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Post by Smithee on Aug 22, 2013 21:53:44 GMT 10
MMMMMM
REALITY “The world is quite ruthless in selecting between the dream and the reality, even where we will not.” - Cormac McCarthy.
**
WOO “I know just enough about myself to know I cannot settle for one of those simplifications which indignant people seize upon to make understandable a world too complex for their comprehension. Astrology, health food, flag waving, bible thumping, Zen, nudism, nihilism - all of these are grotesque simplifications which small dreary people adopt in the hope of thereby finding The Answer, because the very concept that maybe there is no answer, never has been, never will be, terrifies them” - John D MacDonald.
**
OBSERVATION / SPECULATION “It’s a big coincidence. It’s something we can’t explain. But as far as we know that’s all it is. And if it isn’t, we’ll only find out by discovering more facts, not speculating, no matter how logical that speculation might seem. The way to learn the world is to look at the world.” - Ken MacLeod.
***
DOUBT / CREDULITY “A little doubt is better than total credulity” - Abu'l-Ala' al-Ma'arri.
**
GROUP DELUSIONS “When enough insane people scream in harmony that they really are healthy, they can actually start to believe themselves. Or put even more simply: people with overlapping delusions get along wonderfully.” - Daniel Mackler.
**
TRUTH / FALSEHOOD “A truth that disheartens because it is true is of more value than the most stimulating of falsehoods.” - Maurice Maeterlinck.
**
TRUTH “You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes.” - Maimonides (RaMBaM).
**
TRUTH “A harmful truth is better than a useful lie.” - Thomas Mann.
*
TOLERANCE / EVIL “Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.” - Thomas Mann.
**
SPIRITUAL “It has been my experience that those who claim to be the most spiritual are usually the least so.” - Steve Maraboli.
* FAIRNESS / DELUSION
“The only thing that makes life unfair is the delusion that it should be fair.” - Steve Maraboli,
**
TRUTH / DOUBT “The sole philosophy open to those who doubt the possibility of truth is absolute silence - even mental.” - Jacques Maritain.
**
CENSORSHIP “When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say.” - George R.R. Martin.
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OPPOSITION TURNED “Those who first oppose a good work, seize it and make it their own, when the cornerstone is laid and memorial tablets are erected.” - Edgar Lee Masters.
**
NOT KNOW “Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.” - André Maurois.
**
METAPHYSICS “A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian is the man who finds it.” - H. L. Mencken.
**
IGNORANCE “The voice of the intelligence is drowned out by the roar of fear. It is ignored by the voice of desire. It is contradicted by the voice of shame. It is biased by hate and extinguished by anger. Most of all it is silenced by ignorance.”- Karl Menninger.
*
MENTAL HEALTH “Mental health problems do not affect three or four out of every five persons but one out of one.” - Karl Menninger.
**
FAITH / SKEPTICISM “Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue.” - Robert K. Merton.
**
DARK AGES “An age is called Dark, not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.” - James A. Michener.
**
RIGHTS / WHAT IS RIGHT “It is depressing to have to point out, yet again, that there is a distinction between having the legal right to say something & having the moral right not to be held accountable for what you say. Being asked to apologise for saying something unconscionable is not the same as being stripped of the legal right to say it. It’s really not very f-cking complicated. Cry “free speech” in such contexts, you are demanding the right to speak any bilge you wish without apology or fear of comeback. You are demanding not legal rights but an end to debate about and criticism of what you say. When did bigotry get so needy?” - China Miéville.
**
CENSORSHIP "If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” - John Stuart Mill.
*
“Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption” - John Stuart Mill.
**
RELEVATISM / NIHLISM “You heard him say it? ‘Pain's the only evil I know about.’ You heard that? The monk nodded solemnly. ‘And that society is the only thing that determines whether an act is wrong or not?’ That too? "Yes." Dearest God, how did those two heresies get back into the world after all this time? Hell has limited imaginations down there. 'The serpent deceived me, and I did eat’.” - Walter M. Miller Jr.,
**
SCIENCE / FEET “Science walks forward on two feet, namely theory and experiment.” - Robert Andrews Millikan
**
GODS / STUPID “I think we have underestimated their Gods; they have made millions stupid, and we are even not able to get one out of that stupidity.” - M.F. Moonzajer.
*
RELIGION - NATURE / PRACTICE “I am not sure how evil religion by nature is, but I have no doubt of its stupidity and insanity in practice.” - M.F. Moonzajer.
**
SARCASM / CREDULITY “Sarcasm will make your tits fall off.” - Christopher Moore.
**
EYES / BELIEF “One of the most pernicious of folk-sayings is, 'I cannot believe my eyes!' Why particularly should you believe your eyes? You were given eyes to see with, not to believe with. Believe your mind, your intuition, your reason, your emotion if you like - but not your eyes unaided by any of these interpreters. Your eyes can see the mirage, the hallucination, as easily as the actual scenery.” - Ward Moore.
*
FABRICATE / PROOF “Indeed, the human mind appeared to suffer from a crippling need to fabricate in the absence of concrete proof.” - Ward Moore.
**
REASON “The Enlightenment may have indeed outlived its usefulness, but it is only through Reason's protocols that one can make a coherent case for Reason's limitations. O ye of little skepticism, kindly acknowledge your debt to that idiom on which you so glibly heap scorn.” - James Morrow.
**
ENLIGHTENMENT “It is neither cowardice nor betrayal to insist that the Enlightenment's main lesson is to be mindful of how much it has left its inheritors to figure out.” - Samuel Moyn.
