanity for less than 200 years. Think about that. The majority of humans have really only had access to the tools --never mind the inclination --to question ancient myths and medieval thinking for 200 measly years.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Periodical
Free Inquiry
Page 21(:2): 14
http://
Contribution #4819
Common sense is what tells you that the world is flat.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4817
A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4812
Where facts are few, experts are many.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4811
Doubt requires more courage than conviction does,because conviction is a resting placeand doubt is infinite;it is a passionate exercise.Weve got to learn to livewith a full measure of uncertainty.There is no last word.That is the silence underthe chatter of our time.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4810
There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That's perfectly right; they're the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4809
Science is the refusal to believe on the basis of hope.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4800
Science is not a sacred cow. Science is a horse. Don't worship it. Feed it.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4799
The aim of science is not to open the door to everlasting wisdom but to set a limit on everlasting error.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4794
There are certain things that our age needs, and certain things that it should avoid. It needs compassion and a wish that mankind should be happy; it needs the desire for knowledge and the determination to eschew pleasant myths; it needs, above all, courageous hope and the impulse to creativeness.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Book
The Impact of Science on Society
Contribution #4793
Are brains real? I thought it was a legend.
Source (click to close)
Verbal Quote
Contribution #4770
Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4736
What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4731
Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4650
The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4618
Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4617
We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot educate a man wholly out of the superstitious fears which were implanted in his imagination, no matter how utterly his reason may reject them.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4597
The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4500
The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best--and therefore never scrutinize or question.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4422
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4194
I contend that we are both Athiests. I just believe in one fewer god than you do.When you understand why you dismiss all other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4183
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4135
Never trust a man who speaks well of everybody.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4133
in politics two wrongs make a precedent
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4111
Dogs never bite me, just humans
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4074
Memories are interpreted like dreams.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4062
Forbid that you not test a doctrine and thereby be led to follow your entire life myths of man and worst yet, the drinking of Kool-Aid.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4024
The most outrageous lies that can be invented will find believers if a person only tells them with all his might.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #4022
I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3913
There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3912
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3819
Ah, my dear Voltaire, doubt is an acquired and cultivated taste, like Laphroaig Whisky or fine truffles, and quite as exquisite. --in response to Voltaire's comment: "Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Website
http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=25988
madscientist
Contribution #3729
Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3728
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it's still a foolish thing.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3726
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3725
Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3724
Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3723
Not far from the invention of fire must rank the invention of doubt.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3715
Morality is doing right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3658
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Book
Liberation Ecology
by Frances Moore Lappe
Page 115
Contribution #3656
The cardinal doctrine of a fanatic's creed is that his enemies are the enemies of God.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3628
Whenever we teach our children that groundless faith is a virtue, we pave the way for groundless violence.
If a book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides if we choose.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3503
Society cannot exist without inequality of fortunes and the inequality of fortunes could not subsist without religion. Whenever a half-starved person is near another who is glutted, it is impossible to reconcile the difference if there is not an authority who tells him to.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3481
Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3477
Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3476
A conclusion is simply where you stopped thinking.
Source (click to close)
Contribution #3438
The doubts of an honest man contain more moral truth than the profession of faith of people under a worldly yoke.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3429
A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3365
Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Book
Page 297
Contribution #3233
In science, a theory is a rigorously tested statement of general principles that explains observable and recorded aspects of the world. A scientific theory therefore describes a higher level of understanding that ties "facts" together. A scientific theory stands until proven wrong -- it is never proven correct.
In science, 'fact' can only mean confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Book
Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History
Page 161.
Published by Penguin
, London
, 1991
Contribution #3177
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.
Only the madman is absolutely sure.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3115
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.
The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3098
The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #3015
Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #2998
To the scientists of the Renaissance, your critic was really your ally, helping you advance upon reality. Critics in science are not like drama critics, determining flops and successes. Criticism to scientists is just another means of finding out whether they're wrong, like running another experiment to see if it confirms or refutes a theory. Along with the advocacy principle of the courtroom, it is one of the best ways human beings have evolved to get closer to the truth.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Book
Learned Optimism
Page 42
Published by Pocket Books
, New York
, 1990, 1998
Contribution #2812
If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
Source (click to close)
mailer from "The Skeptical Inquirer"
Contribution #2734
The fundamental nature of science is a skeptical outlook on the world, to view evidence, and explanations with a jaundiced eye, then to demand layer upon layer of evidence, from all sides of the problem, consistent with the hypothesis, and never give up the possibility that there is another explanation *consistent with the evidence* that explains it all and permits predictions. This tool alone differentiates real science from any of the other facile substitutes that are being promulgated by various charlatans as “science”.
In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #2414
Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #2410
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #2082
The man who questions opinions is wise. The man who quarrels with facts is a fool.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #2002
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #1971
The fundamental difference between the liberal and the illiberal outlook is that the former regards all questions as open to discussion and all opinions as open to a greater or lesser measure of doubt, while the latter holds in advance that certain opinions are absolutely unquestionable, and that no argument against them must be allowed be heard.
What is curious about this position is the belief that if impartial investigation were permitted it would lead men to the wrong conclusion, and that ignorance is, therfore, the only safeguard against terror. This point of view cannot be accepted by any man who wishes reason rather than prejudice to govern human action.
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth - more than ruin - more even than death... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #1707
Thoughts are free and subject to no rule. On them rests the freedom of man, and they tower above the light of nature...create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of energy from which new arts flow.
The authority of Plato and Aristotle, of Zeno and Epicurus, still reigned in the schools; and their systems, transmitted with blind deference from one generation of disciples to another, precluded every generous attempt to exercise the powers, or enlarge the limits, of the human mind.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #1342
Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.
Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #981
I am
all in favor of the skeptical mind. Do not believe anything unless you have
experienced it. Do not believe anything - go on questioning, however long it
takes.
Learn from yesterday, live for
today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Believe
those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.
Isn't it the moment of most profound
doubt that gives birth to new certainties? Perhaps hopelessness is the
very soil that nourishes human hope; perhaps one could never find sense in life
without first experiencing its absurdity...
...the number of saintly men has not yet risen to the level where the census makes them a separate statistical category.
Source (click to close)
Contribution #551
There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Website
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Viewed on April 1, 2008
Contribution #399
Faith lives in honest doubt.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #393
Life is doubt, and faith without doubt is nothing but death.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Website
Miguel De Unamuno
Viewed on April 1, 2008
Contribution #389
I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Website
Wilson Mizner
Viewed on April 1, 2008
Contribution #388
There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience, a readiness to attempt the impossible, a bias for simple solutions to cut the knot rather than unravel it, the viewing of compromise as surrender. Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence, absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Website
Erich Fromm
Viewed on April 1, 2008
Contribution #378
Skepticism, riddling the faith of yesterday, prepared the way for the faith of tomorrow.
Source (click to close)
Source type: Website
Romain Rolland
Viewed on April 1, 2008
Contribution #365
To know how to wonder and question is the first step of the mind toward discovery.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #55
It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot, irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #34
It's not what we don't know that hurts: it's what we know that ain't so.
Source (click to close)
No source entered for Contribution #30
What does skepticism look like in a person?
(0 responses)