***
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Post by Smithee on Aug 22, 2013 21:57:54 GMT 10
NONONO
SKEPTIC “The path of sound credence is through the thick forest of scepticism.” - George Jean Nathan.
**
BEING PRECISE "There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about." - John von Neumann.
**
RELATIVE TRUTH “The relativism which is not willing to speak about truth but only about ‘what is true for me’ is an evasion of the serious business of living. It is the mark of a tragic loss of nerve in our contemporary culture.” - Lesslie Newbigin.
**
EVIDENCE / WEIGHT “It is the weight, not numbers of experiments that is to be regarded.” - Isaac Newton.
*
PARSIMONY “We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances. Therefore, to the same natural effects we must, so far as possible, assign the same causes.” - Isaac Newton.
*
CALCULATION / MADNESS “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” - Isaac Newton.
**
EVIL “Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I am content to observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape from it, and with this I begin and end.” - John Newton.
**
SUPERSTITION “A degree of culture, and assuredly a very high one, is attained when man rises above superstitions and religious notions and fears, and, for instance, no longer believes in guardian angels or in original sin, and has also ceased to talk of the salvation of his soul.” - Friedrich Nietzsche.
*
CREDIBILITY "I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you." - Friedrich Nietzsche.
**
CLARITY / PREJUDICE “It seems to me that good philosophy will always have a place in the investigation of any matter of deep human importance, because of its commitment to clarity, to carefully drawn distinctions, to calm argument rather than prejudice and dogmatic assertion.” - Martha Nussbaum.
*
BEHAVIOUR / IGNORANCE “Knowledge is no guarantee of good behaviour, but ignorance is a virtual guarantee of bad behaviour.” - Martha Nussbaum.
***
MADNESS / MISSION “You have to quit confusing a madness with a mission.” - Flannery O'Connor.
**
PARSIMONY “For nothing ought to be posited without a reason given, unless it is self-evident (literally, known through itself) or known by experience or proved by the authority of Sacred Scripture." - William of Ockham.
**
SCIENTIFIC METHOD / COMMON SENSE “The basic objective of science is to discover, understand and unify what’s happening around us, whether in living things or inanimate things. Very often people talk about the scientific method, but I believe that the way of understanding in science has a great deal in common with the way of understanding anything.” - Frank F. Oppenheimer.
**
FREEDOM OF ENQUIRY “There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. Our political life is also predicated on openness. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress.” - J. Robert Oppenheimer.
*
SCRUTINY / CRITICISM “We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to enquire. We know that the wages of secrecy are corruption. We know that in secrecy error, undetected, will flourish and subvert.” - J. Robert Oppenheimer.
**
SCIENCE / HUMAN “To mistrust science and deny the validity of the scientific method is to resign your job as a human. You’d better go look for work as a plant or wild animal.” - P.J. O’Rourke.
**
LIBERTY “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” - George Orwell.
**
SKEPTIC “One special advantage of the skeptical attitude of mind is that a man is never vexed to find that after all he has been in the wrong.” - William Osler. ***
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Post by Smithee on Aug 22, 2013 22:01:06 GMT 10
PQPQPQ SCIENCE / MORALITY “Science cannot resolve moral conflicts, but it can help to more accurately frame the debates about those conflicts.” - Heinz Pagels. ** PROBABILITY “Is it more probable that nature should go out of her course or that a man should tell a lie? We have never seen, in our time, nature go out of her course. But we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in the same time. It is therefore at least millions to one that the reporter of a miracle tells a lie.” - Thomas Paine. ** UNDERSTANDING / MEANING “What we don't understand we can make mean anything.” - Chuck Palahniuk. * STUPID / CRAZY “The problem with educating stupid people was that they didn’t know they were stupid. The same went for curing crazy people.” - Chuck Palahniuk. ** FAITH / SENSES “Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see.” - Blaise Pascal. ** NOT EVEN WRONG “Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch.” (It is not only not right, it is not even wrong). - Wolfgang Pauli. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong* CONFUSED / NONSENSE “What you said was so confused that one could not tell whether it was nonsense or not.” - Wolfgang Pauli. * THINKING / PUBLISHING “I don't mind your thinking slowly; I mind your publishing faster than you think.” - Wolfgang Pauli. ** SCIENCE / SEARCH “Science is the search for truth - it is not a game in which one tries to beat his opponent, to do harm to others. We need to have the spirit of science in international affairs, to make the conduct of international affairs the effort to find the right solution, the just solution of international problems, not the effort by each nation to get the better of other nations, to do harm to them when it is possible.” - Linus Pauling. * SCIENCE / PROGRESS “Science cannot be stopped. Man will gather knowledge no matter what the consequences - and we cannot predict what they will be. Science will go on - whether we are pessimistic, or are optimistic, as I am. I know that great, interesting, and valuable discoveries can be made and will be made... But I know also that still more interesting discoveries will be made that I have not the imagination to describe - and I am awaiting them, full of curiosity and enthusiasm.” - Linus Pauling. ** SCIENCE / TRUTH "What scientific knowledge is, in fact, is the best available approximation of truth in the judgement of the majority of scientists who work in the particular speciality involved. Truth is not something that we possess; it is a goal towards which we, hopefully, strive." - M Scott Peck. * WOO / BELIEF “Human beings are poor examiners, subject to superstition, bias, prejudice, and a profound tendency to see what they want to see rather than what is really there.” - M. Scott Peck. ** FIRST RULE OF LOGIC “Upon this first, and in one sense this sole, rule of reason, that in order to learn you must desire to learn, and in so desiring not be satisfied with what you already incline to think, there follows one corollary which itself deserves to be inscribed upon every wall of the city of philosophy: Do not block the way of inquiry.” - Charles Sanders Peirce. * UNCLEAR IDEA “It is terrible to see how a single unclear idea, a single formula without meaning, lurking in a young man’s head, will sometimes act like an obstruction ... in an artery, hindering the nutrition of the brain, and condemning its victim to pine away in the fullness of his intellectual vigor and in the midst of intellectual plenty.” - Charles Sanders Peirce. * BREAK GROUND “When a man is about to build a house, what a power of thinking he has to do, before he can safely break ground! With what pains he has to excogitate the precise wants that are to be supplied. What a study to ascertain the most available and suitable materials, to determine the mode of construction to which those materials are best adapted, and to answer a hundred such questions! Now without riding the metaphor too far, I think we may safely say that the studies preliminary to the construction of a great theory should be at least as deliberate and thorough as those that are preliminary to the building of a dwelling-house.” - Charles Sanders Peirce. * TRUTH / QUESTION “Every man is fully satisfied that there is such a thing as truth, or he would not ask any question.” - Charles Sanders Peirce. * PRETENDED DOUBT “Let us not pretend to doubt in philosophy what we do not doubt in our hearts. ” - Charles Sanders Peirce. * OCKHAM’S RAZOR “There never was a sounder logical maxim of scientific procedure than Ockham's razor: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. That is to say; before you try a complicated hypothesis, you should make quite sure that no simplification of it will explain the facts equally well.” - Charles Sanders Peirce. * SCIENCE / PHILOSOPHY “It is the man of science, eager to have his every opinion regenerated, his every idea rationalized, by drinking at the fountain of fact, and devoting all the energies of his life to the cult of truth, not as he understands it, but as he does not yet understand it, that ought properly to be called a philosopher.” - Charles Sanders Peirce. ** PRAYER “When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.” - Emo Philips. ** RELATIVISM / PRIDE “Relativism poses as humble by saying: “We are not smart enough to know what the truth is — or if there is any universal truth.” It sounds humble. But look carefully at what is happening. It’s like a servant saying: I am not smart enough to know which person here is my master — or if I even have a master. The result is that I don’t have a master and I can be my own master. That is in reality what happens to relativists: In claiming to be too lowly to know the truth, they exalt themselves as supreme arbiter of what they can think and do. This is not humility. This is the essence of pride.” - John Piper. ** MORAL RELATIVITY “If you say there is no such thing as morality in absolute terms, then child abuse is not evil, it just may not happen to be your thing.” - Rebecca Manley Pippert ** MISREPRESENTATION / REALITY “If you get careless or go romanticizing scientific information, giving it a flourish here and there, Nature will soon make a complete fool out of you.” - Robert M. Pirsig. ** FEAR / LIGHT “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” - Plato. ** REALITY “In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable; and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does not speak about reality.” - Karl Popper. * REASON “No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.” - Karl Popper. ** MORALITY / REALITY “Take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder, and sieve it through the finest sieve, and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet, you try to act as if there is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some, some rightness in the universe, by which it may be judged." - Terry Pratchett. ** WOO “So many people prefer the ‘bunk’ to the ‘debunk’.” - Harry Price. ** HUMAN STANDARD “Man is the measure of all things” - Protagoras. ** DISCOVERY / NEW EYES “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” - Marcel Proust ** PARSIMONY “We consider it a good principle to explain the phenomena by the simplest hypothesis possible.” - Ptolomy. ** PARSIMONY “Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity." - John Punch. ** SILENCE “Silence is better than unmeaning words.” - Pythagoras * ANTI-REASON “Reason not with him, that will deny the principal truths!” - Pythagoras. ** KNOW THY SELF “O’ Man know thyself; then thou shalt know the universe and the gods.” - Pythia. *** SCIENCE / EVIDENCE “The scientist is indistinguishable from the common man in his sense of evidence, except that the scientist is more careful.” - Willard Van Orman Quine. * PHILOSOPHY / HEAVEN & EARH “My concern is that there not be more things in my philosophy than are in heaven and earth.” - Willard Van Orman Quine. ***
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Post by Smithee on Aug 22, 2013 22:06:53 GMT 10
RRRRRR
SUPERSTITION / TRIFLES “When the mind has once begun to yield to the weakness of superstition, trifles impress it with the force of conviction.” - Ann Radcliffe.
**
DELUSIONS OF ENLIGHTENMENT “Live on berries in a hollowed-out comet lit by artificial suns long enough, and you start to have delusions about achieving enlightenment.” - Hannu Rajaniemi.
**
BELIEVERS “There exists in society a very special class of persons that I have always referred to as the Believers. These are folks who have chosen to accept a certain religion, philosophy, theory, idea or notion and cling to that belief regardless of any evidence that might, for anyone else, bring it into doubt. They are the ones who encourage and support the fanatics and the frauds of any given age. No amount of evidence, no matter how strong, will bring them any enlightenment. They are the sheep who beg to be fleeced and butchered, and who will battle fiercely to preserve their right to be victimized.” - James Randi.
*
REAL WORLD “I want to be, if I can, as sure of the world--the real world--around me as is possible. Now, you can only attain that to a certain degree, but I want the greatest degree of control. I've never involved myself in narcotics of any kind, I don't smoke, and I don't drink because that can easily just fuzz the edges of my rationality - fuzz the edges of my reasoning powers - and I want to be as aware as I possibly can. That means giving up a lot of fantasies that might be comforting in some ways, but I'm willing to give that up in order to live in an actually real world, or as close as I can get to it.” - James Randi.
*
OPEN MINDED “There is a distinct difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out.” - James Randi.
*
SCIENCE / MAGIC “Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. What's left is magic. And it doesn't work.’ - James Randi.
*
RELIGION / SCIENCE “Religion is based upon blind faith supported by no evidence. Science is based upon confidence that results from evidence -- and that confidence can be modified and/or reversed by further observations and experimentation. Science approaches truth, closer and closer, by hard dedicated work. Religion already has it all decided, and it's "in the book. It's dogma, unchangeable, and unaffected by reality and whatever facts we come upon in the real world.” - James Randi.
*
BELIEF / FACT “No amount of belief makes something a fact.” - James Randi.
*
NATURE / PREFERENCE “To recognize that nature has neither a preference for our species nor a bias against it takes only a little courage.” - James Randi.
*
HEROIN / FEEL BETTER “Heroin also makes people feel better, but I wouldn't recommend using heroin.” - James Randi.
**
SCIENCE / EWRROR “In a liberal scientific society, to claim that you are above error is the height of irresponsibility.” - Jonathan Rauch.
**
RELIGIOUS NATURE “One fact must be familiar to all those who have any experience of human nature -- a sincerely religious man is often an exceedingly bad man.” - Winwood Reade.
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CHRISTIAN BELIEF “Christians believe themselves to be the aristocracy of heaven upon earth, they are admitted to the spiritual court, while millions of men in foreign lands have never been presented. They bow their knees and say they are 'miserable sinners,' and their hearts rankle with abominable pride. Poor infatuated fools! Their servility is real and their insolence is real but their king is a phantom and their palace is a dream.”- Winwood Reade.
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RELIGIOUS DUTY “To cultivate the intellect is therefore a religious duty; and when this truth is fairly recognized by men, the religion which teaches that the intellect should be distrusted and that it should be subservient to faith, will inevitably fall.” - Winwood Reade.
**
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER “Probably in all history there is no instance of a society in which ecclesiastical power was dominant which was not at once stagnant, corrupt and brutal.” - George A Reid.
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MYSTERY RELIGIONS “The mystery religions were instituted in order to protect the marvels of the commonplace from those who would devalue them.” - Peter Redgrove.
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MIRACLE / SCIENCE “No miracle has ever taken place under conditions which science can accept. Experience shows, without exception, that miracles occur only in times and in countries in which miracles are believed in, and in the presence of persons who are disposed to believe them.” - Ernest Renan.
**
SCIENCE / TESTABLE “For is it not, these days, a defining characteristic of real science that it is testable? ... that archaeological science should sometimes give wrong answers, and that these can later be shown to be indeed erroneous, must be counted one of the subject's great strengths.” - Colin Renfrew.
**
LIMITED READING “Give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three and you give me a very dangerous enemy indeed.” - Anne Rice.
**
REALITY ”Reality isn't the way you wish things to be, nor the way they appear to be, but the way they actually are.” - Robert J. Ringer.
**
ONE FEWER GOD "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."- Stephen F. Roberts.
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BELIEF CHALLENGES “We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship. It is obviously not the ideas themselves that are dear to us, but our self-esteem, which is threatened.”- James Harvey Robinson.
*
TWO SIDES “Partisanship is our great curse. We too readily assume that everything has two sides and that it is our duty to be on one or the other.”- James Harvey Robinson.
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OMNISCIENCE / OMNIPOTENCE “We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.”- Gene Roddenberry.
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FALSE PROPHETS “I condemn false prophets, I condemn the effort to take away the power of rational decision, to drain people of their free will — and a hell of a lot of money in the bargain. Religions vary in their degree of idiocy, but I reject them all. For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain.” - Gene Roddenberry.
**
SIN / SILENCE “I asked God if it was a sin and He didn't say anything.” - Ernestine Rose.
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DEFINED SUBJECT “With no description or definition to work from, we will literally fail to know what we are talking about.”- James F. Ross.
**
DIVINITY / NO GOD “The divine is perhaps that quality in man which permits him to endure the lack of God.” - Jean Rostand
*
SAME DIRECTION “Stupidity, outrage, vanity, cruelty, iniquity, bad faith, falsehood - we fail to see the whole array when it is facing in the same direction as we.” - Jean Rostand.
**
DUMBFOUNDED / BELIEFS “I never cease being dumbfounded by the unbelievable things people believe.”- Leo Rosten.
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FRANKNESS / CRIMES “All kinds of frankness and honesty are terrible crimes in the eyes of society.” - Jean Jacques Rousseau.
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NEGATIVE PROOF “I mean, you could claim that anything's real if the only basis for believing in it is that nobody's proved it doesn't exist!” - J.K. Rowling.
*
VOICES “Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world.” - J.K. Rowling.
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AUTHORITY “Nullius in verba” (Take nobody's word for it). - Royal Society’s motto
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FANATICISM / REASON “Fanaticism and bigotry require any food but common sense and reason, which would break the charm of those spellbound fanatics.”- Anne Newport Royall.
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SACRED / CRIMES “The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty, progress, change - into crimes.” - Salman Rushdie.
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FUNDAMENTALISM “The fundamentalist believes that we believe in nothing. In his world-view, he has his absolute certainties, while we are sunk in sybaritic indulgences. To prove him wrong, we must first know that he is wrong.” - Salman Rushdie.
**
SCIENCE / FACTS “The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.” - John Ruskin.
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PRAYER “Surely our clergy need not be surprised at the daily increasing distrust in the public mind of the efficacy of prayer.”- John Ruskin.
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MORALITY / RELIGION “Morality does not depend on religion.”- John Ruskin.
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EVIDENCE / DELUSION “I cannot believe - and I say this with all the emphasis of which I am capable - that there can ever be any good excuse for refusing to face the evidence in favour of something unwelcome. It is not by delusion, however exalted, that mankind can prosper, but only by unswerving courage in the pursuit of truth.” - Bertrand Russell.
*
HALLUCINATION “An hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it.” - Bertrand Russell.
*
STUPID / CLEVER “A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.” - Bertrand Russell.
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CERTAINTY “The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice.” - Bertrand Russell.
*
RELIGION / EMOTION “I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion has anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds. One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.” - Bertrand Russell.
*
PRAYER / KNOWLEDGE “It is not by prayer and humility that you cause things to go as you wish, but by acquiring a knowledge of natural laws.” - Bertrand Russell.
*
RELIGION “It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.” - Bertrand Russell.
*
THOUGHT “Most people would die sooner than think - in fact they do so.” - Bertrand Russell.
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CREDULOUS “Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.” - Bertrand Russell.
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CERTAINTY / RATIONALITY “Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.” - Bertrand Russell.
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DUNNING-KRUGER “The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell.
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OPINIONS / PASSION “The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder’s lack of rational conviction.” - Bertrand Russell.
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MYTHS / AWARENESS “There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.” - Bertrand Russell.
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TRUTH / DEVOTION “Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable.” - Bertrand Russell.
*
BELIEVE / FIND OUT “What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.” - Bertrand Russell.
*
SCIENCE / KNOWLEDGE “What science cannot tell us, mankind cannot know.” - Bertrand Russell.
*
PARSIMONY "Whenever possible, substitute constructions out of known entities for inferences to unknown entities." - Bertrand Russell.
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RUSSELL'S TEAPOT "Nobody can prove that there is not between the Earth and Mars a china teapot revolving in an elliptical orbit, but nobody thinks this sufficiently likely to be taken into account in practice." - Bertrand Russell.
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FACTS / TRUTH “When you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only: What are the facts, and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted, either by what you wish to believe, or what you think could have beneficent social effects if it were believed; but look only and solely at what are the facts.” - Bertrand Russell.
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CATEGORY - HABITS/DISCIPLINES “Philosophy is the replacement of category-habits by category-disciplines.” - Gilbert Ryle.
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Post by Smithee on Aug 22, 2013 22:11:23 GMT 10
SSSSSS
MORAL RELATIVISM “We should challenge the relativism that tells us there is no right or wrong, when every instinct of our mind knows it is not so, and is a mere excuse to allow us to indulge in what we believe we can get away with. A world without values quickly becomes a world without value.” - Jonathan Sacks.
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SKEPTICISM / AUTHORITY “Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.” - Vita Sackville-West.
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CLAIMS / PROOF “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” - Carl Sagan.
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NONEXISTENT KNOWLEDGE "Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries." - Carel Sagan.
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TRUTH / PREFERENCES “The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counter-intuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true.” - Carl Sagan.
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SCIENCE / UNDERSTANDING “Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?” - Carl Sagan.
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REALITY “Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Theophrastus was right. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.” - Carl Sagan.
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LUDDITES “History is full of people who out of fear, or ignorance, or lust for power have destroyed knowledge of immeasurable value which truly belongs to us all. We must not let it happen again.” - Carl Sagan.
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WOO “I'm frequently asked, "Do you believe there's extraterrestrial intelligence?" I give the standard arguments - there are a lot of places out there, the molecules of life are everywhere, I use the word billions, and so on. Then I say it would be astonishing to me if there weren't extraterrestrial intelligence, but of course there is as yet no compelling evidence for it. Often, I'm asked next, "What do you really think?" I say, "I just told you what I really think." "Yes, but what's your gut feeling?" But I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble. Really, it's okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.” - Carl Sagan.
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SCIENCE / NONSENSE "At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes - an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense." - Carl Sagan.
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CREATIVITY / SKEPTICISM “It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science. - Carl Sagan.
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SCIENCE / MISTAKEN “In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.” - Carl Sagan.
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SCIENCE / SELF-CORRECTING “There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That's perfectly all 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.” - Carl Sagan.
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SCIENCE / SPIRITUALITY “Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.” - Carl Sagan.
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INFORMED OPINION “Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.” - Carl Sagan.
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TWO SIDES “This matter of two sides to every question is bad logic and bad practice: sometimes there are no sides; sometimes there are a hundred.” - Mort Sahl.
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NO FREEDOM HERE “Freedom is fundamentally the possibility of standig on a street corner and shouting ‘There is no freedom here!’ ” - Yoani Sánchez.
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TRUTH “There are some people who can receive a truth by no other way than to have their understanding shocked and insulted.” - Carl Sandburg.
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INTELLIGENCE / IGNORANCE “Intelligent people know they are intelligent. They also know that one person cannot know all, hence a person is not stupid simply because he is ignorant of one thing or another. They know that, to another intelligent person, they will not appear stupid in asking for an explanation of what they do not know, and so their ignorance on any particular issue does not become an embarrassment.” - Lynsay Sands.
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SKEPTIC “Scepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness.” - George Santayana.
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TRUTH / MYTH “The truth as always is simultaneously better and worse than what the popular myth-making has it.” - William Saroyan.
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FREE / ERROR “To free a man from error is to give, not take away.´- Arthur Schopenhauer.
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SCIENCE / LIMITS “The scientific worldview contains of itself no ethical values, no esthetical values, not a word about our own ultimate scope or destination, and no God, if you please. Whence came I and whither go I?” - Erwin Schrödinger.
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PARSIMONY "Plurality is not to be posited without necessity.” - Duns Scotus.
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TRUTH “Hypocrites get offended by the truth.” - Jess C. Scott.
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“It is a heretic that makes the fire, not she which burns in it.” - William Shakespeare.
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FOOLS / SCIENCE “A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.” - George Bernard Shaw.
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FALSE KNOWLEDGE “Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” - George Bernard Shaw.
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BELIEVER / HAPPINESS “The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality of happiness, and by no means a necessity of life.” - George Bernard Shaw.
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CENSORSHIP “All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.” - George Bernard Shaw.
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ANECDOTAL THINKING "Anecdotal thinking comes naturally; science requires training." - Michael Shermer.
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MARVELS / EVIDENCE “What anyone has to do who is convinced himself of the reality of any alleged marvel, is first to try, if he can, to diminish the improbability of the marvel by offering an explanation which harmonises it with other parts of our experience; and secondly, to increase the improbability [of the testimony being in error], by accumulating experiences and varying conditions and witnesses.” - Bro. Henry Sidgwick.
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IGNORANCE / GRAVITY Ignorance causes suffering. If you are ignorant of the law of gravity and jump off a building, you are going to suffer as a result.” - José Silva.
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SUPERSTITION / CONTAGIOUS “You'll find superstition a contagious thing. Some people let it get the better of them.” - Curt Siodmak.
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HABITS / DESTINY “Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.” - Samuel Smiles.
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SCIENCE / SUPERSTITION “Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.” - Adam Smith.
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BELIEVE EVERYTHING “You can't believe everything people tell you - not even if those people are your own brain.” - Jefferson Smith.
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GOD & MAMMON “Those who set out to serve both God and Mammon soon discover that there isn't a God.” - Logan Pearsall Smith.
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INTELLECTUAL PRIDE “As for the accusation of intellectual pride, surely the boot is on the other foot. Atheists don't claim to know anything with certainty - it's the believers who know it all.” - Barbara Smoker.
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CENSORSHIP “The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen.” - Tommy Smothers.
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THINKING The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling. - Thomas Sowell.
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BELIEFS “People wrap themselves in their beliefs. And they do it in such a way that you can't set them free. Not even the truth will set them free.” - Michael Specter.
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WONDER / BELIEF “I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.” - Gerry Spence.
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ARGUMENT “Everyone wants to argue. Everyone does. Everyone needs to.” - Gerry Spence.
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ARGUMENT “While birds can fly, only humans can argue. Argument is the affirmation of our being. It is the principal instrument of human intercourse. Without argument the species would perish. As a subtle suggestion, it is the means by which we aid another. As a warning, it steers us from danger. As exposition, it teaches. As an expression of creativity, it is the gift of ourselves. As a protest, it struggles for justice. As a reasoned dialogue, it resolves disputes. As an assertion of self, it engenders respect. As an entreaty of love, it expresses our devotion. As a plea, it generates mercy. As charismatic oration it moves multitudes and changes history. We must argue — to help, to warn, to lead, to love, to create, to learn, to enjoy justice — to be.” - Gerry Spence.
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PREJUDICE “Prejudice locks the mind. Nothing can enter. Nothing true can escape.” - Gerry Spence.
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PREJUDICE / ARGUMENT “When you are faced with prejudice, logic and justice are impotent. Still, we may have an obligation to argue directly into the face of the prejudice, even though there is no chance to win.” - Gerry Spence.
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TREUTH / BLASPHEMY “My intent is to tell the truth as I know it, realizing that what is true for me may be blasphemy for others.” - Gerry Spence.
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SCIENCE / CHECKS “Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man's power is increased, the checks that restrain him from abusing it must be strengthened.” - Germaine de Staël (Madame de Staël).
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CLEVERNESS FORBIDS “Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids.” - John Steinbeck,
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SCIENCE / BELIEFS “When people start using science to argue for their specific beliefs and delusions, to try to claim that they’re supported by science, then scientists at least have to speak up and say, ‘You’re welcome to your delusions, but don’t say that they’re supported by science’.” - Vic Stenger.
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NEW PHENOMENON “I have learned what science asks of us when we claim the existence of an extraordinary new phenomenon. It requires much, including years of hard work, uncompromising honesty, and willingness to accept failure. I can quickly recognize fallacious logic or faulty experimental procedure when I read a paper that purports to observe something that goes beyond existing knowledge. I am dubious and suspicious whenever an important result has been obtained too easily or too quickly, and reported in the media before it has run the gamut of critical review by disinterested, knowledgeable parties.” - Vic Stenger.
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RESIST EVILS “A person who knows all that is good and all that is true - as much as can be known - but does not resist evils, knows nothing.” - Emanuel Swedenborg.
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PARSIMONY “The simplest hypothesis proposed as an explanation of phenomena is more likely to be the true one than is any other available hypothesis, that its predictions are more likely to be true than those of any other available hypothesis, and that it is an ultimate a priori epistemic principle that simplicity is evidence for truth.” - Richard Swinburne.
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PRAYER / SCHIZOPHRENIA “If you talk to God, you are praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.” - Thomas Szasz.
***
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Post by Smithee on Aug 22, 2013 22:15:25 GMT 10
TUTUTU
TRUTH “It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have got it.” - Edwin Way Teale.
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HALF TRUTH “A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.” - Alfred Lord Tennyson, FRS.
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SUPERSTITION “Superstition is cowardice in the face of the Divine.” - Theophrastus.
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SPECULATION "Speculation has a legitimate place even in thought about external fact - that of suggesting new possibilities. We can properly use the speculative method to suggest what might be, but never to conclude what is. We can only draw conclusions as to facts by consideration of other facts.
Yet the illegitimate use of speculation is common. Our remedy is to examine on what grounds a conclusion as to fact is put forward. If these grounds are other facts, then the conclusion may or may not be a sound one. If the grounds are the speaker's conviction of what ought to be or what must be or the manner in which words are commonly used, then we must defeat our opponent's argument by showing that his conclusion is based on the kind of data from which no valid conclusion can be drawn." - Robert H. Thouless.
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DOUBT / FAITH “Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith.” - Paul Tillich.
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GOD / MAN “I don't believe in God. I believe in man - in his strength, his possibilities, and his reason.” --- Gherman Titov.
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HYPATIA / CYRIL “[Hypatia was] a most beautiful, most virtuous, most learned, and every way accomplish'd Lady; who was torn to pieces by the Clergy of Alexandria, to gratify the pride, emulation, and cruelty of their Archbishop Cyril, commonly but undeservedly styled Saint Cyril.” - John Toland.
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BIBLE “You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, burning bushes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?” - Mark Twain (Bro. Samuel Langhorne Clemens).
*
WISDOM / CAUTION “As I slowly grow wise I briskly grow cautious.” - Mark Twain (Bro. Samuel Langhorne Clemens).
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DO RIGHT “Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.” - Mark Twain (Bro. Samuel Langhorne Clemens).
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SUPPOSING / FINDING OUT “Supposing is good, but finding out is better.” - Mark Twain (Bro. Samuel Langhorne Clemens).
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SCIENCE / LEVEL “In the laboratory there are no fustian ranks, no brummagem aristocracies; the domain of Science is a republic, and all its citizens are brothers and equals, its princes of Monaco and its stonemasons of Cromarty meeting, barren of man-made gauds and meretricious decorations, upon the one majestic level!” - Mark Twain (Bro. Samuel Langhorne Clemens).
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PRAYER “It’s best to read the weather forecast before praying for rain.” - Mark Twain (Bro. Samuel Langhorne Clemens).
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THOUGHT / FACTS “There is, however, no genius so gifted as not to need control and verification. The brightest flashes in the world of thought are incomplete until they have been proved to have their counterparts in the world of fact.” - John Tyndall, FRS.
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PRAYER “The feeling which prompts prayer ... I should like to see guided, not extinguished -- devoted to practicable objects instead of wasted upon air.” - John Tyndall.
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SCIENCE / TRUTH “The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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NATURAL LAWS “The remarkable feature of physical laws is that they apply everywhere, whether or not you choose to believe in them. After the laws of physics, everything else is opinion.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson,
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UNIVERSE / DISINTEREST “The more I learn about the universe, the less convinced I am that there's any sort of benevolent force that has anything to do with it, at all.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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HOW TO THINK “Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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DRAWINGBOARD “But you can’t be a scientist if you’re uncomfortable with ignorance, because scientists live at the boundary between what is known and unknown in the cosmos. This is very different from the way journalists portray us. So many articles begin, ‘Scientists now have to go back to the drawing board.’ It’s as though we’re sitting in our offices, feet up on our desks—masters of the universe—and suddenly say, ‘Oops, somebody discovered something!’
No. We’re always at the drawing board. If you’re not at the drawing board, you’re not making discoveries. You’re not a scientist; you’re something else. The public, on the other hand, seems to demand conclusive explanations as they leap without hesitation from statements of abject ignorance to statements of absolute certainty.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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NATIONAL ACADEMY “I want to put on the table, not why 85% of the members of the National Academy of Sciences reject God, I want to know why 15% of the National Academy don’t.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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IGNORANCE / VACUUM “There is no shame in not knowing. The problem arises when irrational thought and attendant behavior fill the vacuum left by ignorance.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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BELIEF “One of the biggest problems with the world today is that we have large groups of people who will accept whatever they hear on the grapevine, just because it suits their worldview - not because it is actually true or because they have evidence to support it. The really striking thing is that it would not take much effort to establish validity in most of these cases … but people prefer reassurance to research.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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INEFFABLE “He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know." - Lao Tzu.
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TRUTH / NOT BEAUTIFUL “The truth is not always beautiful, or beautiful words the truth.” Lao Tzu.
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KNOW THY SELF / ENLIGHTENMENT “Knowing others is Wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.” - Lao Tzu.
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SKEPTIC “The skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches, as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found.” - Miguel de Unamuno.
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HEART / MIND “The heart is a vital organ, but it is a faulty guide to conduct. It is the mind makes judgements and comparisons, furnishes evidence on which ideas of truth can be founded.” - Barry Unsworth.
***
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Post by Smithee on Aug 22, 2013 22:20:22 GMT 10
VWVWVW
DEMAND MOTIVES “When you demand the nature of my motives, you reveal the style of your thinking to be callow, captious, superficial, craven, uncertain and impudent.” - Jack Vance.
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CRITICAL APPROACH “He must approach the subject critically, alert for contradictions, pedantry and vagueness.” - Jack Vance.
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INEXORABLE REALITY “It is useless, after all, to complain against inexorable reality.” - Jack Vance.
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RELIGION / SCIENCE “Religion and science don’t mix well, as science likes to observe and draw conclusions—to learn, in other words—and religion cares only about learning the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, etc. They don’t need to learn about this world, because they already know. A good way to describe a wasted life, as far as I’m concerned. Religious people already know things, with no more proof than some words in an old book. In short, they’re crazy.” - John Varley.
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GOD / IDEA “Most people do not understand the word god is not the name of anything other than a concept, an idea in people’s minds.” - Thomas Vernon.
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INVISIBLE / NONEXISTENT “The Invisible and the nonexistent look very much alike.” - Thomas Vernon.
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BORN-AGAIN “I’m a born-again atheist.” - Gore Vidal
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TRUTH / LIGHT “Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.” - Leonardo da Vinci.
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SLEEPERS WAKE! “Feel nothing, know nothing, do nothing, have nothing, give up all to God, and say utterly, 'Thy will be done.' We only dream this bondage. Wake up and let it go.” - Swami Vivekananda
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METAPHYSICS “When he to whom a person speaks does not understand, and he who speaks does not understand himself, that is metaphysics.” - Bro. Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet).
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CERTAINTY “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.” Bro. Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet).
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ABSURDITY “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Bro. Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet).
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CORROBORATION “When we hear news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.” Bro. Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet).
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SUPERSTITION “Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.” - Bro. Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet).
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KARMA “Keep in mind that there’s no such thing as karma. Besides, acting on one’s best behavior simply because one believes that “what goes around comes around” is not morality at all; rather, it is indistinguishable from bribery, coercion, and blackmail.” - Cliff Walker.
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FEAR / HELL “The fear of hell, or aiming to be blest, savours too much of private interest.” - Edmund Waller.
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EVOLUTION / LUNCH “I don't think we're here for anything, we're just products of evolution. You can say, "Gee, your life must be pretty bleak if you don't think there's a purpose,' but I'm anticipating a good lunch.” - James Watson.
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SCIENTISTS / REWLIGION “Most scientists I know don't care enough about religion even to call themselves atheists.” - Steven Weinberg.
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NATURE / SCIENCE “Man is the interpreter of nature, science the right interpretation.” - William Whewell
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STUPIDITY / SIN “If there is one thing I can't stand, it is stupidity. I always say that stupidity is the Sin against the Holy Ghost.” - T.H. White.
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THEORY / IGNORANCE “Theory without practice - that's ignorance!” - Eric F. Wieschaus.
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BELIEF / KNOWLEDGE “People would rather believe than know.” - Edward O Wilson.
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PASSION / TRUTH “If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.” - Edward O Wilson.
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BELIEF / FALSITY “Old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false.” - Edward O Wilson.
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BAFFLING CONCEPT “Sometimes a concept is baffling not because it is profound but because it is wrong.” - Edward O Wilson.
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REALITY “Reality is what trips you up when you walk around with your eyes closed.” - F. Paul Wilson.
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PARSIMONY “If a sign is not necessary then it is meaningless. That is the meaning of Occam's razor.” - Ludwig Wittgenstein.
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PARSIMONY “Occam's razor is, of course, not an arbitrary rule nor one justified by its practical success. It simply says that unnecessary elements in a symbolism mean nothing. Signs which serve one purpose are logically equivalent, signs which serve no purpose are logically meaningless.” - Ludwig Wittgenstein.
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RATIONAL / AUTHORITY “The being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason.” - Mary Wollstonecraft,
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PROBABILITY “When you hear hoof-beats think horses not zebras.” - Theodore Woodward. [Prefer even zebras to unicorns]
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FACTS “Let us unite on the safe and sure ground of fact and experiment, and we can never err; yet better, we can never differ.” - Frances Wright.
***
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Post by Smithee on Aug 22, 2013 22:22:07 GMT 10
XYZXYZ
OWN LIKENESS “The Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black, the Thracians that theirs have light blue eyes and red hair.” - Xenophanes.
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OWN LIKENESS “If oxen and horses and lions could draw and paint, they would delineate the gods in their own image.” - Xenophanes.
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SILENCE / LIE “When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.” - Yevgeny Yevtushenko.
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INTELLECTUALISM / KNOWLEDGE “The whole foundation of Christianity is based on the idea that intellectualism is the work of the Devil. Remember the apple on the tree? Okay, it was the Tree of Knowledge. "You eat this apple, you're going to be as smart as God. We can't have that." - Frank Zappa.
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SCIENTISTS / CREATIONISTS / MIRACLES “Real scientists are required to play by the rules without exception. Creationists follow the rules of science only so long as it is expedient. Then they resort to miracles. But resorting to miracles is not offering an explanation: it is asserting that no real explanation exists. Whenever creationists resort to miracles, they are admitting that their system cannot account for the facts of nature; it cannot explain the world.” - Frank R Zindler.
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UNFREEDOM "We feel free because we lack the language to articulate our unfreedom.” - Slavoj Žižek.
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ACCEPTANCE / WITHOUT PROOF “Acceptance without proof is the fundamental characteristic of Western religion; rejection without proof is the fundamental characteristic of Western science.”- Gary Zukav.
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Post by Solomon on Aug 23, 2013 8:16:08 GMT 10
WOW — Great stuff! I have "stickied" the thread to keep it near the top of the category list.
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